[Sunday School] Nehemiah 13

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are grateful for your church.

We are grateful for this Sunday of rest you've given us.

We are grateful for your word.

I'm grateful for these people.

I'm grateful for Al here with me, Lord.

We are grateful that you bring us together in moments like we read today to study what you have done.

To celebrate the joy that you've called us to worship you with, Lord.

To confess, to purify ourselves, to celebrate the gracious, loving, and faithful God that you are, Lord.

Even with us through all our trials and shortcomings and the problems that we don't understand, Lord.

Your faithfulness is present in every age, Lord.

Let today be another day that we give thanks to it.

We lift up those of our fellowship who are here.

Those like Travis, who are still recovering, those grieving today, Lord.

We lift them particularly to your care.

Please guard our time together, Lord.

Comfort our hearts, strengthen our faith today.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

I I went to see Travis last night.

You did?

Yeah.

He uh he has troubles with his vision.

And he thinks they're going to give him glasses, that would help.

Okay.

Because the eyes are not operating to together.

Again, while they do it.

Did he hit his thent that hard?

Is that one?

Oh, he planted his.

He had reconstruction surgery right here.

Yeah, because it was indented.

He told us yesterday his vision was back.

Bill, maybe he just didn't want to look at you.

Well, he knows me when I tell him my name.

Okay.

Maybe it's usually.

He turned his head?

Yeah.

Well, thank you all for going to see him.

If anybody, you know, if you want to see him, I know I have the dress, so does, you know, so does Robin.

So does Bill.

He's at a he's at a rehab place in Gallatin now, but he can have as many, he's not on visitor restriction anymore like he was at Vanderbilt.

Uh and uh he he appreciates company.

Um I think even yours.

Uh just despite your Vlad the impaler.

Well, you know, you gotta have an uplifting story.

Yeah, it was uh he he he uh yeah I'm I'm you know what I'm I'm not taking that pay.

I'm not doing we're doing Nehemiah.

Okay or Nehemiah?

We're not going Vlad the impaler again, yeah.

Yep, yep, yep, okay.

Uh Nehemiah, chapter 12.

Nehemiah 12 · chapter mention

Um names Alan, what's what what's the deal with the names, man?

Tell me about the names.

Let's read it and find out.

Alan has volunteered to read the names today after two weeks of me and names.

Are you ready?

Ready.

These are the priests and the Levites who came out with Jeru, the son of Sheltiel, and Jeshua.

Sariah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Amariah, Malek, Hatish, Shekoniah, Rab, Merrimah, Edo, Ginnethoi, Abijab, Midjamin, Madeah, Milga, Shemiah, Joerib, Jediah, Salu, Amok, Helkiah, Jediah, these were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua.

And the Levites, Jeshua, Benui, Camel, Shereh, Judah, and Mataniah, who with his brothers was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving.

And Bakbukiah and Uni and their brothers stood opposite them in the service.

And Jeshua was the father of Jeoakim, Jeoakim, the father of Eli and Elishim, Elishim, Eliashim, the father of Joedah, Joedah, the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan the father of Judah.

And in the days of Jeoakim, Jehoiakim were priests, heads of father's houses, of Sariah, Mariam, of Jeremiah, Hananiah, of Ezra, Mashuam, of Amariah, Jehohanna, of Mauluchi, Jonathan, of Shib of Shaboniah, Joseph, of Haral, Abna, of Marioth, Helkai, of Ideo, Zachariah, of Gennathon, Meshul, of Abijah, Zikri, of Menamed, of Moadiah, Piltai, of Bilgalah, Shemuah, of Shemiah, Jehanathan, of Joari, Matinai, of Jededai, of Jedi, Uzi, of Sali, Kali, of Amok, Eber, of Elkim, Hashabiah, of Jediah, Nathan, Nathanael.

In the days of Elishib, Jodah, Johann, and Jeduah, the Levites were recorded as heads of fathers' houses.

