40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Nehemiah 6:1-7:4 (Episode 365)

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

Nehemiah's opponents try to get him to come out and meet with them, but he isn't having any of that. When that doesn't work, he is warned to seek hiding inside the temple, but he isn't doing that either. And Nehemiah isn't worried about gossip and rumors. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! Show Notes: Support the Podcast Network Fundraiser 1517 Podcasts The 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 on Youtube What's New from 1517: The New Quest for Paul and His Reading of the Old Testament by Timo Laato Finding God in the Darkness: Hopeful Reflections from the Pits of Depression, Despair, and Disappointment by Bradley Gray More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

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One of the easiest ways you can help is by signing up for a monthly reoccurring donation. All you have to do is follow the Support This Show link at the top of the show notes or go to 1517.org slash donate dash podcasts to support your favorite shows. Again, we appreciate your support. Enjoy this episode of your favorite 1517 podcast. 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 and check out all of the things that are going on over there. One of the things that's going on, we're wrapping it up.

In the month of June, we're doing the Podcast Network Fundraiser. If you've not jumped on board with that, we would appreciate if you would. There is a link in the show notes that says support this show. It's how we're able to do this stuff. That way we don't have to have ads on the shows, and we don't have to have a paywall. A lot of podcasts have a backlog the way that we do. Chad and I both are big hardcore history fans.

We like that Dan Carlin hardcore history. But if I'm going on a road trip, which I will be next week going on vacation, and I'm going to have to go, and if I want anything released a couple episodes back, which is what I want, I'm going to have to go and I'm going to have to buy those episodes, you know, because they're behind the paywall. I've got to pay for them individually, which, you know, I'm happy to do because you've got to support the podcast as you like. But we don't do it that way.

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Nehemiah had to do a little house cleaning. He had to take care of some internal stuff. There was some lending and some interest going on. There's some oppression of the poor. We got to talk about how, you know, Jesus has this thing going on. and by Jesus, of course, I just mean God, but Jesus is the one that said this, that, hey, the poor you will always have with you, but also make sure you treat the poor well. Both of these things are true. So he doesn't think that you can solve every economic problem,

but he does not think that the fact that there will be poor people means that you just get to treat them any way you want, that you should always treat the poor with compassion. And that was not going on, and so Nehemiah had to fix some of that. You know, he had to bring some priests in to witness some vows and all that kind of stuff. And then he got to become governor, and he governed in a very generous way. He governed in a way where he did not avail himself of the allowances that the governor would get. So there are certain things that a governor was allowed to do that are financially beneficial, things that would make his life easier, and he didn't do those things. Now, this is probably because he had means, but hey, it's because

someone has means has never stopped someone from trying to get more means, but Nehemiah didn't go that route, and that sort of made things easier for the people. He didn't want to take anything from them, and so he governed in a very generous way, and that's kind of where we ended, and you know, you got to know how the Old Testament works. When everything seems like it's going good, when all the problems seem to be solved, you know, like we had some hindrances to the building, and then Nehemiah solved those, and then it felt like everyone was ready to work, and they got some stuff built. That was nice. Then you had this internal oppression of the poor, and Nehemiah fixed that. All right, fine. All right, good. Finally, the wall's built. You know, the poor

are being taken care of. We're good to go. Everything's great. And so you know the very next chapter something is going to happen, because that's just not how the Bible works, because that's not how life works. Yeah, you got to get to the very end of the Bible before you have a they lived happily ever after yeah yeah you got not until the end do you do you get that point uh it's pretty much uh just as you described it so we're gonna shift this time so last chapter was about internal problems amongst people you know rich poor all that kind of stuff and now we're gonna shift back to these guys we've heard about before the external issues these these people who in various sorts of ways have been trying to mock, taunt, suppress, threaten the

builders to make sure this does not happen. Guys like Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and all the rest of these guys. So that's how chapter six starts out. These fellows, they heard, and the rest of the enemies too. It's not like this was the extent of those who were opposed to nehemiah a whole bunch of folks heard that i had built the wall so this is nehemiah first person this is part of his memoir so i heard that i'd built the wall and that there was no breach left in it it wasn't like he was completely done though because in in parentheses we said we have although up to that time i had not set up the doors and the gates so he's all right he's basically through you know everything's pretty much in place but not not totally so uh when they're almost done

