Preliminary Thoughts on Ezra 2007 February 5^th for March 2^nd

At the end of the exile, king Cyrus of Babylon decreed that the Israelites return to Jerusalem and resume living there in their home country. This is announced at the very end of II Chronicles. As they had been in exile for seventy years, few of the people knew firsthand of the homeland.

Ezra is the story of some of the first Israelites to return, who they were and what they did.

Ezra 1 – 2 2007 February 6^th for March 5^th

The return from exile begins.

Cyrus, self-proclaimed ruler of the world, was tolerant and allowed peoples to return to their home countries and worship as they pleased. This included the Israelites under his reign. He issued a proclamation inviting anyone who wanted to do so to return to Jerusalem, rebuild the city and the Temple, and live and worship there. He also suggested that people who were not moving back give generous offerings to help with the work. Offerings in this day consisted not only of precious metals but livestock, clothing, and other useful goods.

Cyrus also went into his own treasury and restored some of the items that had been taken from the Temple during its prior conquest, 5400 items in all including gold and silver dishes, pans, bowls, and so forth.

The following chapter contains the extensive census, by families, of those who returned, 42,360 people in all plus their 7,337 servants, 200 singers, 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.

There is a bit of humor in the otherwise dry list of family names. For instance, verse 7 lists 1,254 from the family of “Elam” while verse 31 lists 1,254 from the “other Elam.” The identical number could point to an inadvertent duplication in bookkeeping or could be a remarkable coincidence. Knowing how bureaucracies work, I would bet on duplication in bookkeeping that wasn’t caught at a high enough authority level to just rectify.

Several were listed by job, such as descendants of Asaph, gatekeepers, Temple servants and so on. Several hundred people from the overall group wanted to go to Jerusalem but could not demonstrate from the records that they were from the family of Israel. They were brought along anyway with the stipulation that they would be considered unclean for Temple service until there “was a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim,” possibly in order that God could decide their status then.

On arrival, people gave significant offerings of gold, silver, and priestly garments which were stored in the Temple treasuries. They settled in their various towns.

Ezra 3 2007 February 7^th for March 6^th

The altar that would be central to the Temple was rebuilt, even though the people were afraid. Morning and evening sacrifices were instituted on it. They also celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. All of this was done as specified by the Law of Moses.

Money and other support were given to carpenters and masons and food, drink, and oil were given to the citizens of Sidon and Tyre so that they would bring cedar logs up from the sea. Construction was begun “in the second month of the second year after their arrival.” All the Levites and families of the priests who had returned from the exile participated, all those who were twenty years old and older. Several of these family heads are listed.

The foundation for the new Temple was laid and there was such loud praise and thanksgiving that it was heard from far out in the country. The young people were shouting and celebrating but the old people who remembered Solomon’s Temple were wailing in grief. This Temple project was much smaller and less elaborate than Solomon’s.

But, this was the Temple that Jesus would come to.

Ezra 4 2007 February 8^th for March 7^th

Judah and Benjamin, the tribes restored to Jerusalem, had local enemies. They came under a ruse of friendship and neighborliness and offered to help build the Temple, claiming that they also pursued this God and sacrificed to him all the time. Zerubbabel and others from Judah declined the offer, saying that they would build the Temple alone and that these foreigners would have no part in it.

Actually, it would be interesting to know, did these people in fact sacrifice to the same God, as well as they knew him, and were just not chosen by him as the Israelites were, or were they kissing up with a ruse to less than honorable ends?

As the building continued, these enemies stirred up trouble and tried to discourage the workers and the work.

Later, when Xerxes came to power over Persia, several opponents of Judah wrote him a letter in Aramaic. Their claim was that if these people finished restoring their Temple and the walls around their city, that it would be the end of revenues from that region, to the detriment of the king’s treasuries. They also suggested that a search be made of the historical records to prove that this city had been rebellious for a long time and was nothing but trouble.

Xerxes had this search done and discovered that, indeed, there had been strong rulers in Jerusalem in the past who had exacted tribute in the reverse direction from the way it went today. And, yes, they had been powerful and rebellious against the neighbors, especially the hostile ones.

Xerxes thanked them for this tip and ordered them to go right up to Jerusalem and tell those Judeans and Benjamites to stop.

“Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.”

Then, as now, it is more difficult to make progress without official support.

