Faith Baptist Church

Let’s begin with a pop quiz. I’m going to give you five or six questions…
You don’t need to write anything down, but you do need to put on your thinking cap as you draw upon your reading, study and memory, to identify some significant people from the past.  Ready?

Who was the wife of Charles Haddon Spurgeon? 

Who helped Charles Wesley get started as a composer so that he ultimately left the church with more than 5,000 hymns? Who was that person?

Well, how’d you do?  It’s it amazing: all these significant people, who, if they had not lived, would have changed the shape of church history, and we don’t know their name. They were not famous in their own time.

When we talk about people who have touched their time, and those who have touched our lives, someone in the conversation you may hear the term “hero.”  Webster defines it as:

        “A person admired for achievement and noble qualities. One who
         shows great courage.”

Chuck Swindoll’s description helps me to get my hands around the subject:

     “A hero is one who stands tall when others shrink back. One who swims
     upstream when others flow down it; one who speaks when others are
     silent.”

When you analyze heroism, a common pattern begins to form…almost always…

      1. Something wrong is going on in the setting.
      2. A principle is at stake. It is stated or unstated.
      3. You’re able to do something about it.
      4. There is a risk involved.

              If you get involved you’ll be misunderstood or maybe mistreated. But
              you take the risk.

     5. If you do nothing, it’ll only get worse.
     6. If you do something, you may be in the minority; you may even be all
              alone.

There is no single person in history who meets the “hero” criteria more than Nehemiah.   Like William Wallace and Winston Churchill, he steps forward at a critical point in time, and is immortalized in sacred Scripture. 

But Nehemiah isn’t in the limelight in this passage of Scripture.  There are 31,089 groups and 49,942 people listed.  If that isn’t enough, look at verses 68-69.  

Wow! That’s edifying, isn’t it? Imagine a person picking up the Bible for the first time and it falls open to these verses! What would they think?

Like chapter 3, this section is often overlooked by the best commentaries. Verse 6 and following seems like a cruel interruption.

This important —and pivotal chapter— is a transition, moving us from the building of the wall (chapters 1-6,) to the building of the people (Chapters 8-13).

Walls (and buildings) are never an end in themselves. “We shape our buildings,” Churchill said, “and our buildings shape us.”  Through the years we have carefully reminded ourselves that buildings…

After hanging the last gate, Nehemiah turns his attention to life inside the walls. For any community to flourish, there has to be basic infrastructure like security and local leadership.  The insurgency in Iraq knows that well.

The first leaders to be appointed are gatekeepers.  That’s a no brainer! What good is a wall if no one guards the gates?  But at first glance, the appointment of the next two groups are a mystery.  Even before the appointing of a mayor (in verse 2), singers and Levites are appointed.

What good are they at the gates?  Can you imagine Sanballat sneaking through the gate and a singer spotting him, “Look out! Look out! The Enemy Is About…!

Levites taught the Scriptures. Sanballat slipping through seems like a poor time to quote a bible verse.

The constant presence of temple singers and Levites at the gates would beg the questions: 

…What is the purpose of a secure city? 
…What is the center of life?

The people were going to be really busy reestablishing a new community within the walls. And only the question of salvation is more pressing: What is at the center of your life?

…Material things?
…The pursuit of security, or success?
…Personal ambition?
…Entertainment?

Andy Stanley has written a provocative book titled, “Choosing To Cheat.” The idea is that we all have to cheat somewhere in order to have a significant life. He’s not talking about unethical cheating like cheating on a test.

His thesis is: You have to give up certain opportunities in order to take advantage of certain other areas.

…You can’t answer every demand.
…You can’t satisfy every voice.
…You have limits.
…You are finite.

Some body in your life is going to feel cheated, because the reality is that you don’t have unlimited time and energy. The question is, who is going to be cheated? Stanley calls for a careful assessment of priorities, and resistance to the spirit of the age, where frenzied activity is assumed normal, and often mistaken for significance. 

The presence of singers and Levites served as a constant reminder that worship must be at the center; if anything else is given that sacred place, you live a shallow existence.

The next appointee is Nehemiah’s brother, Hanani, whom we met in the first scene in chapter one.  Nehemiah runs the risk of a charge of nepotism (favoritism based on kinship).

When newly elected president, John Kennedy, appointed his brother, Robert, attorney general, the president’s critics had a field day.  “Bobby, wants to practice law,” Mr. Kennedy replied, “and I thought he ought get a little experience first.”

Hanani is appointed because he has proven himself loyal.  He is a trusted friend, who has been there through thick and thin.  David Jeremiah notes:

       “Loyalty is almost a lost value in today’s world. Everything seems to be
        for sale including friendship, affection, and devotion—the things that
        make up loyalty.”

      This is Mr. Churchill with his beloved dog Rufus.  A maid inadvertently let
       Rufus outside, where he was hit by a car.  It was an accident, but Mr.
       Churchill—the world leader—never spoke to the maid again.

”a faithful man” is literally, “a man of truth…” (and) “…one who feared God more than many.” He was a man of deep spiritual convictions. 

Rick Warren notes:

      “Usually we define [faithfulness] in terms of beliefs. We think that by
       holding orthodox beliefs we are fulfilling Christ’s command to be faithful…
       But Jesus meant far more than adherence to beliefs when he used the
       term. He defined faithfulness in terms of behavior—a willingness to take
       risks (that require faith) in order to be fruitful.”

If he followed that, he was faithful.

*A Temple
*Government,
*police force—

…if they only had people.   Scholars estimate that the city covered about 260 acres, and of the 52,000 Jews who returned to Judah under Zerubbabel and Ezra, only a handful settled in Jerusalem.

Wouldn’t you think that every Jew living in the region would give their eye-teeth for a thimble full of dirt in the “new” walled city?  

When their great grandparents arrived, they had settled in rural areas and small towns throughout the region.  A move inside the wall would mean…

…starting all over again
…a different lifestyle—from rural to urban. 
…raising a family under the scrutiny of Sanballat, Tobiah and the enemies.

It would be like moving from a 100-acre farm in Monroe county, into the inter-city of Atlanta or Charlotte. Thank you, but no thank you, Nehemiah!

As he ponders the matter, the Lord gives Nehemiah an idea.  He goes down to the temple and finds an old dusty document.  Ninety years ago, Zerubbabel had taken a census of the initial returnees from Babylon.  It’s almost identical to a list in Ezra chapter 2.  Jewish census were always genealogical—family and tribe-based.

…an event
…a response to God
…the atmosphere in which you learn to live.

    I had my regular dental check up this past week.  When I checked out the
    receptionist said, “There were no x-rays this time; that will be only one arm
    and a leg.”  There were x-rays.  For a second, I thought, “It’s not my
    responsibility to see that she gets it right.”  Then I said, “No, there were x-
    rays.”  That sentence cost me about $16.00 a word.  But, it was worship!