Could everyone turn to Nehemiah 3. After 1st and 2nd Chronicles comes Ezra, followed by Nehemiah. I am going to read beginning in verse 1. Nehemiah 3:1-32:
Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel. And next unto him builded the men of Jericho. And next to them builded Zaccur the son of Imri. But the fish gate did the sons of Hassenaah build, who also laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. And next unto them repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz. And next unto them repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel. And next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Baana. And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord. Moreover the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. And next unto them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon, and of Mizpah, unto the throne of the governor on this side the river. Next unto him repaired Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, of the goldsmiths. Next unto him also repaired Hananiah the son of one of the apothecaries, and they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall. And next unto them repaired Rephaiah the son of Hur, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem. And next unto them repaired Jedaiah the son of Harumaph, even over against his house. And next unto him repaired Hattush the son of Hashabniah. Malchijah the son of Harim, and Hashub the son of Pahathmoab, repaired the other piece, and the tower of the furnaces. And next unto him repaired Shallum the son of Halohesh, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters. The valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate. But the dung gate repaired Malchiah the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Bethhaccerem; he built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king’s garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David. After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of the half part of Bethzur, unto the place over against the sepulchres of David, and to the pool that was made, and unto the house of the mighty. After him repaired the Levites, Rehum the son of Bani. Next unto him repaired Hashabiah, the ruler of the half part of Keilah, in his part. After him repaired their brethren, Bavai the son of Henadad, the ruler of the half part of Keilah. And next to him repaired Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, another piece over against the going up to the armoury at the turning of the wall. After him Baruch the son of Zabbai earnestly repaired the other piece, from the turning of the wall unto the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest. After him repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah the son of Koz another piece, from the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib. And after him repaired the priests, the men of the plain. After him repaired Benjamin and Hashub over against their house. After him repaired Azariah the son of Maaseiah the son of Ananiah by his house. After him repaired Binnui the son of Henadad another piece, from the house of Azariah unto the turning of the wall, even unto the corner. Palal the son of Uzai, over against the turning of the wall, and the tower which lieth out from the king’s high house, that was by the court of the prison. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh. Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out. After them the Tekoites repaired another piece, over against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel. From above the horse gate repaired the priests, every one over against his house. After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his house. After him repaired also Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the east gate. After him repaired Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, another piece. After him repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah over against his chamber. After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith’s son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner. And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.
We will stop there.
Remember in verse 1, it started with the sheep gate; the high priest and his brethren were building the sheep gate. So God just took us all the way around the city of Jerusalem in the different sections of the wall, right back to the sheep gate, to tell us that this represents the construction of the wall, completely around the city.
It is very interesting, as we look at this chapter carefully. In the building of the wall, we normally say that it was Nehemiah’s wall, and it was. He was the governor. He was the one who petitioned the king, whom he served as a cupbearer, that he might return to Jerusalem in order to build up the wall, because the Jews were a reproach and in affliction to the surrounding peoples.
In that day, there was no security at all if you did not live in a city or in a place that had a wall around it. When you read the Bible, you know why. There were continual wars going on. A city or a state without a wall would be easy pickings from any army that came along: the Babylonians or the Syrians or the Assyrians. Anyone could have come along at any point and just completely destroyed your city.
So they were very concerned about building the wall, and Nehemiah returned with the king’s blessing, as he did find favor in the sight of the king. God gave him that favor. He came back and he got the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem involved in the construction of the wall.
As you look at the building of the wall, there were some very main and big projects that were very attractive; we would say that they were glamorous to some degree. In the building of the sheep gate, the high priest himself was out there with his brethren building the sheep gate. Then we read of some other projects that maybe were not quite as glamorous, like the building of the dung gate.
How would you feel if you were assigned the portion of the dung gate to build up, if you had to build the gate where all of the refuse and rubbish and everything from the city would flow out? Still though, we read that God includes, as part of the information in the building of the city, that some groups of people had a more difficult task. For others, it actually mentions that they built right by their house; their house was right there. They were building part of the wall of Jerusalem, round about, and they could just step right out of their house and go to their job.
So it is very interesting how God describes this; and all the while it is going on, there are adversaries and enemies who want to do nothing but stop the work. They want the work to cease. They do not, in any way, want the wall set up and the gates placed on the wall and this protection that this provided for the Jews. And this opposition to the building project in Jerusalem began almost as soon as they came out of Babylon.