So too were the priests in the reign of Darius the Persian.

As the sons of Levi, their heads of fathers' houses, were written in the book of the Chronicles until the days of Jehoana and the son of Eliashim.

And the chiefs of the Levites, Heshabiah, Shereh, and Jeshua, the son of Cadmiel, with their brothers who stood opposite them to praise and give thanks according to the commandment of David, the man of God, watch by watch.

Mataniah, Bakbu, Buchaiam, Obadiah, Meshuam, Talam, and Akub were gatekeepers standing guard at the storehouses of the gates.

These were in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Jeshua, son of Josedak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest and scribe.

And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites in all their places to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgiving, and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres.

And the sons of the singers gathered together from the districts surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netaphathites, also from Beth Gilgal, and from the region of Giba and Hazma Beth.

For the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem.

And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.

Then I brought the leaders of Judah up into the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks.

One went to the south on the wall to the Dungate, and after them went Hoshiah and half of the leaders of Judah, and Azariah, Ezra, Meshulam, Judah, Benjamin, Shemiah, and Jeremiah, and certain of the priest's sons with trumpets.

Zechariah, the son of Jonathan, son of Shemiah, son of Mataniah, son of Makaiah, son of Zechir, son of Asaf, and his relatives, Shemiah, Azarel, Melalai, Gilali, Mai, Nathanael, Judah, Judah, and Hanone, with the musical instruments of David, the men of God.

And Ezra, the scribe, went before them.

At the fountain gate they went up straight before them by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall above the house of David to the water gate on the east.

The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north, and I followed them with half of the people on the wall above the tower of the ovens to the broad wall, and above the gate of Aphraim, and by the gate of Yeshana, and by the fish gate, and the tower of Ananel and the tower of the hundred to the sheep gate, and they came to a halt at the gate of the yard.

So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God, and I and half of the officials with me, and the priest, Eliakim, Masaiah, Menehem, Makaiah, Elionai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets, and Messiah, Shemiah, Eliezer, Uzi, Jehoam, Hanan, Malkajah, Elam, and Ezir.

And the singers sang with Jezehiah as their leader.

And they offered great sacrifice that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy.

The women and children also rejoiced, and the glory of Jerusalem was heard far away.

On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the first fruits, and the tithes, together into them the portions required by the law of the priests, and for the Levites, according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered.

And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon.

For long ago in the days of David and Nasap there were directors of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

And all Israel in the days of Zerubil, and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers, and they set apart that which was for the Levites.

And the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron.

All right.

This is at least week three of the names.

Yeah.

So at this point, I think the question stands what's up with all the names.

Record keeping.

Record keeping.

Ideas for babies' names.

Ideas for babies' names.

We got a lot of babies going on in the middle.

Forget Google.

I've noted so far we have had Bunny and Bonnie in in previous chapters.

I now present uh Binuai also as well.

So you could have Bonnie, Bunny, and Binuai.

Um so uh like Shamoo, he was kind of big.

Yeah.

So as opposed to this 12, who what names are being sort of here through the first 22, uh kind of first 25 verses, who whose names are sort of being multiple times?

No, no, no.

Yes.

And so maybe jump into 12 verse 1.

These are the priests and Levites who came up with Zerubabel, all right?

All right, here's your Bible trivia time.

Who is Zerubabel?

Yep.

I studied him last year.

He was not right there.

I've got a promised pen.

He's eighty.

Yes.

A signet is very recent in his history.

Yes, Sarah.

I have a note in the study Bible.

Okay.

It says Zerubbabel was the first leader of the exiles who returned to Judah following the decree of King Cyrus.

Yes.

So he led, remember, Nehemiah is sort of it at least in this part of the story, it's unclear exactly how many people Nehemiah led back from Persia.

It's probably the smallest of the group of three, if any, but Zarebel led the first group, fulfilling the prophecy to King Cyrus, you know, that you will let my people return.