sanballat and geshem uh send this this message to nehemiah i don't know why they thought this was going to work i mean it seems a bit naive given all the bad blood that exists between them given all the the threats the taunts the suppression everything else they've tried now they think that this is going to work they they say to nehemiah hey why don't you meet us in this place called ha keferim in the plain of ano now that's a common you can read the commentaries there's all sorts of speculation about exactly where this is but i'd say the majority agree that even though we don't know where ha keferim is it's probably a village that's in the plain of Anno. Anno, O-N-O, is kind of northwest of Jerusalem, probably kind of a

in-between spot between Samaria and Judea. But anyway, they want Nehemiah to leave Jerusalem and to meet them at this HaKafarim place in the plain of Anno. Now, Chad, this is like if somebody says, why don't you meet me at the O.K. Corral at high noon? we're gonna have we're gonna have a beer together we're just gonna hang out we're just gonna talk that's all you yeah me okay corral high noon it's gonna be great yeah so unnecessarily nehemiah adds this but they intended to do me harm yeah there are times in the bible states the very obvious and this is one of those cases they intended to do me harm yeah i based upon uh the past i would say that is a fair judgment to make, given the fact that they've tried to do everything to stop

the work, and it has been unsuccessful. I mean, what they wanted to do has been unsuccessful, whereas Nehemiah and his workers have been successful. Now, you got to admire, I mean, Nehemiah's a little bit coy here, because he doesn't come right out and say, no, do you think I'm an idiot? You're trying to kill me. He responds. He sends messengers to them. this is kind of a back and forth since messengers to them saying uh i'm busy basically i am doing a great work and i cannot come down now why should the work stop while i leave it and come down to you that's a pretty good response i like it because he's like oh dude i don't know if you heard but uh doing some really good work over here uh doing some awesome work this is i mean i

i got some great work this wall yeah it's great it's really it's going great yeah yeah it is really it's a it's almost a smart like kind of comment coming from nehemiah this is this is nehemiah saying i'm not stupid i know exactly what you guys are doing but i'm not going to tell you that outright i'm just going to let you know that the work you're trying to stop oh it's going great it's awesome here yeah awesome wall we're building here and so i mean I'm on a roll here. Why would I stop and come down to visit with you guys? I mean, I'd really like to visit the OK Corral and everything.

I've heard it's great, but I'm kind of busy right now. Yeah, maybe if you want to talk to me, you should come up here by this awesome wall and talk to me. I'm on this wall. It's really tall, wide, big. Yeah, let's have a little get-together here. You can come shout up at me. It'd be great.

Yeah. Well, these guys, I mean, they try this, and then they try it again. They tried again. Four times they try this. Verse 4 says, they said to me four times in this way. You know, maybe they worded a little bit differently every time. Who knows? But either way, they're going to give this a shot. I mean, over and over. And every time Nehemiah, I guess, sends back a similar response, I answer them in the same manner. I don't know why. I mean, okay, twice, but four times? These guys are desperate.

yeah these guys are desperate so points for tenacity yes there you go points for tenacity so uh after the fourth failure verse five i guess they're going to try a little bit a little bit different tact this time we're going to try a little uh little blackmail uh by false accusation i suppose we could call this so verse five says in the same way sand ballot for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. I suppose these other ones were just word of mouth. Messenger shows up, says, hey, I got a message from Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, and they say, blah, blah, blah. So they're going to write it down this way. Maybe it's supposed to pack some extra weight, be a little bit more convincing. But either way, get this

open letter. Who knows what it was written on? I mean, a lot of times they wrote letters on pot sure it's just you know little scraps of pottery that are broken apart they archaeologists found tons of those but anyway whatever it's written on here's what it says verse six it is reported among the nations this is uh the equivalent of they're saying yeah you know what i've heard they're saying so it's reported among the nations and geshem also says it i guess that's supposed to carry some weight, the Geshem, the Arab. He also says this, that you, Nehemiah, that you and the Jews intend to rebel, and that's why you're building the wall. And, as if that's not enough, according to these reports, you wish to become their king. And it goes on, verse 7, and you've

also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in jerusalem there is a king in judah so this is the accusation then they go on and now the king talking here about the persian king the overlord of this entire empire and now the king will hear of these reports in other words we're going to let him know so now come and let us take counsel together i don't know it doesn't This seemed very convincing to me. Yeah, I mean, they're trying to be like, okay, listen, man, there's some stuff going around, and we'd love to hear you say to our face

that this is not the case. I mean, maybe we can get out in front of these rumors. I mean, I don't know how much time we got before they reached the king, and you know that that's not going to go well. So maybe we can help you out here, but I'm going to need to see you for sure. I mean, you can't just send me a message.