So in the second year of their coming out of Babylon, they laid the foundation of the temple and they began to build under the dictate and the command of Cyrus. King Cyrus of the Medes and the Persians released them and commissioned them to return to Jerusalem to build the temple and so they began.
If we go back to Ezra, in Ezra 4, this is when they began to build the temple. The foundation was already laid. It says in Ezra 4:1-4:
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto JEHOVAH God of Israel; Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto JEHOVAH God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,
Why? Because they were offended, and that is the nature of the Gospel. That is the nature of the Word of God. “If we would allow them, if we would let them, then we could have all kinds of people who would want to help with the work; they would want to advance the kingdom; they would want to share the Gospel with the world.”
Some people fall into this trap and they think, “Well, if we are just more inclusive and bring all of these other Christians together, then we can really start to work to get the Gospel out to the world and accomplish God’s purpose of sending forth His Word.” However, God does not just let anybody work in the Gospel. You have to have the true Gospel, the faithful Gospel, and these individuals who were placed in the land of Samaria, after their nation was destroyed due to the Israelite’s disobedience, they wanted to help. They wanted to work in building the temple, and yet it was made clear to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building the house of God.” We can relate this to the fact that they were not Jews, which means that, spiritually, they were not true believers; this is what God is actually teaching.
So these people were offended and began to trouble the work in whatever way they could. If you remember what they did do was that they wrote letters to the king who came after Cyrus, King Artaxerxes. I am not sure exactly when this king began to reign, but they wrote a letter. Actually, God gave us the very letter that they wrote. In Ezra 4, they write to the king and tell the king, “If you allow these Jews to build up this rebellious and bad city, then you will endanger your revenue; you will endanger the taxes that you collect, because they are notoriously bad. They are rebels. Once they get the city finished, then your taxes will not be gathered. They will not pay you the taxes and that might affect other countries, too.”
So Artaxerxes searched the rolls and he did find out the history of Jerusalem, that they had made insurrection in the past. Not only that, but they were, at one point, a great nation who had other nations serve them. So he commanded, “Cause the work to cease”; the work was to stop.
So the enemies of the Jews got their wish. That is what they wanted. They wanted the work to stop. The only thing, it seems, that makes the enemies of God happy is when the work is halted, when the work is not continuing.
So they got this letter from the king and ran up right away and caused the work on the temple to cease. It stopped until the second year of Darius, another king of the Medes and the Persians. That was the year when Haggai and Zechariah, the prophets, rose up—God raised them up and they began to prophesy—then the Jews began to work again.
Really, if you read the books of Haggai and Zechariah, they begin with the second year of Darius. Those books are very much connected to what we read in Ezra and Nehemiah.
So they began to build the temple in the second year. In Darius’ sixth year, they completed the temple, which was years after they had come out of Babylon. So the temple was completed, but the temple was nothing like Solomon’s temple. It was standing—it was constructed and it was a very nice structure—but it was nothing in comparison to the great temple that Solomon built. Yet all around the temple, there was open access because the walls had not been established; they had not been put up. Jerusalem continued on in this condition for many more years until we find in the book of Nehemiah that Nehemiah hears this report.
Why don’t we go there. In Nehemiah 1:1-3, it says:
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year…
This is the twentieth year of the king that he was serving as cupbearer to.
…as I was in Shushan the palace, That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
You see, this was a troubling situation, a very troubling situation, and Nehemiah began to mourn it says in verse 4. He fasted and prayed to God for the courage to say something to the king that he served.
At one point, the king notices that he is cast down or looking sorrowful and he asks him, “What is the matter, you are not sick?” He had never seen Nehemiah in this kind of situation before. Then Nehemiah makes a request of the king and the king grants him his request, in all probability because Nehemiah was a very, very faithful servant to the king.
You know, whoever your cupbearer is, he is someone in whom you really have to trust. He is the one in charge of making sure that you do not get poisoned. If you did not trust your cupbearer, you might tremble whenever you took a drink because it was very common for kings to be assassinated. So to be in that position, Nehemiah was a very trusted servant who had served the king well and now there was an opportunity to make a request of this king, which he did. The king granted his request and Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem.
It is interesting in Nehemiah 2, concerning the surrounding people, that it says in Nehemiah 2:19:
But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it…
They had heard that Nehemiah came to help the Jews as governor.
