[Sunday School] Nehemiah 7

Oh yeah, Heavenly Father, we are again grateful, you know, for your word, for your Holy Spirit, Lord.

For you are someone who brings projects to a conclusion, Lord.

You equip us for things that we don't think we can handle, things that we don't know that are coming, Lord.

We thank you so much for meeting us here at this moment, for bringing us together, Lord.

For meeting us at the moment of every hour's most quiet meet, Lord.

For those things that seem larger than us.

For you preparing us for things that we don't know that we can do, those things that overwhelm us, Lord.

Teach us to love your word more, uh, to love each other more, Lord, to trust in you more today, Lord, to sing your praises more today.

And so please protect our time today.

Let our attention be to your word, not my words or Al's words or the words of anyone else here, Lord, uh, but to your truth.

Uh in your name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you, but especially not Al's words.

I I I did, but I I, you know, I did mean that.

Um well, we are here.

This is week seven of our study.

We we the counters vary, but but I think this is probably our halfway mark.

Um 13.

Yeah.

Um it's it's good to see you all.

Um, if you've not stepped into the lobby, um it's a little draftier than usual.

Um so more dust.

Yeah, a little dustier, you know, because construction is underway.

I I you know, I found Nehemiah in some ways would have related.

He was more of a wall builder than a wall terror now.

Yeah, yeah, than a wall destroyer.

Nebuchadnezzar was the depth.

Yeah.

Uh I find though that you know he you know he he appreciated some good fellowship and and people coming together, and that's kind of what we're we're you know, we're kind of trying to go on down there.

Um and and I find, you know, as he as he's in close proximity with what will be thousands of thousands of people in one city, he would have appreciated the need for a few more bathrooms.

So um especially by the dung.

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

Okay, we're there early.

Okay.

So it had to be said, I was like, it did.

I I no, no, I mean that with a question mark, it did, but um so um we are in Nehemiah chapter six.

Okay.

Uh review um halfway through about halfway through, what has been the journey so far?

Right, so I I've taught uh that that was a very vague review question.

I've now taught school for one full week of Monday through Friday.

And if I ask the kids, okay, what have we learned so far, I I'm gonna get one of two things typically, which is one, uh an awkward silence.

Um most likely, they're going to tell me the things that have happened in the class, none of which have been the content, probably a list of the uh of the previous mistakes I've made in the previous five days.

Ah, okay.

Well, so can I.

But um, all right.

Um Nehemiah sets out, he's the cupbearer to the King of Susa, and now we've got a wall going up from A to B.

What has stood out in your memory that aren't my mistakes?

We can mention owls if you like.

Um their recommitment to the Lord and the hope by the priest, the high priest to consecrate the uh sheep gate and the representation of what that means.

As they're looking to God for their salvation, it represents Christ's future, looking ahead of Christ, as a foreshadowing of Christ, and what he accomplished as far as people and their commitment, uh Nehemiah's commitment to build the law in the face of adversity.

Thank you.

We have a lot of them coming together, they've been a separate people, not unified inside Jerusalem.

And you said there's there's a lot of prayer in this, there's a lot of Nehemiah bringing people together to pray to pray into this, to work through this.

And they they've had a lot to pray about.

What have been some of the problems?

Opposition.

Opposition.

Let's put some specificity on this.

Neither of these, he's had to deal with it, and neither of them are going to quite going away just yet.

But what have been some of the problems?

Some of their own people was giving them a hard time or y'all or doing a foolish thing, basically.

This is not gonna work, come on out, come out to the fields with us.

Yeah, the relatives out in the field say there's gonna be trouble, y'all.

Y'all better just stop.

Yeah, what else?

The regional leaders feel threatened by the wall.

They basically made an alliance against them.

Sarah, you were saying something?

Famine.

No, there's a famine, they're all hungry, and they're selling their children in slavery, and they're going against the law and how they go about that.

Charging interest on the loans?

Charging loans, yeah, and that's coming from inside.

They're blaming the MI on the famine because all the workers instead of working the fields are building a wall.

And so grandma and grandpa can't work the fields.

Now there's no food because the workers are building the wall, and they're all upset and blaming the MIR.

