40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Nehemiah 2:5-20 (Episode 362)

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

Nehemiah asks to be sent to be sent to Jerusalem to rebuild what is in disrepair. The good hand of God is on him as he takes on this task. And not everyone in the area is excited about what Nehemiah is doing. Have a listen! Donate Tough Texts Podcast 1517 Podcast Network 1517 YouTube

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. while you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. There's so many things. The daily articles, the academies, the events, the videos, everything. So go check all that out. If you have not also, I mean, since you are a podcast listener, there is a new podcast on the 1517 Network featuring myself and Dr. Scott Keith, our executive director. And since you are

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uh go ahead and search that up in whatever uh however you're listening to this you can find that podcast in the on the same player all right chad uh we don't have a tough text today but we're in we're in the middle of a interesting narrative here where nehemiah you know he's that guy that's getting those drinks for the king and all this kind of stuff. He's that kind of guy. He's a guy that's trusted, a guy that the king likes. But he gets wind of some stuff that's going on over in a land that he's never really been to, but a land that nevertheless is his homeland.

For the first time ever, apparently, Nehemiah's got that long face. He's very somber. He's serving the king, but he's not hiding the fact that something is wrong. It's sort of like, as a huge basketball fan, sometimes someone will foul you, and you want the ref to know that this person fouled you. So you act like you got hit by a freight train when this foul happens, just to really put it out there that there was contact made. This is sort of what Nehemiah is doing with his countenance.

A little hyperbole going on. a little little he's it's a little exaggerated you know he's putting on a little extra i mean he's no doubt upset but he's like i gotta i'm gonna wear this not just on my sleeve but on my face and on my shoulders i'm gonna be slumping around and uh hey the king knows immediately because apparently before this nehemiah was a pretty upbeat guy king knows there's something going on here and uh that's kind of where we left it yeah that's what you call non-verbal rhetoric yes there's more than one way to communicate uh what you're wanting to get across so yeah he's got the long face and uh so the king says hey what's what's going on you know well here's

real real real depressed for actually the last few months because of all this stuff going on back in jerusalem the king sees right through this of course uh he's not he's no uh he's not easily easily tricked so nehemiah 2 verse 4 says basically what do you want yeah what what are you requesting he he realizes uh nehemiah you know come on let's just let's be straight with one another we know uh that you really want something from me so what is it and i like that there's sort of a pause here so the king said to me what are you requesting so i prayed to the god of heaven it's almost like this this little little pause in between the king's request and nehemiah's nehemiah's response it's like he whispers uh this this quick prayer oh lord you know give me success

or oh lord give me the words to say or oh lord move in the heart of the king whatever it was he's going to offer a quick prayer which isn't you know i don't know i've never spoken to a king certainly never made a request from a king but uh i suppose if i ever did then i would maybe pause myself and do a quick help me oh lord type prayer yeah man i choose to believe this prayer was uh here we go god that's what it is like here we go yeah yeah here we go god all right help me out here and uh he goes on verse five after his prayer i said to the king if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight that you send me to judah to the city of my father's graves which of course he had just talked about that i may rebuild

it so it's that's all he says at first it's pretty pretty straightforward so number one if it makes you happy and number two if i have found favor in your sight and that that idiom is all over the old testament of course we've seen this so many so many different times whether it's finding favor in the eyes of god or finding favor in the eyes of some superior just basically you know if if you're looking at me in such a way as to want to deal kindly with me, is kind of the idea. I think this is interesting how this works. So first, the request is this, right? Send me to go do some work, which seems like, you know, not that big a request, other than the fact that maybe the king really likes having Nehemiah around. So he prefaces it with this. So if it pleases the king,

well, it doesn't please the king. The king doesn't care, probably. Like, oh man, you know, it made me so happy is if you left and went and rebuilt a place i don't care about so you have to you have to say if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight now this is like where you're uh finding favor in your sight this would be like if i was asking you to do something chad and it's something that like doesn't really do anything for you i'd be like hey man if you wouldn't mind doing this thing and uh you know if i've ever done anything for you that made you happy yeah just what you're doing is you're saying if you like me you know if i've been if i've been faithful if i if i'm your guy could you do me this solid could you do this solid for me