…they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?
They are using the same tactics as the previous generation who caused the work to cease.
Then it says in verse 20, Nehemiah 2:20:
Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.
It is saying the same thing that Zerubbabel and Jeshua told the other group, “You cannot be a part of this work. You cannot build the house of God.” Here he is telling them, “You have no portion. This has nothing to do with you. This is a work in service to God, the true God. All who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and you have all kinds of ideas about the Gospel that are false.” So they had no part in it.
But it did not stop. We read in chapter 3 that these sections were being repaired by certain groups of individuals and people. Then in Nehemiah 4:1-8, it says:
But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity: And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders. So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work. But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
You see, that is the key. That is the purpose that the Gospel always is confronted with: the opposition of the enemy who wants to stop it, at all costs, if possible. And if they cannot stop it, “Let me slow it down; let me hinder it; let me just be troublesome enough that it is not going to go as it should.” A common tactic of the enemies of God’s people is to attack the Gospel.
You know, God sets up a Biblical principle in 1 Corinthians 16:9, where it says:
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
They go hand in hand. When you have a great door that is a wide open door and effectual, or powerful; that is, God’s Word is quick and powerful and it can go forth through this door, this opportunity that has arrived can save many people. In our day, it is a great multitude of people. However, whenever this kind of situation comes up, there are always many adversaries—not a few—but many adversaries who want to stop the work of the Gospel.
You know, when we are looking at the wall that Nehemiah was in charge of erecting and in charge of building, that wall has everything to do with the Gospel. This is why God took so much care and used so many Scriptures in these books to explain this, to lay it all out that this wall is related to the Gospel, and not only the Gospel but to a very important aspect of the Gospel.
If we go to Isaiah 26 [note: the speaker inadvertently said Jeremiah 26], it says in Isaiah 26:1:
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city…
By the way, the word “repaired” that is used thirty-five times in Nehemiah 3 is even used more often as “strength” or “strengthened,” the idea of strength or being strong because the wall is weak. In some places, they had to build it because it was completely gone. In other places, it was probably knocked down and yet there were still a few stones.
This is not the time yet when there will not be one stone left upon another, so there could have been a few stones, as the Babylonians did destroy the wall and the city. But they are repairing the wall and making it strong; they are fortifying it. It is going to be a place of safety because of the strength of the walls.
Isaiah 26:1 continues:
…We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Here God is connecting the idea of salvation and a strong wall.
Also go to Isaiah 60:18. It says in the last part of Isaiah 60:18:
…but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.
So this is another reference where God is likening the walls to salvation. This is very important because if we go to 2 Chronicles 36:18-19, once the Babylonians had overcome the city, it says:
And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of JEHOVAH, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
So the Babylonians destroyed the city—we know that this was in 587 B.C.—and they broke down the wall.
Now, spiritually, the Jews, Israel, and Jerusalem typify the churches and congregations, but Jerusalem could also typify the elect. There are two things that Jerusalem could typify, at least. It could represent the elect or it could represent the corporate body, the outward representation of the Kingdom of God on earth, yet here God also has identified the walls as relating to salvation. So there is no way that the walls of Jerusalem, in this case, when they are broken down, could relate to the elect of God or to that heavenly Jerusalem; because once God’s people are saved, they are always saved and can never lose their salvation. Therefore, it has to be the representation of God’s Kingdom, the corporate body, the churches and congregations of the world. We know that when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, it is connected to our present day of Great Tribulation when Satan is loosed and he is coming against the churches and congregations.
So here is a verse where God is telling us—and there are a few like this—that once Jerusalem is overcome by Babylon, which is pointing to the church and Satan overcoming the church, there will no longer be a wall, there will no longer be salvation in the midst of the church. It is impossible. The wall is gone; it is destroyed. There is no more salvation.
There is also another passage that relates to this in Joshua 6 at the battle of Jericho. In the first few verses, the Lord explains that Jericho was shut up. The Israelites had compassed them around, then God gave them the plan of action or the battle plan, “You are to go around the city once a day for six days. Then on the seventh day, you are to encircle the city seven times.” Following the seventh time around, or the 13th time around, here is what did happen and what God explained would happen, in Joshua 6:20:
So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
Jericho is another group of people who typify the corporate church. Jericho was part of the promised land that Moses was privileged to see before he died. God included that, and you can read about it in Deuteronomy 34. Jericho was included in the promise to Abraham, so it represents the corporate body. It is more than that, but it definitely represents the churches and congregations of the world. After the 13 times around, on the 13th time or following that 13th time, the wall falls.