So you governor show up, you start building a wall, and there you go, guy in charge, you're responsible.

You you you must have caused the weather.

Um this would happen if you weren't here, everything was fine.

It wasn't fine.

We're gonna walk.

Yeah.

It was like, we don't want a wall, we want grain.

Can't eat stone.

Reminds me of uh the Israelites when uh Moses, uh the leader and the plagues happened, they blame Moses.

Leeks and onions.

What's that?

Leeks and onions.

Leaks and oh yes, yeah.

And so we have these sidebars of Nehemiah's future generosity as a governor with with dealing with this, but um the wall is accelerating, but it's it's not quite done yet.

And Sanbalat and Tobiah and Geshem and everybody else are not done.

So with that, we we come to Nehemiah 6.

I don't know.

Volunteer, maybe want to read verses one through nine?

I really thank you.

Okay, this is conspiracy against Nehemiah.

Now it happened when Sambala, Tobiah, Hisham, we ate the arrow, and the rest of the enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no breaks left in it, though at that time I did not hung the doors in the gates.

That Sambala and Hisham sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono.

But they thought uh to do me harm.

So I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down.

Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?

But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner.

Then Sambalat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand.

And it was written, It is reported among the nations that Isha says that you and the Jews plan to rebel.

Therefore, according to these rumors, you are rebuilding the wall, that you may be their king.

And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah.

Now these matters will be reported to the king.

So come, therefore, and let us consult together.

Then I said to him, saying, No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart.

For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, Their hands will be weak in your work, and it will not be done.

Now, therefore, will God strengthen my hands.

Thank you, Rob.

Uh, what's someone want to read, say?

Uh 10 through 14.

I'll read it.

Now, when I went into the house of Shemiah, the son of Deliah, the son of Metabal, who was confined to his home, he said, Let us meet together in the house of God within the temple.

Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you.

They're coming to kill you by night.

But I said, Should such a man as I run away, and what man such as I could go into the temple and live?

I will not go in.

And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced a prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sinbalat had hired him.

For this purpose he was hired that I should be afraid and acted this way and sin.

And so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me.

Remember Tobiah and Sinballat, oh my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Neadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

Thank you, Alan.

Someone would like to finish the chapter.

Thank you, Chapel.

So the war was finished on the 25th day of the month, evil in 52 days.

And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and felt greatly in their own mistake.

They perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

Moreover, in those days, the novels of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah.

Tobias letters came.

And his son had taken the daughter of Shulam, the son of Hechariah as his wife.

And they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and poured it my words to him.

And Tobias sent letters to me, he afraid.

Thank you.

Okay, so we open up here.

Um we have this conspiracy against Nehemiah.

Um they're building it, and we have what is the distraction floor.

Hey, come meet us in the plain of Ono, which is Ono.

Yeah.

A great place for where you don't want to go.

Uh geographically, it was uh it was in the historical region of Judah, but it was about halfway in between Jerusalem and Samaria.

So between where the idea basically uh, you know, Simba says, hey, let's all get together, let's have a bit of a conference about all this.

You know, this is about halfway out of your town, it's about halfway to my town.

Um that there had been, and I don't know if Al you had to note that there had been some historical battles there in Judah's past.

Um, it was a fertile farming region.

Um, just come out in the countryside.

Not a lot of people.

Let's have a talk.

We can talk frankly.

Yeah, I like I like the reason he said to give uh come eat though.

He didn't give a reason.

He just said uh let's talk.

Let's talk.

You ever have that happen to you?

Hey, well, they always suspect something is up, right?

I remember asking uh uh take my son out to hey, let's go eat dinner.

And uh after about uh five or ten times a day, he goes, Okay, are we gonna talk about something I did, or are we gonna just let's have dinner tonight, Robert?

So uh I I think some of my least favorite uh emails from my boss are I need to talk to you.

And and and and there's nothing on it, and and that that's usually she's so busy she forgot to put a reason and she doesn't realize like like the half a day of like panic she's put me into.

And and and and the ones that I know are really illuminated.