And so he's been mentioned a couple times in Nehemiah before, particularly when we kind of look back and see some of the things when they find the record from Ezra of the dedication of the temple, and they look at all the portions that people had brought back from Zarabattel Day.

This is another list coming back from the original first group of exiles.

And what they're establishing here, and part of this celebration is in this opening, is of all the many things that have been destroyed, God has kept his priestly line.

They know who the sons of Aaron are, they know who the Levites.

And here, going all through their dads, all through the exiles, and coming from Lys of Zerababel, here is who all it is now.

This is the genealogy work they started in in Nehemiah 9 and 10 coming to completion.

We know who the priests, we know who the Levites are.

Why does that matter?

God intended that priests to be hereditary.

Yeah.

Be hereditary.

From father to son and home to for a purity so I think every every name matters.

Absolutely not.

Because we want to ask the question, how can I trust the Bible?

This all presents to us as these are real people.

I mean, and you have to think about it's before the printing press, before the internet.

This was handed down orally, so there are people who dedicated themselves to memorize this list of names.

Then when they started writing it down, you had the masteries, they counted out every letter on every line.

They measured every page against every other page.

Because if you get one little job or two raw, you've changed the name.

And what it's telling us is that this is real, this is historical, this is archaeological, and we can trust it.

We have more evidence for these people than we do for a lot of things we believe are true about the past.

So can I trust the Bible?

This this is screaming at me.

Yes.

I think at this point in time it wasn't orally.

They were writing it down.

There were shribes.

Even at the time of Moses, they began writing stuff down.

So it just wasn't orally.

So but their lineage mattered so important that they would make sure that the next generation would know every name, every relative, you know, just hand it down, hand it down.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Do we are there places in, I guess, a 2026 kind of church context, and and I realize not to take this, you go a lot of odd directions with this, but where things like having sort of corporate family memory of things matter, of generations of the past.

I realize we're not, you know, we're not quite under Old Testament law traditions.

You know, we don't pick pastors, you know, by family heritage for probably very good reasons.

Um I grew up with a lot of pastors' kids.

Um Al sounds like you do too.

Um, I mean, is there any sort of 2026 takeaways from that?

Well, from the historical perspective, I think there is.

Um we want to have a record of who uh who led before in this church particularly it's good to know our history.

Why, where we come from, what God, what has God accomplished in this body of believers throughout the history of his existence so that we can remember one, the faithfulness of God.

Just not figures old, but going back to the Reformation or what our tradition is.

You gotta give the Catholic Church a little credit, and that in very impure ways, Christianity did make its way through the Middle Ages until it got to the Reformation in kind of a twisted way, but it was frankly, it was our church before 1570.

So Catholic Church.

So yeah, knowing our history.

What we are reformed Catholics.

I know, but I'm just saying that was our church.

No, knowing why we're here, that's very important.

Yeah.

One of the things we also talk about in the Welcome Nicker Grove class mentioned how the church got started, how this congregation got started.

Does it matter much at this point about Don McCann?

Do we know him or not?

Maybe not.

But it's it's somehow important to say the origin of the church were in the man who got saved in his 50s and had this zeal and helped start this congregation, and it's some sort of like, wow, that's that's a that's a testimony.

It's a testimony of that man and how that pervades uh the church.

Sorry for that too.

So I think that that that's that's what it to me is is the testimony of these people and their faith ones that give you courage for now.

We were a church plant from Christ Presbyterian, and it's interesting how that church came into existence, how they broke off from you couldn't know.

You go back to exactly right, exactly right.

You get a line of things.

You get a line of things, and you just thought, wow, and all these people before.

I think like they're having, at least as Nehemiah reflects on this, if you jump to sort of verse 45 and 46, like he has a sort of thought on this.

He says, and they performed the service of God and the service of purification.