It is kind of strange that God would do it that way. You know, there are how many ways to sack a city? There are many, many ways to sack a city, but He decided to have them circle it 13 times. Following the 13th time, the wall falls down. We can see how important a wall is because following the destruction of the wall, Israel just walks right into the city and destroys every man, woman, and child, except for Rahab and her family.
God is telling us, spiritually, that this will happen after 13,000 years of history, and it is amazing that it just so happens that in May of 1988 when the Church Age came to an end, it coincided with the earth’s 13,000th year of existence exactly.
What does it mean that the Church Age came to an end? God was finished using them, the Holy Spirit came out of the midst, and no more would they have salvation from that point until the end of the world, just like when God was finished using Israel, the nation of Israel. Once Christ came, He removed the blessing that had been upon that people, as they were the corporate representation of God. He removed it on that day. In 33 A.D., the veil of the temple was rent and never again, up until today and till the end of the world, could anyone ever be saved in a synagogue or within that religion. It became a false religion, a false gospel. There is no one being saved in Judaism, just as there is no one being saved in any church in the world since May of 1988. We can get more exact—but I always forget the day before, the day of, so you can check this out further if you would like—but it was Pentecost in 1988 when the Church Age came to an end or right around there. That was the day when the Holy Spirit left and the wall fell down.
Yes, you can find churches everywhere and they still have walls. The Presbyterian Church or the Catholic Church, they have buildings; they have walls that are integral parts of their buildings. God is not saying that, but what happened spiritually was that the wall fell down, which God equates to salvation being removed. Yet it is not the end of salvation or the end of hope because, in Joshua 6, the Lord uses language of the Jubilee. It was not long after 1988, in 1994, when God began to evangelize the world during this time of the second Jubilee period or the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit when He is going to save that great multitude. It is not the end of salvation, but it is the end of salvation within the outward representation, within the churches and congregations of the world.
So we can see why God gives so much time or so many Scriptures to an apparent building project of a wall. He gave a whole chapter, thirty something verses, of all of these individuals who were working hard to build this wall. They did a very magnificent job, did they not?
How long did it take them to finish the wall? Let me ask a Bible trivia question. True or False? The wall was built in 52 weeks. No, 52 days, not 52 weeks. We see this in Nehemiah 6:15:
So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.
Fifty-two days. That was very fast. They did not have construction equipment like we have today, and they were probably better off. You know, the guys get out their construction equipment and sometimes they just stand around it seems. But they had humble tools, good tools, and yet they did not have any of the machinery that is available today. What they did have was a mind to work. God tells us this is Nehemiah 4. The people had a mind to work. They were not lazy.
There is a historical aspect to this; they actually did physical work. They were building the wall. They each took their section, their assigned patch, their portion of the wall, and they went to work. The high priest, Eliashib, was actually working on the wall. Of course, we know that, spiritually, that points to Jesus who is the Great High Priest of His people.
Did Christ work in building up the wall? Yes. Yes, of course, He is the foundation, to begin with. He was laboring night and day during His time of ministry, going around healing the sick and teaching and preaching the Gospel. Christ really gave us an excellent example of what it is to work within the Gospel, to work to get the Gospel out to the people of the world.
Now, let us not think too highly of Eliashib, though. He did a good thing in working on the wall with his brethren. But later on, he is also someone who goes astray and allows (I think it was) Sanballat to have access into the temple.
But here in this picture, in Nehemiah 3, God is using him as a type and a figure, I think, of Christ. It is the sheep gate that Eliashib and his brethren are building. They are putting together the sheep gate, which means that once the gate is up, the sheep will come through that particular entrance. Of course, Jesus is the Great Shepherd who saves His sheep and leads them on, so we can see how this ties in.
There were ten gates described in Nehemiah 3. There were various gates. There was the sheep gate, the fish gate, the fountain gate, the water gate, the dung gate. There was the horse gate, the east gate, the gate Miphkad, which is a Hebrew word that is transliterated. It actually means or could mean “appointed” or “number” or “commandment.” So there are these ten gates, which are very important to the wall itself. They are part of the construction of the wall. It is through these gates that entry would be made of certain animals. The people would use these gates for various reasons. We also mentioned earlier the dung gate. Yet they were all a part of the wall.