If a student sent me a message saying we need to have a conference, and or a parent, or oh god, um, that would be then I'd be like, okay, whose child I know what that is, whose child lied about something.

Um but um, you know, but this is and so they asked four times, and but but this is I mean, it's I I know they don't have cell phones on social media, but you know, Sam Ballot, you know, he says, uh Nehemiah is such great at recording, like how many times people ask him things, and it's like you reach the 10 point where it's just he's like, Yeah, they tried this four times.

Like, like, like four times, no reason.

And then the fifth time, they send a guy with an open letter.

Now, now in these days, now remember, when when Nehemiah got the orders to go to Sousa, like they had the king's seal, they're waxed, you know, you you sent a private letter with a messenger, you know, their point is is to guard that, you know, with their life.

You send it open, the messenger can show the letter to just about whoever he wants.

And if it's Sam Baut, the governor smear is sending it, that basically implies the messenger's job is to blab about the contents of, hey, we hear you're trying to become king, everyone a ghost.

Like this is basically going on someone's social media page and saying, hey, I'm just concerned for an interview, like I want about this thing, and letting everybody know.

You know, know about it.

You know, 2026 connections, you know, yeah, you know, I I think so, you know.

Um, some things never change, you know, be it, you know, 2400 years later.

But for me, a strength of this of this section of just kind of is like Nehemiah is very good at saying.

And he is under no compulsion, and and I think for me, my own teaching professional life to try to make everybody happy.

He is he is concerned about himself and God and this wall and what he's been said to do.

And anything off of that is no.

Well, he was not a foreigner to political intrigue, I mean, as the cock bearer, yeah.

He was not a naive guy, he was a pretty shrewd politician as well.

That's a really good point.

He didn't um he sniffed.

It didn't indicate he was rude here, right?

Didn't indicate, I mean, diplomatically refusing uh requests from the governor, yeah.

That's a little challenging, you know, to do that too.

But it didn't indicate that he he blasted and just like, no, I I got I got work to do, baby.

I you know, I'm sorry.

Love NMR.

Well sorry.

He came there to do a job.

And then it was gonna go back.

Sounds like you, Travis.

Yeah, you went to do some jobs.

So yeah, we're gonna do some jobs, Travis.

Travis done a lot of jobs, yeah.

Travis, yeah, he uh he has as well.

So but to write, how does this uh how does this connect with his formal job with his formal job?

Is there any connection here you can see with his formal job?

He's still doing what the king said it to do, which is a thing.

Right, but what was his job as cut bearer?

What was his job to do?

Test the wine to make sure it's not poisonous.

His job was to receive threats and act on those threats and uh to understand like hey, someone gave this nice uh M4 of wine uh for uh Darius, yeah.

So uh that that or I or Xerxes, excuse me.

Um so yeah, I'll just I'll just take it and give it to him.

Probably not a good idea.

Yeah.

Hey Kenny, here's this book you ought to read.

Maybe check it out.

I would check it out first.

So he was uh very perceptive, right?

So he had to be his do this job well, and then so he's like, hmm, something doesn't sound right, something doesn't smell right, probably is not right.

I think it's a great example though.

You know how how perceptive are we?

How many times we kind of judge what we're uh listening to on the radio or reading some funny book or some weird weird view on uh Paul's letters, you know.

Sometimes we need to learn how to say no.

Like talking to me.

So not out, but in.

Well, in fact, that's the Matthew 10, 16.

Behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

So be wise as serpents, innocent as devs.

Sometimes the enemy's attacks are not direct, sometimes they are a distraction.

Yeah, like like like the walls going up, it just has to be not finished.

Hey, let's talk about this.

Let's but here's the thing he was appointed there to build the wall.

He doesn't need to go out and have a conference with other regional governors, you know, like he is, because he's he's not a governor, technically like like at this point.

He has no business with them.

He doesn't need to go talk about trade, he doesn't need to go talk about entry, he doesn't need to go discuss the political gossip that they've basically invented.

He just he gives them their reason, he's not rude about it, he's like, I am doing a great work.

I why does it need to stop to come down?

Yeah.

He's like, I'm busy.

No, he's like, I don't have time to come join your all's political made-up gossip circle.