yeah that's pretty much it and you know as far as we know uh nehemiah's been good cupbearer yeah you know happy kind of guy keeps the king keeps the king smiling i mean he's not like the uh the court jester or anything but you know you want your your wine specialist to be a likable fellow So with a, you know, happy countenance and come in with your, you know, I've got these six bottles and I think this will be best. So let me taste it for you. I mean, you got it. And all that's implied by the fact that the one time that Nehemiah goes in there

and he's bummed out is notable. So he's not like a drag of a dude. Like, you know, he's not like, Nehemiah is just having one of those days, you know, like that. Apparently he's not like that at all. Like, he's bummed out, he's upset, now he might be playing it up a little bit, but it is noticeably different than his regular countenance. Yeah, I mean, we've all been around people like that. You know, they're always smiling, they're always happy, they're always cutting up, and so you pick up immediately if something is not right, not right.

Yeah. So, that's the request that he makes. And then, verse 6 says, the king said to me, and then in parentheses, at least the ESV has parentheses here. The king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, how long will you be gone and when will you return? I'm not exactly sure why we have it added that the queen is sitting beside him. First of all, we're not even sure this is the queen. The expression that's used there, Shegal, is a bit ambiguous. I mean, this could be like his, his favorite gal from the harem. I mean, so it, yeah, so this could be the

queen. I mean, like the, the actual queen, or it could be just his favorite gal, his favorite harem girl, his girlfriend sitting by him. Yeah. His girlfriend's sitting by him. So his, uh, maybe we should say that the King said to me, the lady, the King's lady sitting beside him, uh, just kind of keep the ambiguity there. Maybe the queen, uh, maybe, maybe the queen's away and he's got, you know whatever her name might be sitting there but either way she's sitting there and why is she mentioned here i who knows i mean maybe just to add color to the narrative but you know the bible doesn't do that much the bible doesn't just usually add details hey we're gonna kind of flesh out this whole scene for you the queen was sitting there the nobles were listening

the walls were some color it's just not the bible's way of doing things who knows maybe uh Maybe this indicates that it was either a public or private setting. If you're an original reader of this, you'd be like, oh, if the queen was there, then it was this kind of setting. Maybe the queen or this lady really likes Nehemiah, and so this would have actually helped him. Maybe she's going to say, yeah, yeah, you should—whatever he says, that's what you should do, because I really like this guy. Whatever it is, that's the setting. What's weird about this is that you have the question, how long will you be gone, and when will you return?

Now, if you're reading this, and you say, the king said to me, the queen said to me, how long will you be gone, and when will you return? You would think that the next thing you would get is, I don't know, like an answer to that question. But you don't get an answer to that question. It just goes right on to, so it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.

Well, I don't know, how long is that? Yeah, right. because when you find out what he's going to do, it seems like it's going to be a very long time. It seems like the answer to this question is like, I don't know, I'm a cupbearer, not a wall builder, so who knows? I don't know.

Even what Nehemiah is trying to do, this is the thing that's cool about Nehemiah, is he's going off to do something that you're like, do you even know how to do this? How are you remotely qualified to even undertake this? Yeah. You're like me saying, I'm an Old Testament teacher and Hebrew scholar,

but I'm going to go build a rocket ship. Yeah. Do you have any experience in building rocket ships? No, but I've seen some YouTube videos and I've talked to some people, so I think I can handle it. Yeah, and then I ask you, how long is it going to take?

Yeah, as long as necessary. Yeah, I figured Nehemiah kind of gave him kind of a general figure. Maybe a year, two or three, something like that. I'll figure out when I get there. Maybe it's, I don't know. I haven't seen what needs to be done yet,

That would be the wise, yeah. Well, once I get there, I'll determine. If it's not too bad, yeah, maybe a year. But, yeah, if it's in pretty bad shape, it's going to be a little bit longer. It is interesting that you don't get it. You're just like, when will you return? And the king was happy with my response, whatever it was. Whatever he said made the king happy.

So that he's going to send him. Now, this next part, verse 7, is a case where you... I feel like, I mean, we're not very far into Nehemiah, but it's like every verse kind of flushes out his personality a little bit more. We really, I really feel like we're kind of getting to know this guy because verse seven in the request he's going to make reminds me of the, you know, the proverb that fortune favors the bold because he is, he's going to, he's going to seize the opportunity. He's not simply going to say, okay, thank you so much.