I'm going to need to look into your eyes as these words come out of your mouth. This is a pretty desperate attempt to get him down there in person, I feel like. Yeah, of course, this is all written from Nehemiah's perspective. But the way he reports things, these guys don't come across as the sharpest tools in the tool shed. I mean, I don't know why they thought this would work. when someone has been against you time and time and time again and then they come up

with something like this. I mean, I suppose a fear tactic sometimes works. Of course, there's been plenty of prophets in the past who were behind the king and so maybe they think this is going to at least

spark a little bit of fear in the heart of Nehemiah. Also, this is one of those things like people are saying and you're like by people do you mean you this is like uh when unknown like someone who just like loves to gossip and then comes you said like oh you know what i heard people are saying about you and i'm like uh by people do you mean things that you were saying about me that you were like that you were like getting other people to say about me is that what you mean because that's what i feel like you mean yeah and my people you mean only you and whoever

else you've been telling this to yes yeah wait that's the way human nature works like where this i wonder i wonder where this rumor got started i really wonder yeah i wonder what the source of this might be i wonder maybe can trace it back to uh the first person who said this well nehemiah undeterred i love his response i mean it's short it's blunt it's to the point uh and it's one of these cases i think where uh who are the truly who are the truly courageous those who know they stand on the truth right right i mean there there there's nothing that will give you courage to stand up and remain here. We still stand besides the truth. I mean, if you know what you're holding to is true, then man, talk about being filled with, uh, with courage to

stand up for what's right. So Nehemiah says, he sends a letter saying, no such things as you say have been done. Why? For you are inventing them out of your own mind. End. You're just making stuff up. Nobody's saying this. None of this is happening. You're just pulling these lies out of your own head. None of them are true. And then verse 9 gives us Nehemiah's understanding of what really their motivation is. So this is a description of why they're doing what they're doing or they all wanted to frighten us thinking their hands will drop from the work and it will not be done of course i mean that's that's the reason the whole reason they're wanting to to pull this off is to get them to stop building the walls because if the wall is built

to reiterate what we've said many other times if the walls are rebuilt then these guys no longer have control over jerusalem which they probably did before nehemiah came along and started this kind of work so you want to you know the person you want to control well you control them by keeping them weak so that's what they wanted to do they want to keep jerusalem weak so they have control over it nehemiah comes along and he's destroying all of their their plans and so they're opposed to him for this reason now the end of this is couched in the form of a prayer so after he says they all wanted to frighten us thinking their hands will drop from the work and it will not be done a lot of english translations including the esv uh say but now oh god strengthen

my hands the problem with that is that there is no oh god in in the hebrew text uh there's it just says uh and now strengthen strengthen my hand so uh it's a it's a can be translated as something like but now i strengthen my own hands in other words i can continue the work So maybe it's a prayer. If it is, there's really nothing in the Hebrew that would suggest that it actually is. So anyway, it's either Nehemiah saying, I continued undeterred, I strengthened my hands to continue with the work, or perhaps it's a prayer that he utters. Either way, he's not going to be deterred by the people who were opposing him. Yeah, it's kind of weird that they stick the ill God in there. I don't exactly know why they do

that i don't know because to me sometimes people translators uh as they're translating forget the sort of human elements to certain things now imagine like nehemiah is writing this down and he's saying like all right so they got they're coming to me like five times then they said oh people are saying i know that they're not saying that the people that are saying that are the people that are sending me these letters so i know what's going on here what they really wanted me to do they wanted my hands to drop from this work but all that all that happened with all these letters is i just strengthened my hands like is this is this is like some hold my beer talk i don't read this as it doesn't need to be a prayer he's just saying like uh i'm really sick of reading these