Um I wonder if he considered contacting a king about what's going on.

You know, he's gotten four now five messages from these regional governor guys.

Yeah, but he could send a message going, hey, what's going on with these guys?

You know, I don't know.

Possibly.

Though he's gonna finish this wall in two months.

It would have taken him double double that length of time to actually get a message to Arta Xerxes, and then about that time for him to consider it and come back would have been about the time in which Nehemiah was probably due to be back in Susa himself.

Yeah um so the governors probably knew he was about done too, I guess.

Yeah, they might have, yeah.

Oh, yeah, they were watching.

They had this, remember they had uh, as we found in the chapter, they had certain people giving them information, literally insider information as well.

Plus, I think he would have looked a little, you know, if he's like a high official, the king's gonna let her do any sort of complaining, uh, these guys are being mean to me.

Might have looked a little weak to the king.

Maybe that could they could if he could handle it.

Well, I think he could also say that you know, we're all working for you, and these guys are working against me, and that's not working for you.

Yeah, but there's not time, like you said, there's not time to look to get that message through.

So yeah, no, no.

Yeah, yeah.

Email was slow back then.

Tipping his response after he says, You're basically making this up.

This is a this is a figment of your imagination.

And then his response to that is, but now I've got strength in my hands.

He goes to God and he makes a stand and he asks God because he knows where the where the strength comes from.

I've enjoyed reading this one, Nehemiah by Eric Mason.

He says about this prayer.

It's like Nehemiah at this moment, like like you can tell he's saying no in the Lord, but he still prays.

Even though he's confident, and he's like, it's like that is a just a good thought about going through life.

It was like, you know, it's really consistent.

Well, Paul says, pray without ceasing, right?

So he's it's not that he stops and just prays all day, and that's all he does.

Prayer is part of his word.

He knows where his strength comes from.

It's also not like God is strengthening him.

He knows he can't do this on his own.

Every challenge is just another moment where he prays God strengthen.

God, do this.

God, we thank you.

Bring the people together, have them pray, and then deal in the moment what God.

God has called them to do.

I just find that the open letter too is a way to discourage the presence of the city, the people rebuilt, not just.

And it's sort of built on half-truths.

You know, oh, you're doing this to rebel, so they can rebel.

And you know, people work on the wall, oh, I wasn't planning to rebel.

Are we getting a war kind of thing?

So that's going to discourage them.

He says, you know, there's prophecies in Jerusalem saying that there's a king in Judah.

Well, that might have been somewhat true too, because my note says that Malachi might have been preaching at that time.

A king is coming in Judah.

And so they're hearing that rumor and then assigning it to Nehemiah, and suddenly, you know, that's got to be kind of a half-truth that can really be destructive.

I like the career because it's possibly a window into his feelings.

I think we have to be careful not to make the Bible figures two-dimensional.

We've been talking about all his abilities and plans and things, but did he have an emotional reaction to all of this opposition?

I think maybe the Paris says yeah.

I think that is true, but he was still, besides having most reaction, he was still pretty calm.

I mean, uh outwardly.

So if you look at, he was like, how did he reply?

So, but so how did he know he's making that up?

So the Malachi thing is uh is possible as well, but um uh he knew cold that this was not true, and he knew that uh Sam Balant knew it wasn't true either, right?

So they they both kind of knew each other.

It's one of those I know what you know that I know that you know that uh what you did with that too.

So how did he so how could he point out that he he could have pointed out that hey, you know this is a lie.

I I got the letters from the king.

It's not like I've done everything in the open.

I've done the king knows all about what's going on.

What do you mean what do you mean, send up a king?

I that would be like that'd be pretty stupid for me to do that.

What they call psyops.

Yeah, I think that's uh Aramaic for uh Sandbell.

Yeah, Sandbal means Aramaic, yeah.

So they haven't been able to stop the famine, hasn't stopped it.

Uh he's dealt with internal corruption, uh, they haven't been able to cause criminal mischief, and then they move in, they haven't been able to lure Nehemiah outside of the city, and then they move into uh try to just well then they move to political intrigue or reputation, and then they move into what is is basically a form of like character assassination, um, and when we hit verse 10.