I'm going to get my stuff together and go. no he's he's thinking well he's as we've discussed in the previous episode he's known about the situation in jerusalem for a while it's not as if he got an email that morning about the state of the walls and then that afternoon when he's in front of the king and his lady he decides he's going to go ahead and just ask for this he's been ruminating on this for months now and so he's come up with a plan so he probably all has this you know in his head he's ready for what comes he's like okay if the king says yes i'm gonna ask for this and this and this so he goes on verse seven to say again if it pleases the king first of all let letters be given me to the governors of the

province beyond the river that they may let me pass through until i come to judah well that makes sense you know if he's going to be on some kind of official mission well he needs to have papers that back that up so that's the first thing he needs this these official documents that are going to prove that he's not, you know, hasn't run away, or just isn't on, you know, some kind of ancient vacation, but he's actually on an official mission from the king, or at least has the king's permission. This gives you some protection, too, right? I mean, if he's going—this is what Ezra, like, Ezra talked up his god a whole bunch and then couldn't get, you know, an armed escort. Now Nehemiah doesn't have—he's not asking for an armed escort, but he's asking for papers that say,

yeah you probably don't want to uh stop me from doing what i'm doing uh and this is this is a good plan yeah well i think in a few more verses we'll hear that uh unlike unlike our friend ezra nehemiah is much more he's a very prayerful man get me wrong that we're gonna hear a lot about his prayers uh but he's also a very practical guy he's like yeah i'm not gonna pull an ezra and be like oh i know god god will protect me i don't i don't need any help nehemiah is gonna be like uh god will protect me and yes i will i would be glad to have an arm uh well nehemiah seems like he's this kind of guy right so so maybe ezra is more in the like he gets sick and then you're like god will heal me and you're like okay and nehemiah gets sick and he's like god will use a doctor to

heal me and like these are different see so like nehemiah is like yes god will protect me and he we'll use you to do it. Nehemiah is a great example of what it means to believe that God uses means to get things accomplished. Whether it's an armed escort or whether, as we'll see later,

it's armed guards around the wall of Jerusalem making sure they're safe when they go about their rebuilding project. Well, this is a thing, too, and just to this point, before we lose this point, as you read this stuff, he's asking,

He's like, I need this letter so I can pass through unencumbered. And a letter, I need this other letter that the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and walls for the city and for the house that I shall occupy. So he's asking for a letter for passage. And then also, I'm going to need to be able to use your timber and all this kind of stuff. But this isn't as cool about it. We can talk about that.

But he says, and the king granted me what I asked. You're like, okay, awesome. and here's the thing that you know that Nehemiah is a guy who just believes that God works through means because he ends with, the king granted me for what I asked. Why? For the good hand of my God was upon me. So he got what he wanted from the king, but who got the credit for it? He's like, no, it's God who gave it to me. He just gave it to me through this person. And I love this phrase. Has this actually changed the way that this one line actually changed the way that I pray a lot it'd be one thing you could easily just say the king granted me when i asked for the hand of my

god was on upon me that's fine like the hand of god's on you that's great but he uses this phrase for the good hand of my god was on me and uh i remember that there was i mean this is years and years ago but i was when i was and i was reading through nehemiah and that for some reason that jumped out at me and all that they did he used the word good and all the time now like if i'm asked to pray at thanksgiving or anywhere really i insert the word good like all over my prayers so like it'll be something like uh we thank you god knowing for all good things knowing that they come from you uh we thank you for the good gift of this that and the other thing and even ending prayers uh in the in the good name of jesus and i don't know why for some reason i just really

liked it they jumped out at me that sort of describing god's hand is not simply just the hand of god which of course implies a very powerful hand is the hand of god but that it's a good hand because it could just be like the hand of a god that's powerful and maybe that's good maybe it's not but when god's hands on you that's a good thing because his hand is good because he's good yeah i like that i like that that that adjective has a way of turning things around in a way that might not always be assumed and it also you know it uh it indicates the the gracious merciful hand because you know like is it hebrews it says it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living god yeah it's so not everyone upon whom god's hand rests is is necessarily in for for a