Well, okay, really, verse for long in the days of David and Asaph, he says, way back then, he says, when there was King David and Asaph, and no, that would have been centuries, you know, before the time of him writing this, he says, there were directors of singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God, which implies he doesn't write this, he says, and now there are again.

Which also means like during this whole time of exile, and and frankly, just the fragmentation of the kingdom, like they these kings have mostly not been following God.

There have not been directors of praise to God, there has not been loud, communal, whole worship of God.

He says, But now there is going to be again.

And here is the lineage, the service of it.

God has retained it, God has continued it.

It's like, and it says, we are keeping up, he says, everything according to the command of David and his son Solomon.

He says, and all Israel is in the days of Zarebel and in the days of Nehemiah, so you got about probably about a 50-year gap in between those two names.

He says, They gave the portions to the singers and the gatekeepers.

And he says, and that was one of the things, like the Levites, they had to try to get them out of the fields.

He was like, the people weren't, the house of God wasn't being taken care of.

That's one of the things they had to make the covenant about.

We're going to take care of the house of God.

And Bill, I think what you also say, all the names matter, because there's the large level of it, and then and then there's each name.

And like I I had to, it was one commentary, like, look at verse nine.

Baba Bakuya and Uni and their brothers stood opposite them in the service.

Um like, so we have verse eight.

There are these first set of brothers in in charge of the songs of thanksgiving.

And then there's the others who stood opposite them.

Now I'm a debate coach that sounds like they're supposed to argue with them and go like, oh no, we're not thankful.

Like, like, you know, be the Oscars and Grouch's on the on the Jewish Sesame Street.

But um they had a call and response in worship.

These were, you know, these guys were the Georgette Harmony to Rick's melody.

And it's it's a simple service, but they end up in the Bible.

And it's like every name matters.

It's like every service for God matters.

The guys who are going to guard the storerooms, which they haven't been doing before because they haven't had actual storerooms for the temple.

I mean, when you get to 13, you'll see what's been going on with the storerooms, you know, kind of like after Nehemiah leaves.

Because the minute he has to go back to Seusa, the whole thing breaks apart again.

But it's like it's like they matter.

It's like the guys watching the doors matter.

The people handing out the worship folder matters.

Julie's work in the nursery today.

That matters.

We got babies coming out of the crevices of this place.

You know, that matters.

Um I have a side note that says the choir was divided in half.

One half was sent in one direction around the wall while the others uh were sent in a different direction, both meeting at the temple.

Thus, they encircled the city with their Thanksgiving.

And to me, that was corporate raising of hands and giving thanks.

I just thought that was it's it's almost conquering the city.

You think about what happened at Jericho, they marched around you know, blue trumpets and essentially some sort of praise thing, which didn't do a good job of the walls there.

This one's the opposite for the walls, it's too uh but it's a dedication service.

We don't do that as much today about dedicating a house or a place.

We do some of it, but not this was like super super serious.

That's uh it was interesting.

Wait, they went to all the gates.

What's the gates again?

They walked on top of them.

They were so big a white, they walked on top of them.

That made it happen bad.

If you want to uh get a visual representation of it, Orlando Blue uh made a movie, and he was some kind of knight in Jerusalem in the Crusader times, and you could see the walls.

They're big, and people could walk across them.

Probably what did we have in the architectural lesson?

Was it nine feet thick?

My husband said eight, but then it worked twelve, so well they measured it by cubits.

Yeah, yes.

Um in some places it was naturally up on a hill, and one part of it was considered a fortress.

Um, you know, point is yeah, yeah, you you could have had the choir walking to abreast, and it, you know.

I I find in some commentators, like you're kind of like if you've been following the timeline of this, the wall, because they had the whole morning, they have they've had the whole festival of booths, nearly a month, a little month plus, has followed since the wall is actually finished until they dedicate it.

So, and I I find that just amazing for the joy that comes out of this.