The Lord refers to gates, if you remember, in Revelation. In Revelation 21, which is referring to the heavenly Jerusalem or the body of believers, they are viewed here as coming down out of Heaven, and it says in Revelation 21:12:
And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
Also in verse 25:
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
That is the Jerusalem that is soon to come, May 21 st, 2011, Heaven itself, when all the believers will enter into the gate and forever be with the Lord. And that gate will never close because it is always like day; there is never night. They would close the gates if there were nights, but there is never a night. So they are eternally opened, but only for the redeemed of the Lord to enter in and go forth in and out. It will be for no one else.
If you look over in Revelation 22, Jesus refers to Himself as Alpha and Omega, and it says in Revelation 22:14:
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
So we have to do His commandments in order to enter into the city, but nobody can do His commandments. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” God tells us that this is an evidence of salvation, if we are finding in our lives a desire and an ability to perform the doing of it in keeping His commandments, that this is just simply evidence that we are saved and that He has given us that new heart and spirit. In Ezekiel 36, God says that when He gives us that heart, He will enable us to do His statutes or to obey Him and to do His will, and so we can then have access into Heaven itself.
If everyone could turn to Psalm 118:19-20, it says:
Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise JEHOVAH: This gate of JEHOVAH, into which the righteous shall enter.
You see, that is the gate of righteousness. It is Christ’s gate. He is righteousness. We must go through Him. He is the way, the life. We have to enter into the heavenly Jerusalem only through the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way.
Remember in Joel, they try to climb up some other way because the gate is shut. People try this all the time, and have been trying it, and nobody has ever made it yet. All the thieves and the robbers are all locked out of the Kingdom. They will not be able to enter into the city.
So here in Nehemiah, we are just getting this overview of how important the construction of the wall of Jerusalem is. Nehemiah accomplishes it; he is able to build it. Yes, he gets the credit, but there were many people involved. Just like Jesus, of course, is building His Kingdom, but all of God’s people are involved in the construction of the heavenly Kingdom or the New Jerusalem because we are built up. As individuals become saved, they are like living stones that are put together as God makes up His spiritual house or wall or city. It is all saying the same thing but just using different types of language.
So we find these gates were here, but, you know, it is interesting what we read in Nehemiah 3:5. We read this earlier, but this stands out. This really stands out, because it seems to be the only negative in the whole chapter. In Nehemiah 3:5, we read:
And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.
This is understandable with men. This is very understandable, is it not? If you are a nobleman, if you are in a position of honor and power and authority? This word “noble” is translated as “famous” in some places. You are a prince perhaps. You are someone who has a line within Israel that the people highly respect, so you put your men to work, “Okay, I will give you our servants, our fellow Tekoites. Go ahead; we are allowing you to put them to work on the wall. But we ourselves, we just had our nails manicured and we do not want to get dirt under them. We ourselves will not put our necks out. We are not going to stretch our necks out in laboring upon this wall. No way; no way. Just give us reports of how it is going and we will rejoice with you when it is finished.”
Is that not arrogant? The high priest was out there. Other priests were out there. They had rulers of the half part of Jerusalem out there with shovels and pickaxes, or whatever they had, doing the work. Nehemiah certainly was heavily involved in doing this work and he was the governor himself, and yet we had some noblemen, you know, with that idea of the nose up in the air, like a snob. I think this idea comes from Scripture like this, noblemen who would not put forth effort in order to do work “of their Lord” it says. For the Lord’s work, they would not put forth effort.
Surprisingly, there is a verse that relates to this in Romans. In Romans 16, where it speaks of Priscilla and Aquila, in Romans 16:3-4:
Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
They put their necks to the work. They laid down their necks. Do you know that idiomatic expression that we have in the English language? “I am sticking my neck out for you.” Don’t we have that? It means basically the same thing as what the Bible says. It probably, more than likely, came from the Bible. “I am going to stick my neck out for you because I have a good feeling about you.” People say this when they refer someone to be hired for a job. You know, their reputation is on the line, too. If that person does badly, it reflects on them, “I am going to risk myself for you.”