treat because god can smite with his hand right he can he can uh he can punish with his hand but if if it's the good hand well then that is indicative of the fact that god is being gracious and and good towards whoever it is that he is helping. Yeah, that can transform lots of different ways of understanding how God is at work in your life. Yeah, and I think that when God sees faith, which of course is what he is pleased with, because God is pleased with what he grants, because God is the grantor of faith, and God is pleased with his own gifts, because this is how he works. but when God is viewing

faith then his hand is good you don't have to worry about it's not a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God unless you're a faithless person but if you're a person of faith then you can be confident that whatever is going on

even if it feels bad that the hand of God is good on you yeah, the faith changes everything it's impossible to please God without faith but with faith then god is pleased with you in christ so that's right even if you can't tell what's good in some situations in life you know that the good hand of god is still upon you yeah it's good stuff anyway i know it's a total aside but i was just as i read that i was recalling

i don't know how i don't know how long ago it was when i read that and that it stuck with me for some reason i was like oh i liked a good hand i like that that's that's nice yeah it is it is it's good all right so uh verse nine you know pick it up from there what happens next so we're going to hear about what we're going to hear about uh his trip pretty soon we're also going to already be introduced to some names and some characters are going to resurface multiple times uh there tends to be a dance in nehemiah back and forth back and forth so just about the time that you have some sort of positive movement forward whether it's him traveling to to jerusalem or whether it's the beginning of the rebuilding of the walls or whatever it is every time they face

a setback or at least a challenge in some ways so that's the dance that goes you'll have a one one forward and then one step forward one step back and it's usually in connection with these characters that we are just about to hear about so verse nine says i came to the governors so he leaves uh packs up takes off i came to the governors of the province beyond the river and gave them the king's letters so of course he's going to make sure that he knows they know that he's on official business now the king had sent me with officers of the army and horsemen so that's what we were referencing earlier this is the opposite of of ezra's pious ezra's uh a way of going about this verse 10 is the introduction of these characters uh are going to be a problem

in the ensuing months but when sanballat i don't know how we want to say that i guess that's a typical way of pronouncing that sanballat the horonite until by the ammonite servant heard this it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of of israel so this guy is uh first of all his he has a babylonian name uh the moon god is seen it looks just like sin s-i-n so his name sanballat's name means seen gives life so the moon god is when god gives life now uh he is known he's known from uh some extra biblical texts that have been found by archaeologists so this guy not only appears in emi but he also appears in a couple at least from what I read a couple of different collections of papyri where his name surfaces.

And he was the governor of Samaria to the north. Probably he was kind of a caretaker of, or at least saw himself as a caretaker of Judah and Jerusalem, kind of making sure that nothing happened there contrary to either his own interest, the interest of Samaria, or what he perceived to be the interest of his Persian overlords. the horror knight uh is a bit of a he's called his sand ballot the horror night that's kind of ambiguous as to what that means uh could be that he's uh he's from a place called uh beth horan which means the house of horan upper or lower that's north of north of jerusalem but but either way this guy is uh most likely uh at least connected to the israelite people in some

way, maybe from the past. He's living in Samaria. He's the governor of Samaria, and he's going to be the main problem that Nehemiah is going to face in the months to come. So Sanballat, we're going to hear much more about as we work our way through the story. Then he's joined with a guy by the name of Tobiah the Ammonite, and there's going to be another name that's added in the narrative in the next chapter or so. We don't really know much about him. The Ammonites were peoples who live in the Transjordan, so east of the Jordan River. But that name is going to resurface much later with some prominent family in the Transjordan. Not sure if this guy's connected with them or not. But anyway, Sanballat and Tobiah, they hear about this and they're not happy because

someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. So most likely these are the guys that They were happy when this same king that just sent Nehemiah had halted the construction going on in Jerusalem. Remember, there were letters written. We heard about those back in Ezra. There were letters written. The king read the letters, issued a decree saying all work was to stop in Jerusalem. And now this guy shows up, Nehemiah shows up, and they hear about him. And so they're not only unhappy, but they're going to seek, through various sorts of means, threats of violence, psychological kind of warfare, to put a stop to the work once it's begun.

Yeah, this is interesting how it phrases this. So this knowledge that Nehemiah is coming there, this displeases them greatly. What does? That someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. So what are they upset about? Just that somebody is concerned about how the people of Israel are faring. This is like, they don't like this. So if you were wondering, this isn't just about, oh, they're using our timbers, or I don't know, whatever.