They've had the confession, they've had the reading of the law, they've discovered the festival of booths, and now they had once again great joy out of all of this.

They've they've wept, and their spirits have come to a place at the end of all this, and now they can say, now we are definitely dedicating this wall.

It's like they've purified themselves, and um a lot of people, just as I try to read this and study this, it is in verse I've lost it.

Purifying themselves?

The ones about how God led them to praise.

Okay, yeah, verse 43.

They offered great sacrifices that day for God had made them rejoice.

No crying today.

Yeah, it was they have seen what God has all done.

It's it's but it's not a like God is poking them with a stick.

Okay, it's time to praise.

It's we have confessed, we have sacrificed, but we are we are laying aside our pride, we're all going to praise together, we're going to sing, we we've laid aside our sin.

We have sacrificed in building this wall, we've laid aside the portions, we have tithed, and what do we have left?

What has God had left us?

We now realize we have lots to praise about.

And they've been a disunited people, and they're having a giant worship service of probably 30,000 plus, at least.

Which they do walking around an entire city.

Nehemiah, they'd have the two choirs go, and Nehemiah says he goes with, he's with the people, which I also know he's not a priest.

He says he has him and half the leadership, which also says that half the leadership was on the was with the other half of the choir.

Yeah, yeah, there's no special leadership group.

They just split the leaders up in half, split the people up in half, and they just go in one way around the city and they all meet up at the temple, singing the hallway.

Now, I've not heard Rick propose that we just do a walk around Hickory Grove worship service one day with a hymn on one side on top of the roof, and we'll put uh we'll put him and Sarah on one side, maybe Keith and Georgette on the other.

And if we put Don up in the very center with the drums up by the steeple, you know.

Yeah.

But like then it says uh the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

I mean, so I mean, think about it, what was the environment around Jerusalem, like Nehemiah 2, you know, when all of this started.

Well, they didn't want to.

They're in their fields, they're making money.

Subsistence women.

They didn't want to get pulled away from their from their from their commerce and the way they fed their family.

They didn't know how they were going to feed their family.

They they started having famine because they're not working the fields.

But I noticed that people who stayed to work in the fields didn't get their names in this.

That these names were memorized, they're passed on through history.

So I think that was, I mean, I don't know, but I think it's probably probable, you know, as a motivation for them, you know, my name will go down throughout time.

I want to be a part of this.

And um it's interesting how you you have, they went out of their way to put a lot of names.

So what's there's a they've put really way that they've made a point to name a lot of names.

I think that's that is uh telling these are the people who did it.

We're going to honor them and name them, and their names are gonna go down in history.

2,000 years from now, we're gonna be reading their names.

I think it's also really points to what God has done.

You can't forget that because the first half of the book there's a thread of, and God did this, and we prayed to God, and we gave thanks to God, and giving the Lord all the credit for preserving the people up to that point and using human agency to accomplish his purposes.

And that, I mean, you asked the question earlier, like, what is that what does that mean for the church in 2026?

I think I think it in some ways it means the same thing that the redemptive story is not over, and the Lord is still using his people to accomplish his purpose until Christ returns.

Um, you know, they were this is a joyous thing, but it's also the it's also on the threshold of the beginning of silence for 400 years, right?

Where they were still waiting, longing for this joyous celebration to come into its consummation, which of course England never did for them.

But anyway, I just think it's important for us to remember that this is a this is a this is a piece in the redemptive story, and you're another piece of continuing story, it's not a continuous.

Amen.

I think it's true.

You have uh not the same thing, but you have an analogous scene in Revelation 15.

And uh read this as well.

Uh those who conquer the beast in image, number its name, standing outside the sea of glass, with hearts of God in their hands, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty.

Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations, who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name.

For you alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts that have been revealed.

It's uh not a something that continues on with us.

Like, what was the purpose of the temple?

Dwelling of God?

What did a foreshadow?

Worship.

It is, but people went there, they worship.

They worship.

