Nehemiah 11:1-12:26
Amen. Turn in your copy of God’s
word to Nehemiah 11. Tonight we’ll read 11 one through
12 26. And it is one of those glorious
passages full of names. And I don’t know what’s more
difficult you to follow them or me to pronounce them. But
we do want to remember and esteem this as the word of God. He put
this in a couple pages of scripture. He could have used the space
otherwise, but in his providence, his wisdom and his goodness,
he gave us these. And so we should never despise
portions of scripture that we may deem or we may judge to be
not so useful. And Lord willing, after about
20 minutes or so, you’ll find them to be useful. So let’s give
our attention now to God’s word. Chapter 11, beginning at verse
one, and we’ll read through 12 Now the leaders of all the people
lived in Jerusalem and the rest of the people cast lots to bring
one out of 10 to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while nine out
of 10 remained in the other towns. And the people blessed all the
men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem. These are
the chiefs of the province who lived in Jerusalem. But in the
towns of Judah, everyone lived in his property in their towns.
Israel, the priest, the Levites, the temple servants, and the
descendants of Solomon’s servants. And in Jerusalem lived certain
of the sons of Judah and the sons of Benjamin. Of the sons
of Judah, Athiah, the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah,
son of Amariah, son of Shepetiah, son of Mahalael, of the sons
of Perez and Messiah, the son of Baruch, the son of Kolhose,
the son of Haziah, the son of Adiah, the son of Joyarib, son
of Zechariah, son of the Shalonite. All the sons of Perez who lived
in Jerusalem were 468 valiant men. And these are the sons of
Benjamin, Sallu, the son of Mishalom, the son of Joed, the son of Padiah,
the son of Koliah, the son of Messiah, son of Ithiel, son of
Jeshiah, and his brothers, men of valor, 928. Joel, the son
of Zichri, was their overseer. And Judah, the son of Hashenuah,
was the second over the city of the priest. Judiah, the son
of Joarub, Jachin. Sariah, the son of Hilkiah, son
of Mishalom, the son of Zadok. the son of Moriahoth, the son
of Ahitub, ruler of the house of God and their brothers who
did the work of the house, 822. And Adiah, the son of Joram,
the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah,
son of Pashur, son of Malkijah, and his brothers, heads of father’s
houses, 242. And Amashai, the son of Azarel, the son of Ahazi,
the son of Meshillamoth, the son of Emmer, and their brothers,
mighty men of valor, 128. Their overseer was Zabdiel, the
son of Hagadolim, and of the Levites, Shemiah, the son of
Hashub, the son of Azricum, the son of Hashabiah, son of Buni,
and Shabbathi, and Jezebed, of the chief of the Levites, who
were over the outside work of the house of God, and Mattaniah,
the son of Micah, the son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, who was
the leader of the praise, who gave thanks, and Baq Bukhaya,
the second among his brothers, and Abda, the son of Shammuah,
the son of Galel, the son of Jeduthun. All the Levites in
the holy city were 284. The gatekeepers, Aqab, Talmud,
and their brothers who kept watch at the gates were 172. And the
rest of Israel and of the priest and the Levites were all in the
towns of Judah, everyone in his inheritance. But the temple servants
lived on Ophel, and Zihah and Gishpah were over the temple
servants. The overseers of the Levites
in Jerusalem was Uzzi, the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah,
son of Mataniah, son of Micah, of the sons of Asaph, the singers,
over the work of the house of God. For there was a command
from the king concerning them, and a fixed provision for the
singers as every day required. And Pethahiah, the son of Meshuzbel,
of the sons of Zerah, the sons of Judah, was at the king’s side
in all matters concerning the people. And as for the villages
with their fields, some of the people of Judah lived in Kiriath
Arba and its villages, and in Debon and its villages, and in
Jechebzeel and its villages, and in Jeshua and in Molida,
and in Beth Pela, and in Hazar Shual in Beersheba and its villages,
and Ziklag in Mekana and its villages, and in Rimon and Zorah
and Jarmath, Zinoah, Abdolam, and their villages, Lachish and
its fields, and Azekah and its villages. So they encamped from
Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom. The people of Benjamin also lived
from Geba onward at Mikmesh, Bethel and its villages, Anathoth,
Nob, Ananiah, Hazor, Ramah, Getaim, Hadid, Zeboiim, Nebolet, Lod,
and Ono, the Valley of the Craftsman. And certain divisions of the
Levites in Judah were assigned to Benjamin. These are the priest
and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel, the son of Shaltel
and Jeshua, Sariah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Amariah, Malachi, Hattush,
Shekiniah, Rahim, Merimoth, Iddo, Ginnathoi, Abijah, Midgamin,
Maidiah, Bilhah, Shemaiah, Joyarib, Jediah, Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah,
Jediah. These were the chiefs of the
priest and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua. And the
Levites, Jeshua, Benuni, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mataniah,
who with his brothers was in charge of the songs of Thanksgiving.