The way this is spelled out, you get the distinct impression that there is some disdain for these people as a people, right? So this is like, we don't like this people group at all, and we do not want anyone concerned with their welfare. Because it'd be different if it was like, they were concerned that he was there to rebuild the walls and what that could mean for whatever. you know but it does seem to me at least the way i read it that there's some real animosity uh for them yeah i remember that uh a lot of this animosity well it stems from a lot of different things but one one source is remember the samaritans wanted to help wanted to help the the jews rebuild the temple and they were rebuffed so there's probably a lot of we know this i mean And any two groups of people can have antagonisms that are for multiple reasons.

It could be racial antagonism. It could be historical antagonism. It could be religious antagonism. Just a lot of different reasons go into why two groups of people don't like each other or why one group of people considers themselves superior to another group of people. But yeah, there's multiple motivations going on here. And, you know, the Samaritans were the ones who were in power. And so they probably wanted to keep the Jews powerless, or at least not as powerful.

So, of course, they could control them. And, you know, I don't know this, but it's hard to discount the fact that there were some sort of financial reasons. Sure. Follow the money, even in the ancient world. So anyway, lots of different reasons. But basically, they weren't happy that someone had come to seek the good, the welfare of the people of Israel, to kind of piggyback off your good hand of God. The Hebrew there for welfare is also the word for good. So the good hand of God was upon Nehemiah, and his goodness was also toward his people Israel there in Jerusalem.

and Sanballat and Tobiah and others were not happy that someone hadn't come to seek the good of God's people there in Israel so Nehemiah gets there uh as as is pretty typical with the biblical narrative we're not told a whole lot about journeys uh Ezra made his journey Nehemiah made his journey uh they get there and just like just like with Ezra once they get there he said I was there for three days so he's Ezra arrives it really didn't do anything until three days later nehemiah arrives really doesn't know anything until three days later so kind of just a stereotypical period of a bit of r and r after the journey to get settled in and get ready to do something verse 12 though nehemiah goes to work but he goes to work surreptitiously he realizes

uh whether instinctively or because he's been told that he can't just like march in jerusalem and like a herald, unscroll his scroll and then read this proclamation. I, Nehemiah, was sent by the king to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He realizes, hey, there's opposition here, so I know that there's going to be eyes and ears of Sanballat and Tobiah and others in Jerusalem.

It's going to be spies. So I'm going to go about my work in a prudent sort of way. wise as serpents, innocent as doves. So he's going to go about this first of all by kind of reconnoitering the situation, figuring out what's going on with the shape of the city walls. And then, and only then, is he going to approach the leadership and say, this is who I am, this is what I've come to do. So verse 12 says, I rose in

the night, I and a few men with me. So he just takes this trusted group of men. And I told no one what god had put into my heart to do for jerusalem i was curious you know that's not a phrase you hear that phrase kind of a lot of evangelical circles you know god put this in put this in my heart so i couldn't find any other occurrence and maybe i dismissed one except here and then one place in i believe was in ecclesiastes uh but in in ecclesiastes it's uh it's usually translated i laid it to heart so he's talking about something happening in his own heart so kind of like i i put it in my heart to think about something but this talks about god putting it into

my heart to do for jerusalem so i mean it's just one more case of where nehemiah understands that that he's doing things number one because of his concern for his people and for the city of jerusalem but also because he realizes that god is the one who has directed him into the place in which he now he now stands yeah i mean this is this is what uh well i would always hear something tonight this talked about is like you know like god gives you know god really gave me a burden for fill in the blank you know uh i knew a guy that uh did like a bunch of work on like navajo reservations and stuff and for whatever reason he just could not escape this uh burden that he had to go work with native americans on navajo reservations and teaching the bible and stuff