So these two that Robin talked about, they went both ways and they converged at these searching place of worship.

And it was so loud that everybody around them heard.

I wonder if San Ballot heard that.

What he would have said.

Don't do that.

And he was in oh no.

They might have heard a no-no.

I don't know.

I don't know.

So the worship was big, it's big enough to record that women and children.

Also, we're when they talk about the men listed in here as well.

They're like, wait a minute, we're not just that, there's like everybody, absolutely everybody who's there and come to the city and rejoicing as well.

And they mentioned the great sacrifices that day.

So they were the sacrifices, but that actually is part of the feast, right?

They they sacrificed and those animals.

Well, some were burned completely, right?

But some were consumed.

I don't think they just sat around and sang or sweat and sang.

I think they actually had a big feast with it.

As well.

A party.

A party, maybe?

Not exactly pot luck, but you know, it's been Susannah they can sign up.

Hey, well, you're bringing a bull, you're bringing a goat, you're bringing a goat.

They tried to kill us, God saved us, let's eat.

But the other aspect to me is uh maybe the listening here also reveals the purity we needed.

Remember in chapter seven, they went through all the ancestral records to see who qualified.

You know, who was a pure blood to be able to serve.

So here they all are being affirmed in their service, but there's a purity command in worship.

So they purified in multiple ways.

Yeah, right.

The physical act of purification, but also the family act of uh the purification that was Picket's mirror.

So they all rejoiced.

You know, it's interesting uh that that section at the end there, uh 44, on that day, men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the first treats and the tithes, together to them the portions required by the law for the priests and Levites, according to the fields and towns.

It's um it's something that they had done some of that perhaps in the time of his rubble, but it sounded like they really weren't doing that very well at all.

And um, we may talk about next week a little bit about uh Malachi.

Malachi was contemporary of this time, and what did he talk about?

They talked about this this uh the same thing as well.

Well, chapter 13 gets into a different uh detail if any of my returns as well, but um so they're pointing over their storerooms, and so they um they want to make sure that absolutely make sure this continues, right?

Because otherwise the Levites, if they couldn't get fed and um you know their income from this uh from the source, they that's why they're out of the fields, right?

They said they'd bring them in from the fields.

Well, they they had to had to live, so they had to be in the fields and work and do that.

And you know, we uh we have that today.

I don't know if anybody's read BCL lately, chapter 20, but uh in the um uh the letter uh the kind from the congregation to the pastor that we call is this that you may be free from worldly cares and applications.

We hereby promise and oblige to pay you some of X and regular payments and other benefits during the time of your being and continuing the regular pastor of this church, so that the pastor can focus on on uh on that on the congregation.

So we continue that today.

Now, what's really nice too, the elder is our pay gets doubled like every uh every year.

Uh that's uh really nice too.

Our pay does get doubled every year, that's correct.

Yes, yeah, so we will zero times two is the easy calculation.

But you're an English teacher, I don't know if you can talk about it.

It is uh I teach Ace, but zero times two is easy for Tim to do.

Uh yeah.

Just to case just in case no one got Al's joke there.

All right, very little joke.

All right.

They all are.

What do you talk about?

All right.

They're all little 10 dude.

All right.

Um, I think it's, you know, uh while in some cases Nehemiah is is a history lesson, uh, but but it's also a a way to look at what the great things that what God has done in the past, but but I think it's also thoughts about you know how how God, why God has preserved this, you know, here he is bringing a disunited people together, making them whole again, and and bringing them in worship.

And and I think there is a lot, you know, here for us in that.

You know, they have to, God rallies them around a task, they have to discover really God's word as a community.

They need each other, they need a lot of people fulfilling roles that God has done.

It takes sacrifice on their part, and that does bring about, at least in this time, revival.

No, it's not going to last.

Ultimately, they need a savior.

Um, but you know, here is God fulfilling one of his covenant promises to them to keep them as a remnant.