Um so Nehemiah, he ends up in somebody's house inside the city, and we have a false prophet lured by money.

Al, why why would why would it have been a problem if Nehemiah went inside the temple?

Ooh, I got a couple reasons, potentially a couple reasons for that.

Um one reason was what was Nehemiah's job?

Was he a priest?

So going in the temple, not being a priest, depending on where you're going, and when they talk about where he's hiding, that would have been like really bad.

Really bad.

So he wasn't uh wasn't a little priest of any level, but there's no indication that he was, nor had even a prophet.

He had no no role in that.

And he's not trying to take it like uh like like Saul did not bring a sacrifice or anything like that.

Another big possibility is Nehemiah could have been a eunuch.

And think about the position he held with the uh the king, a very trusted person.

He was re-dissociated, apparently, you know, the queen and king were there, and so he might have he might have been a eunuch.

And I guess he was not allowed into the temple.

Eunuchs.

Not allowed.

So there's potentially multiple reasons why he would not want to go in there, besides the big reason.

The big reason is that he what he gave.

What was his big reason?

What's the big reason he gave?

Verse uh 13.

For this purpose he was hired.

I should be afraid and act in this way in sin.

So what did he say that being afraid was in this in this context?

Be a sin.

Being afraid was being a sin.

He wasn't trusting, he wasn't following.

He would not have been, sorry, would not have been following.

So this is it's intriguing, very intriguing.

What was the reason eunuchs weren't allowed in the temple?

It's just uh explicit in scripture if they're not allowed in, but you'd have to ask somebody higher than me to.

If you have yeah.

We can be more descriptive if you want, but I'd rather know.

I was just relating it to today.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, there's possible references there.

So Bill, have you ever preached a sermon on Unix?

Uh no, I just kind of know what they are today.

I preach well on uh iOS or Windows, but not on Unix.

What stands out to me from this is like here is something he does on some level respond to, but we see this like Nehemiah's concern is he says, they wanted me to sin.

And he he doesn't want to act out of fear here.

He's resisted all these calls to it.

But what he is concerned with as a leader is that he does not sin as such that it is like like his purity matters.

He's called on the Jewish people to not sin, uh, to get themselves out of debt.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

To return kids, to return fields, to return to earn fortunes, and children.

Yeah, yeah.

And they're going to have a call to follow God's law in chapter 7.

And so we're not, and so he's he's very on on some level, he doesn't want to be shamed, but also it's like, why has he come here?

He is aggrieved so much that the state of Jerusalem isn't what God promised, you know, from what he's read in the law, and he doesn't want to add to any shaming of it, or into like slow down.

He doesn't want his personal sin here to be a problem.

And so I think often this is also something the enemy does.

They attack people of character by their own standard.

It's like, are you really as good as you think they are?

They tempt them to sin.

And so they've moved from physical violence, we have the threat, we have the internal purification, we start the rumor motors, and now they really move into guy, you know, into the guy's own physical safety here, but also his own character.

It's like, okay, now we've got to figure out something to do inside the city to him.

We can't get him out.

It's like, and we may just we may have to settle for like really bad embarrassment in his own culture.

Uh Nehemiah can't follow his own rules that he's asking everybody else to.

And we're so we're gonna hire a Jewish guy, we're gonna get him to make some plots.

And follow prophecy.

Yeah.

But you know, Nehemiah sees that God's will never conflicts with his word.

Right?

And that's how we get in so much trouble.

You know, it's God's will that I divorced my wife.

That I'd be happy.

God's will that I do it.

It's not gonna be supposed to do his word.

On some level, you can see if he ran in there.

There is some serious threats to his personal safety.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He ends up at somebody's house and he says, God has shown me a vision.

These people are coming to kill you.

You need to get inside the temple where you're gonna be safe.

It's interesting too that he perceived about the um the prophets have been hired.

Anybody remember any hired prophets in history who were hired to prophesy against somebody else?

Balaam.

Balaam.

Balaam.

Although he couldn't do it.

He couldn't uh he couldn't prophesy.

Yeah.

But he also talked about being hired uh for uh for gain.