And he just really, really felt like that's what he was supposed to do. He couldn't shake it. And, you know, I mean, Chad, you and I, I don't know if people know this, but like we're not, I don't think anyone would classify us as charismatics. But stuff like that doesn't bother me. I mean, sure, this is fine. And it seems that this is what EMI is saying, you know, is that God has, like, given me this burden, this desire, whatever it is, to do something for the people of Jerusalem, and he doesn't seem like he can shake it, and so he's not going to tell anybody about it, necessarily, but it's there. yeah i think this all falls from my perspective uh under the the umbrella of divine providence you know not just kind of in the big picture but also individually speaking yeah i'm fine with

with people saying god put a burden on me to do this or god led me in in this kind of direction now there needs to be of course wisdom and discernment you can't say that god put it in your heart to go out and commit a sin because that's antithetical to the way god works but Did God put it in your heart to, yeah, work on Navajo reservations or to feed and clothe the homeless or to go into the ministry or whatever it might be? I mean, I really, from my own perspective, I think that God put it in my heart to early on to fall in love with biblical languages and to study, especially the Old Testament. Yeah. You know, here I am today. Today, God leads people to go in certain kinds of directions and equips them, you know, with certain gifts in order to be to be good at whatever, whatever that might be.

Yeah, yeah. And there's a big difference between that and saying, you know, God told me to, didn't you're getting into like a little bit of a, oh, he did. He told you like, OK, what did that what was that like? But even Nehemiah is not saying that. he's just saying god put something in his heart to do something for the people of jerusalem and he's gonna try to see that through and yeah that's all that's all good of course if the bible says that god told someone something and uh then he told him something so right yeah so the he's gonna he's gonna begin begin the plans he uh he's on a i don't know maybe a mule donkey something like that we're not told but there was a uh an animal that he's riding anyway so presumably one of those

and it goes up by night and we're we're getting given the specifics he says he uh he goes by the valley gate to the the dragon spring that sounds like a pretty cool place the dragon spring yeah not mentioned nowhere else except uh here in here in nehemiah why do i feel like that's a hot spring i feel like that's a hot spring is what i feel like yes it certainly would would fit with a name huh we go so we go from the dragon spring to the dung gate that's quite a uh shift in focus I feel like that's a smelly gate. I mean, I think they're very descriptive with the valley gate. I feel like I know that that's in a valley.

There's a dragon spring. I feel like that water is probably warm. And the dung gate, I feel like something doesn't smell good around there. Yeah. Actually, I've walked through the dung gate. Yeah. It's one of the old entrances into Jerusalem. It's right there by the Temple Mount, the Western Wall.

And people can drive through it. I think we walked through it. But anyway, you go, I've gone through the, the dung gate when, uh, when I visited the, uh, the Western wall and the temple Mount. So it's on the, uh, it's on the Southern end of the city of David. And yeah, I mean, it's, uh, the, the word itself can be translated also as, uh, as ash kind of a general term for refuse trash. So, yeah, I mean, just like if we, uh, we, if I got to, you know, load my pickup up with

a bunch of trash and junk, I'm going to get rid of, well, then I go out to the city dump And, you know, I go through the gate going to the city dump and I dump it and then I drive back. Well, there was a, you know, a gate that happened to be closest to the place where the city took all of the ash from fires and, you know, clean up the manure from their animals. And all that kind of stuff went through this gate and then would have been dumped into the valley, into the valley below. So he's checking all this out, Valley Gate, Dragon Spring, Dung Gate. And as he goes, he's inspecting the walls of Jerusalem. Maybe it was a full moon. I mean, if you're out in a full moon, things are pretty visible.

So he's checking things out. Where they were broken down, he saw its gates had been destroyed by fire. And then he goes by the fountain gate, King's Pool, and said there was, it kind of got tight there, I suppose. There was no room for the animal to pass. And he goes on to describe the rest of the places. He went up by the valley, inspect the wall, turned back to the valley gate, and then he went back. So he does this midnight secret mission with his men just to kind of take stock of the situation. And then verse 16 tells us that the officials had no idea what he was doing.

They didn't know where I'd gone or what I was doing. So he gets back and then he's going to let them know. So I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work. They're in for a surprise. It's going to be a happy surprise. I mean, they're going to receive the news positively, but they don't yet know what Nehemiah's business is in Jerusalem. So presumably that next day, he gathers them all together and verse 17 records his very brief, very brief speech. Verse 17, I said to them, you see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned.

come let us build the wall of jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision i kind of it it's fascinating to me his reason so first of all you know we're in trouble okay uh i get i'll get that but then when he gets to the end he says so he doesn't say so that we will now be safe or so that we will be secure with the walls rebuilt and the gates fastened, but so that we will no longer suffer derision. So his reason is basically disgrace. Look at the Lord's chosen city where the temple is. Look at the state of the walls.