letters let me tell you the actual result of all these letters and you're like trying to make this happen you thought i was building building fast before dude like you know you never seen wall building like you're about to see yeah that's very true to human nature we've all been in that situation too yeah somebody poses us we'd be like oh i'm gonna double down yeah oh this i'm gonna triple down oh this wall building was bothering you oh well you've watched this yeah you thought you saw wall building before now you're really gonna now you're really gonna see it so that that didn't work uh obviously the the four you know the four messages hey meet us at the okay corral that that was rebuffed he's too busy and then the whole uh you know rumors are going around

well he says that's not true you're just making this stuff up so they come up with a different tactic we're not done yet you know they're if they have anything they have persistence so now this is this is a little bit sneakier than the other ones the other ones i mean you can see through those well it turns out that uh one of these guys uh uh tobiah he's got some connections. He's got some actually some pretty remarkable and deep connections to people in Jerusalem. In fact, as we'll discover more and more as we read the Nehemiah, he and his son are married in such a way that they have connections with the people in Jerusalem. In a few more chapters, we'll find out there for a while, Tobiah was actually living in Jerusalem before Nehemiah

showed up and had a room close to the temple so what's going to happen here is that they're going to have a hired prophetic uh prophetic in quotes here hired prophetic gun that's going to try and get nehemiah to mess up in a big public way so here's the way it works verse 10 now i went into the house of Shemaiah, the son of Deliah, the son of Mahettabel, who was confined to his home. Now, we don't know why he was confined to his home. Speculations abound. Some people say it was because of a ritual defilement. Some people say it was because of a vow. Some people say it was unknown reason, whatever it was. We're really not told, and you can't really tell from the Hebrew either. But he was at his home. So presumably, he either sends a messenger or he

sends a letter to Nehemiah saying, Hey, I got a message for you. I've got a, I've got a message from God for you. So Nehemiah shows up at his house and here's what he says. Let us meet together in the house of God within the temple. And when he says within the temple, he's not talking about the four courts. He's not talking about the courts. He's talking about like the house itself, like the holy place so let us meet together in the house of god within the temple and let's close the doors of the temple because they're coming to kill you they is not specified but presumably nehemiah understood who this was going to be of course you know all these guys who have been threatening him they are coming to kill you in fact they're coming to kill you by night now you

can't see this in some english translations in the hebrew this is set in the form of a typical prophetic oracle so like when you know when you read prophetic books it's arranged differently on the on the page in poetry form so it's presented as kind of a prophetic oracle so even the way he says this it's like he this is a true a true oracle from god and he basically saying hey uh uh we need to go hide you so in the best place for us to hide is in the temple in the very house of god itself because tonight there's going to be some people coming in to assassinate you so verse 11 nehemiah responds to him and says should such a man as i run away and what man such as i could go into the temple and live i will not go in i'll do i i think this

response is awesome because he gets to like do two things at the same time one since such a man as i run away okay so like this is this is the way of saying like dude i'm not the kind of guy that runs away what kind of man do you think i am like i'm not that kind of guy i'm i'm not a i'm not a runner that's not what i do and men like me maybe men like you run away but men like me they don't run away so like there's there's uh this confidence there you know there's some there's some there's some cockiness there right but it's good it's like to continue our wild west analogy this is why it hurt yeah he's like i don't think i'm gonna get my horse and run the other direction yeah it's not what i think i am yeah but then says so he's not that kind of man but then says

and what man such as i could go into temple and live so he's like i'm not the kind of man that runs away i'm not that kind of man i'm not a coward but i'm not a holy man not also not a priest yeah like like so so like this is great so he's doing both things at the same time where he gets to have this bravado of like i'm no coward but he's also like dude i'm not i'm also i'm not worthy to go into the temple either like don't don't get i know what kind of man i am uh so this is not going to work with me like i'm not you you took me for someone who was scared enough to believe that i would go do something that i know i shouldn't do but i'm not scared and i'm well aware that i have no business in the temple it's great these guys have no these guys

have not figured out that nehemiah i mean every man has his weaknesses right we all know that we have chinks in our armor well nehemiah's chink is not fear so they keep trying to fear tactics and it's not working but uh you know they keep trying the same kinds of kinds of approaches and all of them keep backfiring yeah i'm not a coward and also i'm not a priest yeah i'm not gonna run away but i'm also not gonna run into the temple because you know i know what happens to people who aren't supposed to be in the temple who go into the temple we have like documented evidence of that we have a king who ended up with leprosy when he when he attempted this so ain't gonna happen i will not go in and verse 12 says i understood and saw that god had not sent him