And Bacchubiah and Uni and their brothers stood opposite them
in the service. And Jeshua was the father of
Joachim, Joachim the father of Eliashib, Eliashib the father
of Joedah, Joedah the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan the
father of Jaduah. And in the days of Joachim were
priests, heads of fathers, houses of Sariah, Mariah of Jeremiah,
Hanaiah of Ezra, Mishulam, Amariah, Jehonon, of Maaluki, Jonathan
of Shebaniah, Joseph, of Harim, Adna, of Merethoth, Helkiah,
of Iddo, Zechariah, of Ginnithon, Meshulam, of Abijah, Zichri,
of Menahem, Moediah, Piltai, of Bilga, Shemua, of Shemaiah,
Jehonathan, of Joyrib, Mataniah, of Jediah, Uzzi, and of Sali,
Kali, of Amok Eber, of Hilkiah Hashabiah, of Jedidiah Nethanel. In the days of Eliashib, Joedah,
Jonathan, and Jaduah, the Levites were recorded as heads of the
fathers’ houses. So too were the priests in the
reign of Darius the Persian. As for the sons of Levi, their
heads of fathers’ houses were written in the book of Chronicles
until the days of Johanan, the son of Eliashub, and the chiefs
of the Levites, Hashebiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua, the son of Cadmeo,
with their brothers who stood opposite them to praise and to
give thanks according to the commandment of David, the man
of God, watch by watch. Bach, Bukhia, Obadiah, Mishalom,
Talmon, and Aqab were gatekeepers, standing guard at the storehouses
of the gates. These were in the days of Joachim,
the son of Jeshua, the son of Josedach, in the days of Nehemiah,
the governor, and of Ezra, the priest and the scribe. Amen. The word of the living
God for us. Well, the wall had been rebuilt. It had been repaired, its ruins
fixed. The doors and the gates were
in place, the appointment of gatekeepers. Singers and Levites
had been made and people were at their post. Guards were all
around the city placed, keeping watch. And care was taken to
keep the gates of the city closed or open at just the right times.
But remember, this was Several chapters ago, these words I just
read, this was chapter seven. It’s now chapter 11. The city
was wide. The city was large, but the people
within it were few and no houses had been rebuilt. And you’ll
recall that God had put it in the heart of Nehemiah to enroll
the people by genealogy. and then to begin to fill the
city. Now, why four chapters are so
delay? Why the month delay? Well, the
people weren’t ready. Their hearts were not ready to
live in the city and serve the living God. And so remember in
chapter seven, when Nehemiah wanted to fill the city, they
first had to go through chapter eight, the reading of the law.
They first had to go through chapter nine, the confession
of their sins. And then they had to go through
chapter 10, the covenant renewal. And so now a month later, heard
the word, confessed our sins, made a covenant together with
God. Now they’re ready to fill the
city. They’re ready to give it an economy.