Um for us, I think, you know, it goes into a lot of why we worship as we do, you know, why confession matters, you know.

Uh my praises are ultimately nowhere near as beautiful to God if I'm clinging on to my sin and to my pride.

If they had just come the day after they'd finished the wall and said, Well, that was hard, glad we did that.

And you know, they still had a depopulated city.

I don't, you know, you know, think we're here.

Even if they celebrate over all this and they have points of priests and they all go back to their farms, and the priests, if they're not sacrificing, giving to the temple, the priests don't have food and clothing, that then you know all this falls apart pretty quickly.

You've had the nice little church retreat moment that, and then everybody goes back to their daily lives, you know.

And while this will be Pharisee and Sadducee corrupted for generations to come, what does happen is they do re-establish themselves as a nation, a conquered nation, and and the spiritual authority set here does last through Jesus' time.

And the word of God, while corrupted through their own power lenses, is maintained and what they focus their community on.

For us, it's worth thinking about I think all these names.

It's who does Nehemiah celebrate here?

It was the singers, it was the people watching the gate, it was the people doing harmony with the other singers, it was the guy the people who took up the portions.

It was absolutely not the governor.

He was just with one group of people walking around.

Um, it was everybody who bought who brought their first fruits.

Um, it was everyone who was really just doing all the same things their forefathers had done before them, and thank God for all the forefathers too.

We're gonna mention all of them as well.

It is God really loves and appreciates all the small actions of people.

That's his church.

And and I think that's always worth remembering.

God uses fishermen, he uses tax collectors, he uses the sarcastic sarcastic guys by the side of the road who says, Nazareth, nothing good can come out of there.

Um Christ becomes our temple.

Yeah.

His temple is destroyed, but in one generation as he uh prophesied in the bottles, they said we need it's gone.

Because this wasn't their salvation.

Ultimately, the most holy place in this set in this temple was probably empty.

I mean, they didn't have the Ark of the Covenant.

They probably rebuilt it, and while archaeology varies, they could have put a few things in there or menorah to represent it.

The most holy place was probably just empty.

They went in there, poured some blessings in there, the high priest once a year, but there was possibly nothing in there because they had no commandment to put anything in there after the Ark of the Covenant.

Um so they still needed a savior.

And uh I I lose that track of my own life.

They their society lost track of that.

Um so I I come here worshiping because you know I have a savior, and I need to submit myself to him every single day and draw nearer to him.

Al, final words?

I do.

I'd actually like to uh close this with a psalm.

So we think about what did these guys sing?

They probably sang the psalms that are psalms of praise, right?

That's they could have made up some new stuff.

They could have uh could have said, hey, write us a new song here, but um they might have they probably went through the psalms.

So I'd like to read one that I think they might have sung.

Psalm 48.

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God.

His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth.

Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king.

Within their citadels, God has made himself known as a fortress.

For behold, the kings assembled, they came on together.

As soon as they saw it, they were astounded.

They were in panic, they took the flight.

Trembling took hold of them their anguish as of a woman in labor.

By the east wind you shattered the ships of Tarshish.

As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever.

We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.

As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.

Your right hand is filled with righteousness.

Let Mount Zion be glad, let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of her judgments.

Walk around Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever.

He will guide us forever.

I don't think they said that.

They should have if they didn't.

I just say I would say to that, Amen.

Amen.

Pray us up.

You want to pray us up?

I will.

Father, we thank you for the uh testimony of Nehemiah, uh, for his uh dedication to you and for uh such a dedication as to not take credit uh for himself in this matter, but to give us uh all the names of all the people who were um so important in this uh phase of your um work here on earth.

And uh Father, we just thank you for those who came before us in this congregation, in our denomination, in the church at large.

Father, there's so many names that we don't know, but they're written in your book of life.

And uh we just thank you for them and praise you.

And now we ask you to be with us as we worship you in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

What's next?

Uh church.