And um I think that's uh we have uh the New Testament equivalent uh when we taught when Paul talked about his instructions to uh to Timothy for elders and deacons, elders were not to be a lover of money, deacons were not to be greedy for dishonest gain.

Um which was so we said so it's not it's not like it's never gonna happen.

It's just that that's a that's a potential temptation we need to guard against, and um Nehemiah perceived it, so we need to actually perceive that perhaps in ourselves with others as well.

It's a great example of a leader understanding kind of what's going on, reading the whole, like a general really, reading the battlefield and arraying everybody uh properly.

But once again, another example of no.

Like, I'm not going to get distracted by this from his own people.

Yeah, I think of David in the cave, he had an opportunity to protect Saul easily protect his life.

No, God's words is not to the cave.

Yeah.

So passed up that opportunity.

Yeah, multiple opportunities.

What did he do with the guy who actually claimed he killed Saul?

Yeah, they killed because he violated the Lord's command with that as well.

So Nehemiah couldn't go in the temple.

What could he do?

Keep working.

Keep working.

And he kept and he kept on praying.

So he had the verse 14 is his own uh private prayer again.

It's not in quotes, so he didn't like pray it out to everybody.

Hey, these, you know, he's he's praying to the Lord in his own diary and privately.

He says, Remember these people according to the things that they did.

And they wanted to make me afraid.

I think it is worth saying here, though, it's not that as Christians we have to like ignore threats to our own safety or point.

It's like Nehemiah probably had other ways to keep themselves physical.

They're surrounded by guys with swords and skills.

Yeah, everybody has a sword.

He knows he's ready.

Yeah.

Um and they finish this thing in 52 days.

Now, this is not direct comparison, but we're not gonna have probably the bathrooms extended in 52 days.

Um we'll blame contracting and Mount Julia building codes, uh, partly for that.

And and also the fact that Alan wanted something a little more than a hole in the floor.

Um, all right.

Um you are how maintenance.

Um so um they they they build a wall up all the way around the city in 52 days after Sam Becklets made fun of them that they can't do it, they can't sacrifice, God won't provide for them.

It's like there's too much rubble, and in under two months, they've completely walled in an entire city, uh, possibly 40 feet high and and and and maybe nine feet thick.

Um, you just you just gotta get a bunch of the daughters to do it, get everybody to sleep around it.

Um, and so we're all going down to the lobby, we're gonna grab uh get some sleeping bags, and I know.

Um but um it's he also did something pretty clever, yeah, and that uh from a people point of view is that he said, Okay, you're responsible for the wall in front of your house.

Yeah, you know, so now there's a vested thing.

You know, the enemies are coming, so you know, sometimes the church may be in a mess, but you know, you're gonna pick up the trash in front of your curve.

So there's self-interest.

The chance they didn't have the same building codes either.

I mean that's true, yeah.

But it was, you know, it wasn't in the hands of a contractor, it was in the hands of the people who needed it to be produced.

Right, not necessarily skilled people, just people who were eager to do the work.

Right.

And um and had the right.

Oh, yeah.

They'd still be talking about it, yeah.

I mean that's that's what he has today.

It would be half bill.

Uh well, no, it wouldn't even be that.

They'd have a lot of money, but it wouldn't be built.

But in California, all the houses walls around their property.

Oh now they do, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

They took care of the wall around their in front of their house.

Not me.

So Bit Two Days is really kind of crazy, but then what happened when the wall was complete?

What was the reaction around the neighborhood?

They were afraid.

The word afraid, what no?

Well, why would they let them fight us in their all were afraid?

Yeah, why why were they afraid?

It said all the nations around this were afraid.

They didn't mention the guy specifically, although I think that's true, but why were the nations afraid of these guys finishing their wall?

Well, they saw that they I mean they didn't do it on their own, they saw their guy, yeah.

They perceived yeah, because it said not only afraid, they fell greatly in their own esteem.

So it's like, man, I'm thinking I'm doing a pretty good job keeping my city, whatever it is, is like, oh, look at what these guys have done with the help of their lord.

Like, huh?

I like that.

They fell in their own esteem.