but he pronounced a prophecy against me because tobiah and sanballat had hired him i also love this because uh this is this is a great case where how do you test prophecy in the old testament well you know a pretty easy way to test prophecy is if if a supposed prophet says something which directly contradicts the word of god yeah then he's a false prophet so it's i mean this is kind of a this is some pretty low hanging prophetic judgment kind of stuff going on so if if a prophet comes along and says you should steal that's a false prophet prophet comes along and says uh hey we should worship other gods it's a false prophet and likewise here if a prophet comes along and says uh hey uh you should go into the temple well there you go he's a false prophet and a

prophet prophet at that if a prophet comes up to you and says hey you should hide in the ark like did you know it's funny you said that last night my daughter was over we watched uh raiders of the lost ark yes yeah 1981 uh so we're recording this on the monday after father's day so it was a father's day movie for me i love that movie so we were yeah you know i mean uh you don't you know from the bible you don't want to go inside the ark you also know from the movie you don't want to mess with you know i'm about to go way off track here but i don't mean to ruin raise the lost ark because i love it but here is what's true about that movie uh indiana jones doesn't matter to the outcome of that movie at all if you remove indiana jones from the entire plot

the end of that movie is exactly the same it's true yeah i mean he is tied up during that whole thing so yeah well even just like well okay say that you just have this movie but indiana jones like doesn't exist the end of the movie like what ends up happening that movie is that they find the arc and open it and i'll die this happens no matter what right it's always gonna end poorly it doesn't matter it's not as though he stops them it's not as though he prevents them from finding it like he's just there yeah so don't hide in the arc you know if someone happens to find the ark of the covenant just bury it again leave it where it is uh so anyway uh yeah this guy was hired he's a hard he's a hard prophetic gun by uh tobias meant in in the sand bullet so they

you know every other effort had failed they thought well you know what we have some connections we know people uh in the city and so let's let's work our magic here and see if this is going to work so verse 13 says for this purpose he was hired that i should be afraid and act in this way and sin and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me oh well yeah you know the way this would work yeah word would get out even if even if nehemiah wasn't struck down when he goes into the temple word's going to get out you know our governor did you hear what a coward he is he wouldn't hid inside the tent first of all he's not supposed to be there but i mean what kind of leader does that and so yeah this is this is all going to uh uh not be good for nehemiah had he

followed this but of course he sees right through it and then uh verse 14 is a prayer uh where uh once again i think once again nehemiah does it does this at least more than once in the book he uh he utters his prayer and says uh oh my god i want you to remember a couple folks here yeah just remember calling on that god to remember but like this is uh you know we talked about we talked about this a lot when you're asking god to remember you're asking him to do something and in this particular time i don't think he's asking god to remember his faithful loving kindness and all his promises or anything like that no this is a slightly different kind of remembering this is not a god remembered noah in the ark kind of remembering so remember tobiah and sanballat

oh my god according to these things that they did and presumable he's also asking god to remember this uh shemaiah dude but that's not the name that he mentions he says also the prophetess noah dia and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid now that's not even right because You can't just, like, drop a name like that and not tell us anything. That's what Nehemiah does. It's like, it's a page turner. You're like, he never tells us anything. We don't know who this woman is.

We don't know what she did. We don't know what she said. So it's kind of an unfair teaser where he just kind of lobs that out there and gives us absolutely no more information about her. You know what you find about God remembering? if the prayer is for God to remember who He is, great. This is a great thing.

This is what you want. If the prayer is for God to remember who you are, or someone else is, this is not good. When it comes to me, Chad, I don't know how you feel about this. When God is thinking about me, I want Him to remember who He is.

I definitely don't want Him to really think hard about who I am. Yeah, remember Jesus, Heavenly Father. I want God to forget a whole lot of things about me because, yeah, generally speaking, when I'm thinking about what I did in reference to God, it's not good. Yeah, dude. If I'm standing before God, he's going to be like, hey, aren't you Daniel?

I'll be like, yeah. Hey, remember who you are, though. That's the important thing. I'm not the important one here. Just remember your nature. Just remember, you know. Yeah. I'm not going to get up in front of God and list all of the reasons that he should remember me.