This place is a disgrace. And what Jerusalem looks like is a reflection of the people who live there and the people who live there are the people of the Lord. And so this is, we're suffering derision from our enemies and we're kind of living in disgraceful conditions. So why don't we do something to fix it? Well, and then you have this great thing that happens right here. He talks about that good hand again.

There it is again. The hand of my God had been upon me for good. And also the words that the king had spoken to me. So there's your means again. Yes. God's good hand and you know some pretty good words from the king so I mean

I'm sure a lot of this is abbreviated I'm sure Nehemiah said more and I'm sure the people said more but their basically basic response was let us rise up and build so hey we like what you've said we agree with you

let's get about this business so this is this initial enthusiasm anyone who's been on a church building project knows the way it knows how this works love it this is great yeah when you're halfway through maybe not so much but anyway the initial enthusiasm is there so let's rise and build so uh they strengthen their hands for the good work yeah so good is all over the place yeah so like this is the thing i'm talking about when i was i remember when i was reading this um you have this god who i can you like

hear all this good talk like oh i got the good hand of god on me uh the hand of my god has been upon me for good they said let's do it so they strengthen their hands to do this good work and i don't know i mean you know you've got to chad be like going all the way back and like think about when god like declares things good in creation and you realize that god is a god who like creates things and then he only creates good things right he creates something he's like man that's pretty good. And he creates something else and says, oh, that's good too. Like, I make good things with these hands. These hands are making good things everywhere. And yeah, I like the way that that flows through here, that God is working. You know, Paul said God works all things together

for good. He's doing some of that right here. There's some good work that's going to take place, and God's hand is on it. Yeah, that's what the people say of Jesus too, right? He does all things well that's right he makes the blind to see yeah always when that uh that miracle always i hear echoes of genesis one and two there oh look look he's he's doing all things good in fact very very good well yeah he should he's god incarnate so what yeah what do you expect so just to wrap up the chapter uh here we go verse 19 there's our guys again but when And another guy, we'll talk about him in the next episode, Geshem the Arab, heard of it. So the enemies, what do they do?

They jeered at us and despised us and said, I'm sure in a very mocking tone, what's this thing that you're doing? Are you rebelling against the king? And Nehemiah replies to them, the God of heaven will make us prosper, and we, his servants, will arise and build. but you talking to his adversaries have no portion or right or claim in jerusalem so that we're now we're seeing another side of nehemiah he's not afraid to get in somebody's face and say god is with us and you who are opposing us jeering at us mocking us mocking at us you have no portion

right or claim in in jerusalem now this is going to this little fire that's been kindled here is going to turn into a conflagration as time goes on, as we'll see in the ensuing chapters. But anyway, we get Nehemiah to Jerusalem. He begins the work and checks everything out, starts the work, and the good hand of the good God is upon him for good, which is a pretty good place to be. You can correct my Hebrew here or whatever, but I think that maybe this is more of an insult than you then you realize like when it when it says that you have no portion or right and it has claim you know you might you might think that this is to say like hey you don't have any you have no claim to this like this doesn't belong to you you don't but uh if i'm correct here like

so this word also would mean like memorial like so like you're not when you say you don't have a memorial somewhere you have no memorial here it means that like your your people will not be remembered for being here and neither will you right like this is not going to be a place where you will be remembered yeah it comes from the same uh hebrew root as zakar as the verb remember that we've talked about so many different times yeah it's it's a it's a weighty word it has all those it has all those connotations so it's not claim maybe isn't the best maybe a memorial of remembrance would be the best translation translation here yeah like you're not going be remembered for ever having been here right yeah yeah your name will not be etched in the

stone of remembrance for uh for this holy city yeah yeah so that's a pretty big yeah that's a pretty big statement to make it's not simply saying this belongs to us it doesn't belong to you it's it's bigger than that yeah it's like in in the in the in the chosen place of god where he's placed his temple uh you will not be remembered there you're you have no portion in this particular holy site. Yeah. Well, all right, man, that's it. That's chapter two.

We'll leave it right there. We will be back next episode to see how this sort of burn goes over and if there is any kind of harassment they receive going forward. But we'll wait until next week. Chad, I'll see you then. See you then.

We'll see you next time.