They’re ready to put in a workforce and security and to put in life. And it’s good for us to remember
as we look at the filling of the city of God, God is not glorified
by buildings, at least not ones with brick and mortar. But he
is glorified by his people, which the scripture tells us very clearly
in the New Testament. His people are a building. Jesus
Christ is the chief cornerstone. We as living stones are cut and
shaped and chosen and selected and built upon Jesus Christ,
our cornerstone, into an edifice that is pleasing to God. And
so as we think of the filling of this city, we must remember
God is not glorified by buildings, but he’s glorified by people. What kind of people, you ask?
Well, those who have heard the word, confessed their sins, and
desired new obedience to live in covenant with almighty God. And that’s what we have when
we approach Nehemiah 11 and 12. We have a people ready to do
the will of God. And we want to think through
what is the will of God for these people who have returned from
exile, returned from Babylon, and they live in a rebuilt city
with rebuilt walls, with rebuilt houses, a rebuilt temple, and
a reestablished Old Covenant cultic religious system of sacrifices
and feasts and other traditions of the Old Covenant. Well, the
will of God, first thing we want to think of from this passage
is that the city would be full again. We would call that in
our modern day terminology urbanization. We see people move to the cities.
We see people move out of the cities. We see cities get revitalized. We see gentrification. We see
old things made new. And particularly in the South,
I would suppose in the last, well, 175, 180 years, we call
it the post-war reconstruction era, we have seen the rise of
industry. We’ve seen the rise of cities.
We’ve seen the fall of cities through world wars and through
The obsolescence of various cultural and trade trends, even our own
city, saw back in the 1990s with the North American Free Trade
Agreement, we saw a ton of industry leave. And now, some 30 years
later, we see buildings that used to be used for some purpose
are now used for another. You can go downtown and see the
old mills. been rehabilitated and turned
into apartments. Anything along the Hall River
that 30, 40 years ago would have been considered nasty and gross
and stinky is now, you know, the cool thing to live along
what we used to call Stinky Creek. I’ve even canoed it a few times
now. When I lived in Greensboro, there
was this huge flour mill And now it’s this multi purpose urbanization
project where you can go and you can have a wedding, you can
have a corporate event, you can live there, work there. It’s
quite amazing to see what people do. And over time, we see these
sort of developments. And you look at Jerusalem as
God’s city. And you can’t look at it as a
real estate deal like we are seeing all over our country now
in the rehabilitation of cities and old buildings that have been
empty. This is the one city of God. This is the one place where
God has chosen to make his name known for his name to dwell there
amongst his people. This is the holy city and the
people now have made covenant not to neglect the house of God. And so God desires, it’s the
will of God to fill this city. He wants to fill it with his
people. And, and verse one tells us the leaders of the people
lived in Jerusalem and the rest of the people cast lots to bring
one out of 10 from the surrounding cities and towns and communities,
uh, to bring one out of 10 to live in Jerusalem, the holy city,
while nine out of 10, um, would remain in their villages or their
other towns. And so how does God here accomplish
His holy ends, His holy will? Well, it’s through the casting
of lots. We’ve always thought this to be a strange practice,
haven’t we? You know, we get some stones or some rocks or
some wood and we see in the Bible those lots are cast and that’s
how the will of God is discovered. This is how land was apportioned.
This is how they detected the guilty. This is how Saul was
selected as king. This is how Disputes were settled. Remember
when Judas Iscariot took his own life after he betrayed our
Lord Jesus and they needed to replace him. They replaced him
with Matthias, but it was through the casting of lots. And throughout
the scriptures, we see this strange practice and perhaps we don’t
understand the casting of lots or maybe the urim and the unum
and the thurmin from the priest garments. But we remember Proverbs
16, 33. The lots are cast, but the decision
is from the Lord. And so we see that a tenth or
a tithe of the people who lived in the surrounding communities
come in to live in the city. It was necessary for people to
stay out in the towns, out in the farm communities. They needed
crops to be raised. They needed lambs and other beast
for food, but also for sacrifice to be raised. Farming was a huge
portion of this agrarian economy. And so some needed to stay out
in their towns, but a tenth a tithe, one out of 10 were moved by the
Holy Spirit through the casting of the lots to come into the
city. And so the will of God, uh, is determined and people
move into the city. People willingly come, uh, they
come and live in this city of God. And it’s quite a calling,
isn’t it? To follow the will of God this
morning, we were thinking of Abraham who lived in Ur of the
Chaldeans. Abraham lived in a foreign land
with his family and with his, his relatives. And he was quite
happy there, I’m sure. But God said to him, uh, up,
move, take your people, take your possessions and go to a
land. I will show you in that place, uh, you’ll worship me
and you’ll become a great nation. And I will bless all people.