No. Number one, the list is very short. There's like nothing on there. But I can list a whole lot of things that God has done for me and who he is. And thankfully, that's what he remembers. I mean, isn't it interesting that like a prayer of judgment can be reduced down to just, hey, make sure you remember these guys. That's it. That's all you have to ask God to do.

Hey, just remember these guys. okay like oh all right yeah there's no uh you know and drop some fire brimstone on their heads flatten their houses give them leprosy nothing just remember who they really are remember remember these names tobiah sand ballot and the prophetess noah dia and you know the rest of the prophets who tried to make me afraid she's by the way uh uh not the only prophetess we've we've encountered some of these before there's i don't know half a dozen maybe that are mentioned by name in in the rest of the scriptures uh and i think with this one and then one exception uh one other one uh the other ones are positive they're prophetesses through whom god spoke but uh

this prophetess was basically another another hired gun in uh in the service of the enemy so anyway uh that's uh kind of the end of that section and now you know drum roll We finally finished the wall. It really hadn't been that long. Verse 15 says it was finished. The wall was finished on the 25th day of the month Elul, which is like August, September, so six months in the Hebrew calendar.

The wall was finished on the 25th day of Elul in 52 days. Yeah, so all this happens in 52 days. That's all. So less than two months. yeah that's a that's an awful lot to uh to happen i mean the construction alone would have been impressive in 52 days but when you when you add to that all the opposition all the threats all the setbacks all the you know walking around with a sword one hand in a in a trial and the other it's quite a bit to accomplish in 52 days yeah no wonder these guys are getting nervous they're

like these guys are building this wall i mean i'll tell you what like this boat wall is going up yeah yeah i mean we we even kind of uh catch that in the next verse when our on all our enemies heard of it that is when they heard the wall was finished all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem because they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of god there you go meaning that yeah well they looked at it and uh i mean they were impressed just like we are but they were even more impressed because they you know they saw the state of the wall they they they realize how this would would usually go down so the fact that was finished so soon even they look at it and they're like well as much as we hate to

admit it this had to have been with god's involvement there's no other way so they they fall in their own esteem and they realize that uh you know god must add a hand in this so verse 17 says uh and this is kind of a further elaboration of what i was hinting at earlier Moreover, in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them. For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, to Tobiah. Why? Because he was the son-in-law of Shekiniah, the son of Arah. And his son, and Tobiah's son, Jehohanan, had taken the daughter of Meshulam, the son of Berechiah, as his wife. Now, forget all the names. Basically, what we have going on here is that these guys, it's not like they were unknown in Jerusalem. It's not like they were unconnected to Jerusalem.

There was at least a sizable group of people in Jerusalem under the authority of Nehemiah who were bound by oath and being informants against Nehemiah in order to try and undermine his authority and make sure this did not happen. So, I mean, it's bad enough to kind of face this external opposition. It was bad enough to have kind of the internal turmoil between the rich and the poor and the lending and the usury and all that stuff going on. But now we find out also that when all this mess was happening, he got these secret letters going back and forth between Tobiah and all these people he has on his side, all on the inside, who are doing everything they can because they're bound by marriage, because they're bound by oath to make sure that Nehemiah's work does not come to its fulfillment. And it says, verse 10, they spoke of his good deeds in my presence. Imagine that. so you're in Nehemiah's presence you're like you know uh I know you've had some issues with Tobiah but he's actually you know let me tell you some you know once it was my kid's birthday

and he gave him like a great present and you should have seen him you know what he did this one time just to he's really I know he kind of comes across as a little bit a little bit rough but in his heart of hearts he's really a good guy yeah it's pretty weird does it work yeah it's kind of a strange thing but i mean wouldn't you think if uh you know if i'm nehemiah and i have these my fellow israelites coming up to me and bragging about how good this guy is who's trying to kill me then don't you think i would kind of see through like uh what connection do you have to tobio why would you be telling me this but anyway that's what happened yeah well it seems like they reported my words to him well there's some there's some sort of thing where it seems that tobio is like

hey, I'm trying to get this guy, I'm trying to lure this guy out, trying to get him to meet me at these places. So they're talking Tobiah up, trying to make this happen. This is concerning if you're Nehemiah, because you feel like you have people close to you who are in debt or unhelpfully committed to this person that you feel has ill will towards you. I mean, Nehemiah says it didn't. And Tobias sent letters to make me afraid, which we already know.