Here, God is indicating that Priscilla and Aquila did this. They did this and it could have been their very life, because in those days, it was not an easy thing to be a Christian. There was much persecution, even unto death; they could lose their head, like John the Baptist, or suffer in many other ways.
So I think that this helps us to understand what is being said in Nehemiah about these noblemen, “They put not their necks to the work.”
Or let us go to 2 Thessalonians 3, where it tells us of people who have problems with working. We would say that they are lazy. In 2 Thessalonians 3:7-8:
For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought…
And that means “worked.”
…with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
Now, a little further on in Nehemiah, when the heat is turned up and the opposition becomes even greater from the adversaries, they begin to labor from the morning sun until the stars appear. They are holding swords in one hand, it says, and a shovel in the other (that may not be an exact quote) because there is danger involved. They do not even take their clothes off, except to wash. They are so concentrated and the effort being put forth is so diligent that it is affecting other areas of their lives. All they can think of is, “I must build this section of the wall, no matter how small of a section. It might be right out in front of my house, but I must build up the wall of Jerusalem. This is the work of the Lord.”
We need to keep in mind that this wall represented salvation. The only way that someone can become saved is through hearing the Gospel. The only way that someone can hear the Gospel is if someone brings them the Gospel. That is spiritual work. If that work is not performed, then the nobleman did not do it but others did. Others did do the work and God tells us that they had a mind to work. So, too, will every one of God’s people have that mind, especially today. Especially in our day, there will be individuals thinking about getting the Gospel out in whatever way they can.
Let us read on here. 2 Thessalonians 3:9-11:
Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
And then it goes on. So we can see that God’s law, His commandment is to work. Whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord. Work. Yes, we work at our jobs. Yes, we do what we have to do in this world; but spiritually, it has to do with ministering the Gospel.
We are running out of time, so let us just go back and look at one other thing. Nehemiah 6:1:
Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)
So God is telling us that they worked on the wall first while the others were working on the gates, but not at the very place that they would set them up. They were probably laid on the ground somewhere while they were putting on the doors and the locks and the bars of the gates for each of the ten gates that are mentioned in Nehemiah 3. There could have been other gates, or maybe different names for the gates, because in Nehemiah it also speaks about a gate of Ephraim that we did not find in Nehemiah 3. But anyway, they were working on the gates and others were working on sections of the wall and they completed the wall all the way around the city. The only thing left to do was to hang the gates, to put up the doors on the gates.
Why is that interesting? Well, because it took 52 days to do this and we know that the number 52 reminds us of 52 weeks (which is why some people got that trivia question wrong) because there are 52 weeks in a year. God is using the number 52 in a very similar way like He used 365 with Enoch. After 365 years of Enoch’s life, he was taken up; he was raptured.
After the acceptable year of the Lord—that is, the Gospel going forth into the world—comes the Rapture on May 21st, 2011. We can relate 52 days to 52 weeks in a year, because God does this kind of thing constantly in the Bible. And after a year, the acceptable year of the Lord, the wall was completely finished.
But now we find out that they had worked on the wall itself. Then the last thing that they did was to put up the gates, and the last gate would have been put up on the 52nd day. Once they put up that last gate and they secured it, they brought safety to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and they locked out all the enemies. The gate was completed; the doorway, we could say, was closed on the 52nd day. After the acceptable year of the Lord on May21st, 2011, God is going to shut the door.
If we go to Luke 13:24, I think that we will see a connection, where it says:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
There is that heavenly city. There is the gate. It is a narrow way, we find in Matthew 7. It is not a broad gate. It is not a wide open gate that leads to Heaven—that would lead to destruction—but it is a straight gate, a very narrow gate that only God can bring someone through, because only God can save a sinner and bring someone into His Kingdom.
Here, the Lord is encouraging all people to strive, just like you would in a fight; strive to win; strive to make it. Do your best to enter in to the Kingdom of God, even though we know that there is nothing that we can do, as a person, to enter in. Ultimately, it is all a result of the mercy and grace of God and His salvation plan as to whom He will save and bring into His Kingdom.
But then it says in Luke 13:25:
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:
That would be at the end of the acceptable year of the Lord, May 21st in 2011.
Well, there is a lot of information in Nehemiah, in that chapter and in the following chapters, so maybe we will take another look at this at another time. Why do we not stop here and close with a word of prayer.