through you. And that’s asking a lot, isn’t
it? To pick up and go. But we see it all the time with
missionaries. We see it all the time with church planters from
time to time. Pastors must move from city to
city or town to town because of their calling. And so it’s
asking a lot. You know what it would be to
pick up and move, to change doctors, to change communities, to leave
your friends and your circle of support, but we sing very
often the great Christian hymn where he sends, I will go when
he says, I will do. And so we trust and we obey and
we leave and we go and do the will of the living God. Well,
the will of God there is determined by the spirit through the casting
of lots. And in our passage, we see, maybe it’s the point
of all these names, we see submission to God’s will. These people by
name, went and lived in the city. These people by name did the
will of the Lord God. I couldn’t imagine going through
this process of casting lots and with the luck of the draw,
as it were, but of course we know there’s no luck. We know
there’s providence. There’s no chance. There’s only God’s decrees
being worked out. But couldn’t you imagine as they’re
rolling the dice, sometimes we’re in the camp of pick me, pick
me, pick me, right? And sometimes we’re in the camp
of don’t pick me. We try to hide. I was telling
one of my kids who’s having to give a speech at school about
my first year in seminary, fresh in the room, and there’s about
30 of us guys. And as we come in, the teacher
hands us each a note card. And I get my note card, and on
it, this was fall of 2000, simply the word firestone. And you remember
on Ford Explorers back in the day, the tires were exploding
and people were having these horrible auto accidents. And
the purpose of the note card was we were supposed to get up
and give a five minute extemporaneous speech based on what was on the
note card. And if you didn’t know anything
about it, you better make it up and pretend that you do. And
of course, it has been well said that a good Presbyterian can
stand up and ramble for five minutes about anything and sound
educated and informed. But I was terrified. I had never
really given a speech, and I didn’t want to. And I remember sitting
there, hunched over in class, trying to hide behind every person
I could, and never have to give the speech about Firestone Tires.
And for a couple of weeks, this went on. We went through this
exercise of everybody giving their off the cuff, impromptu
speeches. And as the weeks went by, I held onto that note card
and it became tattered and whatever. And I hoped, and it never happened,
thank the Lord, that I had to give a speech on Firestone Tires. But you get the idea here to
have the lot cast and it fall on you. And you did have to pack
up. You did have to move. You had
to leave farm and town and comfort to come in to live in the city
of God. That was quite an act of submission to the will of
almighty God. And I imagine after all the scripture
reading, all the covenant renewal, all the confessing and all the
heart work that God had been doing, these people were ready
to do whatever God said, whatever God commanded. And he knew exactly
whose heart had been perfected in such a way that they might
be effective and the right people to live in the city. It was a
hard call and it says in verse two, the people blessed all the
men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem. Some people
say the lot was cast and everybody on whom the lot cast just right
had to go and some say, well, the other half just volunteered.
So maybe there’s this combination of some people volunteered and
others, well, they waited until the Holy Spirit through the casting
of lots told them they had to go whatever way God picked his
people. They willingly went. They were
conscripted by God, by the power of His Holy Spirit through changed
hearts to be willing to go. God had selected them and by
His grace, through the word, through the confession of sin
and through the covenant renewal to bring these people into the
city so they might be good members of the covenant community there.