I mean, he's just reiterating that, like, hey, I had these people saying all this stuff, talking this guy up while he's doing this. So if you're Nehemiah, you've got to take a good hard look at the people around you and be like, okay, where your allegiance is at? Like, where are you actually trying to accomplish here? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. You get to the end of this chapter, and it makes me really admire Nehemiah even more. I mean, this guy, he had an uphill battle. I mean, he arrives, as far as we know, with no construction experience. It wasn't like he was a bricklayer in Babylon before.

He was a cupbearer. The dude knew wine. And he shows up, takes over, and inspires the people, corrects problems, deals with— I mean, he's got stuff happening all around him. And still, he is able to pull it off, which is remarkable with regard to him. but even more remarkable when you consider that God was working through all of this mess in order to bring this to its completion.

Anyway, that's the end of chapter 6. There's just like four verses at the beginning of chapter 7 that we'll kind of wrap up with here. Now when the wall had been built and I had set the doors and the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother Hanani Hanani, and then another guy with almost the same name, Hananiah. So he gives his brother Hanani, and this other guy, Hanani, the governor of the castle. He gives these two H guys,

one's his brother, one's the governor of the castle. He gives them charge over Jerusalem. So he's appointing people that he trusts, he knows that he can rely on as those who are in charge of certain parts of Jerusalem, because he says he was a faithful in God, a more faithful and God-fearing man than many. I'm sure Nehemiah was very careful as to who he selected as leaders over Jerusalem, given everything we've been discussing. So he's only going to appoint people he could trust,

that he knows, like his brother. Well, so he's got his brother and then this other guy. Who is this other guy? And you're like, well, all you need to know about him is you don't need to know, like, oh, he was this guy's son, and that guy, you know, and it was great because this guy had helped me out, so I appointed his son. No, the only thing you need to know about him

is that he was more faithful and God-fearing than most. Yes. that's why that's why i pointed them that's what and he had no connection to tobi probably probably uh yes and i said to them and this is a little bit confusing here um i said to them this is the esv let not the gates of jerusalem be open until the sun is hot and while they're still standing guard let them shut and bar the doors that can be translated more than one way which of course leads to scholars on Nehemiah and Hebrew scholars positing different kinds of translations here,

basically boils down to what I was able to see basically two options. So one is, and this is what the ESV suggests, so don't open the gates right away. Because the sun's beginning to come up, doesn't mean you're supposed to unbar the gates and swing them wide open. Wait a while until it's fully light,

until the sun is hot, and then you can open them. And then make sure that people are standing guard and then later in the day you can bar the doors for the evening. That's one way to understand this. The other way is that you can translate this basically that when it gets hot to like during the time of the day, kind of siesta hours, I suppose, when people kind of have lunch and they're going to take a little nap here,

it can also be translated more or less when it gets hot to make sure those gates are shut and not let anybody in Because it's a weak period in the day. But either way, this is Nehemiah's instructions on how to deal with the gates. And it all boils down to make sure that what we're doing with these gates is in accordance with the threat that's against us, more or less. Because you don't want the gates to be open at a time when you're susceptible to attack. And not only that, but he wants to appoint guards among the citizenry and station them at their post and someone in front of their homes. why because well the city is wide and large but there's not very many people in it and either no

houses that can also be interpreted to mean there weren't many houses that have been rebuilt in the city so you got a big you got a relatively big city you don't have enough people to guard it and so you want everyone to be on high alert you want the gate guards to be on high alert and you know we're not out of the woods yet in other words so we need to make sure that everything that we're doing is going to uh keep us safe from these external threats yeah well you know you got to build the the wall before you rebuild all the houses you don't want to rebuild all the houses with no wall right so uh so the wall is is done but there's there's uh there's still building that needs to go on now we have to rebuild the inside right we've got walls to protect us right to

rebuild the inside and it sounds like we're going to need some more people uh sounds like there's We don't feel like we've got enough people in here, so we'll have to see how that goes. I mean, Nehemiah's going to have to get himself some more occupants. Yeah, I've got to move some people to Jerusalem. That's right. Fill the city up. So we'll see how he solves that problem in the next episode. Chad, I will see you then.

All right, see you then.