Like, so the other nations have been ridiculing the Jews.

Yeah.

They don't need to send the insults back.

It's like they just build the wall up.

The wall itself, and yeah, is basic is is basically the the retort to the ethnic insults and feebability, and then wall.

You know, um, you know, I think the I I you know, I I coach debate, and sometimes I just have to tell my kids, you know, if if if arrogant kids from across town, like if you think they're being rude to you, though sometimes the kids are just oversensitive and they're not being rude, but I'd say, hey, your arguments is like just go beat them.

It's like that's your answer.

Yeah, you know, um, give them something to actually be upset about.

What's that saying?

The best revenge is living well, yeah.

Uh you know, New Testament, you know, be kind to your enemy.

He will be burning coals, you know, upon their head, just letting them see that their taunts have no effect whatsoever.

And I think in this case, and I I really believe God has a sense of irony sometimes.

They see that their work has been accomplished with the help of God.

Uh, a few things.

One, Nehemiah has another no here.

He says no to pride.

This paragraph of just total project victory, he does not mention himself at all.

No Nehemiah.

He didn't say I was the guy who organized it, man.

You know, did a great job.

I got a uh exceeds expectations on my performance report.

And he's he's instead going to move later into a chapter of just here's everybody who helped.

Um it's like, here's everybody who worked on this.

But the other thing here is he says this was all done with help of God.

He's like, this is the witness of what God has done.

They've seen we cannot do this.

But they also, and I think this partly he did say is they must have also realized on some level how everything they did to oppose this just sped it up.

They just unified us all.

It's more we had to sleep all around this wall.

Um, we had to tell all our distracting relatives to go away.

They made me really focus on this thing, and it just went up higher, and it just went up faster.

Everybody was guarding the place in front of their house, and and on that level, they have to look at this and just go, we were totally feeble in the face of what God was going to do.

It's like we unified all these people who probably historically did not like each other all surrounding us, and that didn't work because of the glory of God, and they had they just had to be like we're not that good at it.

Yeah, we're not that good, yeah.

So, what does this do, though, to me?

Uh kind of my thoughts, what this did for the people around them is uh they saw the power of God, they saw what God can do when he works with his people and his people get in line with him.

They saw what God can do when he has uh uses an effective leader like Nehemiah to make that happen.

So it reminded me a little bit of Jericho.

Remember what Rahab told the spies?

We know, we know you guys are coming.

We know God has sent you, we know the Lord is behind you.

So, what did that make them?

As Paul talked about uh different people, they're without excuse.

They have no excuse.

They they they've seen the power of God, they know who God is.

There's a testimony, even unspoken.

It's not clear that Nehemiah got up and said, Hey, you need to repent and you know, uh do that.

Uh, there's an example there that they could have pursued, but the nations had not.

The ones around them.

They should have been afraid, for their not for physical safety, but for their own souls.

Yet it's not recorded their word.

So it makes me sad, Jason.

Not you, that makes me sad.

Sorry.

Okay.

No.

We can pray about it, Al.

Okay.

Um uh now the success.

I mean, so he then talks about he moves into what was going on with Tobiah.

And we we we have more of I mean there there will be more problems to come, but we see also like how ingrained some of these foreign leaders are in the Jewish life.

And and and this will be a continual issue throughout the rest of this book.

Um, that you have all these other Jews telling them just about how nice Tobiah is.

And and I like one of the contraries, like Matthew Henry says, you like if you have sinful desires, and what will come later is Tobiah has a lot of commercial interests inside Jerusalem.

It's like it's like you're gonna make some bad friends.

And a lot of the Jews have made some bad friends.

And and and bad alliances have been a history, have been a problem.

And and I love that Nehemiah at least partly records it here.

It was like how Tobiah was one trying to infect this, but also that the Jews were listening to them.

But he was it was a relationship by marriage, yes.

Yep, they're gonna have to do something about it.

It said that the many in Yudah were under oath to him since he was their son in one.

Yeah, classic thing also with nobility, right?

So you don't have a war between you know Aragon and Castile, and so it's it's a classic move.

Solomon did, you know, did worse.

But I love that.