Well, think about all that had gone on, how much heart work,
how much mind work with the reading of scriptures went on to make
these people willing, ready, able, compelled to live for God
in this city. And you have to think through
what did they see? You know, there are times in
church history, and I think we’re in one now, where a biblical
church, a reformed church, is not going to be the most popular
place in the city. There’s gonna be churches with
better coffee, better seats, cooler pastors. Maybe there’s
gonna be more people your age, more people in your social circles,
maybe more people for your kids and all the rest. And I really
believe we’re living in a time where a strong biblical church
is going to take pioneers who are willing to give up maybe
some of the comforts of American church life to be part of a faithful
fellowship. And I think that’s what we see
in these who are willing to submit to God’s will and go live in
the city. They did not see the safety issues. They did not see
the hardships in living in a city where the houses hadn’t all been
rebuilt. They did not see living a city with sand ballots and
Tobias and other evil people outside the gates. What they
saw was the call of God on their life to go and be faithful in
the place and in the position where he was sending them. And that is really hard. That
is a by faith exercise. We think of Abraham who lived
in tents and a land of Canaan full of ites, full of enemies. I was told this morning, I should
have read not just about the Canaanites and the Jebusites
and all that, I should have read about the Stalactites, the Stalagmites
and the Electrolytes. But you remember all the ites
in the promised land were enemies of God’s people. And then there’s
just little Abraham surrounded by them. But God’s promise was
enough. God’s covenant was enough. God’s
sure word was enough. And I think that’s where we ought
to be as Christians in this world. Rooted in covenant with God,
rooted in faith in God, and rooted in the long look, the long picture
of living for him. Don’t look at the safety issues,
don’t look at the hardship issues, don’t look at what isn’t, but
look at what is and what is to come. Uh, and so it’s a good
time to think through what’s God asking of you. What’s God
asking you to be part of that might be difficult. It’s by faith. You can’t see, remember, uh,
Abraham was looking forward to a city, a heavenly city, a city
whose foundations weren’t on earth, but they were heavenly
foundations. Think of Noah who hammered and nailed on an ark
in the middle of the desert for a hundred years because he knew
a flood was coming and this was the only way that his family
would be saved. These are people who saw the promises of God from
afar and they lived out of those promises. And so perhaps God
is asking you to be a bit radical and to trust him. to think outside
the box of this world and these worldly circumstances we live
in and to have our heart made ready, our reluctance and our
comforts and even our love of this world removed that we might
be able to submit to his will and do his kingdom work. Well, we’ve looked at the will
of God. He cast lots and selected a people.
We looked at the submission to his will. They were a tithe of
people willing to be pioneers Now let’s think about the blessings
of obedient. What’s so great about living
in Jerusalem? I mean, as these folks move into
Jerusalem, is it, is it like living downtown at May hosiery?
You know, in one of those cool apartments that’s industrial,
you know, you got a lot of concrete and, you know, y’all just moved
out of White’s Furniture. Y’all are less cool now because
you moved out of the White’s Furniture apartments and into
just some regular old apartments with sheetrock. But it’s kind
of cool, isn’t it, to live downtown and you can walk to things and
all the rest. That’s not… what living in
Jerusalem was like. It wasn’t cool, it wasn’t bohemian,
there wasn’t a Tesla charging station outside your cool apartment
door. You get that joke, right? There
was no Whole Foods. There wasn’t a this and that
kind of coffee shop on every corner. It was difficult to live
in Jerusalem in these times. But what’s so great? What are
the blessings of obedience? Well, I think there’s a handful.
First of all, you got to live in the city where God dwells.
You got to live inside the gates, inside the walls. And sometimes
we make the mistake as Christians, when we think about worship and
everything that went on in Jerusalem, oh, we need that in our church.
We need Levites. We need gatekeepers. We need
singers. We need all these things. Well, you gotta remember, these
were servants of the whole city. And they had people surrounding
the whole city up on the walls, trumpets, singers, gatekeepers,
guards, fire keepers, offering makers. Um, you know, land slaughterers. I mean, it was, it was a messy,
busy bunch of work and you got to live in close proximity to
all of that. You got to live inside the city
where all these things took place, where God dwells, his holy habitation. You were close to the temple.
You were close to the ordinances of his church and of his people.
Think of several Psalms, Psalm 84, Psalm 87. The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than any other dwelling place. I’d rather be a doorkeeper
in this in the house of God on and on. The Bible speaks of the
blessing of living in close proximity to God’s dwelling place. Of course, now God dwells in
every one of us. We are temples of his Holy Spirit.
But this was a special place to live near the habitation of
Almighty God. So you got to live where God
lived. You also got to live where the sites and the sounds and
even the smells of redemption were ongoing. You smelled the
fires. You heard the sacrifices. You
saw the flow of blood. You heard the singing of the
songs that went round the temple city. You saw the pilgrims. You felt the buzz and the energy
of all that went on in Jerusalem. You had the means of grace at
your back door. and what a blessing that was
to live where God lives, but to live where the sights and
sounds and smells and activity of redemption took place. But
also, and I think this is perhaps one of the best blessings, you
got to live in the city where a little more than a hundred
years ago, the people had been banished from. You read of Jeremiah’s
lamentation and how the city was laid bare. how the city was
laid waste, how the house of God was put to the ground, and
how the glory of God departed from this city that he loved.
And so now to get to live in that city where God dwells, to
live where the sights and sounds and smells and whatever else
of redemption took place was pretty special. But you also
got to live in a city where your ancestors had once been thrown
out. That would in a sense be like getting to move back into
the Garden of Eden. how special it is not to be banished any
longer, not to be cast out and not to see the city of God destroyed,
but rebuilt. And these people said, plant
me there. Nevermind the farm. Nevermind the family inheritance.
Nevermind the joys of agricultural life. Put me in that city. If God is its builder, if God
is its designer, if God is the God of the city, it will succeed. And so the city is fully built,
it’s secured, it’s fortified, it’s got the altar, it’s got
the temple, it’s fully staffed with priests and Levites and
singers and gatekeepers. It’s been populated and now the
continuity of the people of God will continue with these submissive
people who live a blessed life. And this is an encouragement.
I know I’m speaking to the Sunday night crowd. This is preaching
to the choir, as it were. The more you can be with God’s
people, the more you can be in God’s ordinances, the more blessed
I think we are. Now, we’re nearing the end of
the story of the returned exiles. We’re nearing the end of the
era of life under Ezra, life under Nehemiah the governor.
We’ve got a couple more Sunday night messages. And then we’ll
move on to whatever is our next book for study. But we’ve got
to remember here, God has restored the exiles. He’s rebuilt the
city. He’s gathered sinners to fill it by his grace and mercy. And we need to think through
how this is a little picture of the heavenly city. We get
a picture of the heavenly city in the book of Revelation, where
God’s glory dwells, God’s people dwell. And in that holy city,
God’s chosen and redeemed people who submit to his ways and his
wills and submit to his son, whose hearts have been changed,
whose minds have been held captive by the word of God, will fill New Jerusalem. And
I think you could say our marching orders now from a passage like
this are these. We need to go and preach the
gospel. We need to go and preach the
will of the Lord. We need to cast his word far
and wide because Jesus wants to fill the new Jerusalem city
and he wants it full of sinners who have been exiled but are
now redeemed through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
let’s thank the Lord that we have been called to live in that
city and look forward to our one day residence there. Do pray with me. Lord, we thank
you for the chance to think on your city and the blessings of
living within it. We thank you for being part of
your church, for opening up the doors to us, and extending the
blood of your son, the Lord Jesus, to every one of us so that we
can call on your name. We look forward to the heavenly
city, but until then, help us to be faithful in proclaiming
the goodness of God and the salvation of sinners so that the new Jerusalem
may be filled full of redeemed people who call on Jesus’ name.
We ask it in his holy name, amen.