They're under an oath to him.

Yeah, that's the concern, not the law, which a lot of them don't know.

They've forgotten their own ethnicity.

You're gonna see that in chapter seven and eight.

They've forgotten their own and said, oh no, we're under a marriage oath to Tobiah.

That is our actual loyalty.

It's it's your new friends.

It's these we don't want to look bad with Tobiah.

Nehemiah, you're the new guy in town.

And uh, frankly, the intermarriages, not necessarily specifically, were the source of the Samaritans.

Think about the peoples that came into the territory, you had uh Israel, first of all, the nation of Israel and the ones that were left there, and you had.

Other Jews, um, well, Jews specifically that were left.

They're in the marriages created what we call Samarians, Samaritans.

Like they were kind of synchristic.

Think about Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well.

You know what was what was her belief and how'd that come about?

Hey, look, I'm I got something new for you as well.

So this is this is more than just, hey, there's a few people who are bound by oath, and that's a that's a problem for Nehemiah.

It's we'll see later.

This is a this is a super problem.

It's just a symptom of a greater problem that we'll come across.

And yeah, he's specific about calling out the different people.

He he doesn't hold back on the names.

He's just recording it for history.

Um everybody's telling him how nice Tobias, all the good things he does, he should trust him.

And but here's what's going on.

Tobias sent letters to make me afraid.

And we have this what seems to be my obviously bad actor, but all the Jews keep talking about how good he is.

He's good.

He gives food to the poor.

Yeah, he's done a few good things.

And and honestly, there's a lot of he's tied in through marriage, people have oaths to him.

I mean, there's a lot of, I think, I think at times in my own life, turning a blind eye to lots of problems in some people because of relations with them, money, ties with them, not looking at things objectively with them, family, politics, um, just history with them, something they did for you in the past.

And and not looking at, okay, what does God say?

Looking at this, what does God say about this whole situation as the standard?

Because this has been probably see this last week.

This is how the corruption sits in.

How they become disunified as a people, how you end up selling daughters in slavery.

Because um, because your bad alliances take place over God's standard.

Sounds like they don't like what you're saying here.

But uh what yeah, what was the standard though when Israel went into uh the land of Canaan?

What were they forbidden to do?

Intramar.

Intermarriing.

But that's that's like one of the first commandments to do in there, too.

It didn't necessarily apply to um applied generally, right?

If someone converted and came into the the um the nation of Israel who wanted to be part of the kingdom of God, okay, got that.

You got the Davis.

Like Ruth, yeah, like Rahab.

Oops.

And um well, Ruth wasn't a Canaanite issue.

Well, yeah, well Moab, yeah, but still, you have that issue.

Uh but you had uh Rahab, who was she was a Canaanite, yeah.

Clearly, clearly, and uh Tamar might have been as well, yeah.

So there's plenty of plenty of examples with there too.

So they clearly are violating the law again.

So that's going on there, but all will be resolved next week, right, Jason.

I mean, Christians don't have problems, Al.

So sure, the wall's up, I'm sure everything's okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Isn't that how it works?

You you ask Jesus into your heart and all your problems go away.

That's what I heard.

That's what I heard.

You walk away, you're good to go, baby.

Good to go.

No, but we get the restrooms finished over there, all will be good.

Yeah, I mean, yeah.

Um there's always something to pray, but there's also things to celebrate, you know, and and reasons to have joy because God is building a people, he is building his church, and God does things that don't make sense to the rest of the world, that the other rest of the world can't be done.

And he promises to always be with us and to supply the people who turn to him, and that that's a big lesson for me of Nehemiah.

Do you want to close or pray us out?

Or close the thoughts in the crowd?

Yeah, I'll close the prayers out with that.

I'll do that.

Father, we thank you again for this uh for your word and for uh Nehemiah's uh diary, all the information that he left us about his um trials he faced and his reliance on you.

Father, help us always to consider his example uh perseverance, fortitude, and to keep us as wise as serpents, as innocent as doves, because we know we are sheep in the midst of wolves.

We pray continually uh for your protection and for your guidance.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

Had a big day today.

We have uh a lot of new members coming forward.