Ezra 5 2007 February 10^th for March 8^th

The Jews in Jerusalem had a neighboring ruler, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates. This Tattenai and his associates went to Jerusalem and inquired who had given them authority to rebuild the Temple and asked for the names of the people doing the work.

“But the eye of their God was watching over the elders of the Jews, and they were not stopped until a report could go to Darius and his written reply be received.”

Here is what Tattenai wrote to Darius:

“To King Darius:

“Cordial greetings.

“The king should know that we went to the district of Judah, to the temple of the great God. The people are building it with large stones and placing the timbers in the walls. The work is being carried on with diligence and is making rapid progress under their direction.

“We questioned the elders and asked them, ‘Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?’ We also asked them their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.”

The answer given is then also placed into the letter. The workers claimed to be “servants of the God of heaven and earth,” and they told the story of the Temple from the time of Solomon the original builder through its destruction at the exile, a result of God’s anger at his people.

They made the claim that Cyrus had made an edict that this should be done and had sent many of the treasures originally from the Temple back to the site with a man named Sheshbazzar.

Tattenai concluded by asking the king to have a search made of the records to see if there was in fact such a decree from Cyrus. “Then let the king send us his decision in this matter.”

As an omnipotent observer, we the readers are not too troubled by this exchange. We know what God will do, or at least what we think he should do. To those living in the ruined city rebuilding the Temple, such an inquiry of powerful neighbors would have been quite troubling.

Ezra 6 2007 February 11^th for March 9^th

King Darius responded to the letter sent him yesterday by his governor Tattenai. The requested search of the records was made and a scroll was found “in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media.” This scroll did in fact contain the edict by Cyrus just as the Israelites had described.

(Record keeping was not a fine art in this era, nor was it available to anyone except rulers, when not prevented by disaster or defeat.)

Darius continues:

“Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and you, their fellow officials of that province, stay away from there. Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site.

“Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God:

“The expenses of these men are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop. Whatever is needed – young bulls, rams, male lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem – must be given them daily without fail, so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons.

“Furthermore, I decree that if anyone changes this edict, a beam is to be pulled from his house and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it. And for this crime his house is to be made a pile of rubble. May God, who has caused his Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to change this decree or to destroy this temple In Jerusalem.

“I Darius have decreed it. Let it be carried out with diligence.”

If the governors had any ulterior motive in forwarding this information to Darius, it backfired. It doesn’t say that they did. The story reads like the chain of command actually worked properly in this case and does not attribute any motives.

Interesting the signature penalty for violating an edict of the king.

So the Temple was completed by the men working on it and they “continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo.” The work was completed in the sixth year of the reign of Darius.

The new building was dedicated and hundreds of animals were sacrificed in the ceremonies. The priests and Levites were installed in their various duties in God’s service in Jerusalem, as directed in the book handed down from Moses.

Following this, the Passover was celebrated on the appropriate dates. “For seven days they celebrated with joy the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because the Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria, so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.”

Ezra 7 2007 February 12^th for March 12^th

Now enters the title character, Ezra himself.

Ezrah was a priest, his lineage traced back to Aaron himself. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses and made the trip from Babylon to Jerusalem in only four months, which is considered by the author to be a sign that God was with him.

King Artaxerxes gave Ezra a letter to take with him on the trip. It was nothing but support for the cause. Any Levite who wanted to return to Jerusalem to serve God was allowed to do so. Ample provisions of all sorts, gold and silver, animals for sustenance and sacrifice, drink offerings and anything else they thought they needed to do this work were to be provided from the Trans-Euphrates coffers.

Ezra was also given authority to lead by making appointment of local officials. This was all done because, as he said in the declaration, “Why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and of his sons?” That is to say, Artaxerxes was taking no chances that the God of these people might be unhappy if he didn’t allow them to go serve him. Also, the local governors would not be allowed to impose taxes on the Levites.

And the stick, “Whoever does not obey the law of your God and the law of the king must surely be punished by death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.” (At least in this case there was no mention of impaling on timbers.)

Ezra, apparently the author, ends the chapter with a statement of praise that the ruling king had seen fit to honor God and support his people in this way. … and not even a Hebrew!

Ezra 8 2007 February 13^th for March 13^th

On his departure from Babylon, Ezra brought fifteen families with the group. The heads of these families and their ancestry are listed.

These were all assembled at a departure point, “the canal that flows toward Ahava,” and they camped there for a few days. On checking who was there, Ezra found no Levites, people who would assist the priests with Temple operations. He sent back to Iddo for some more people to go on the trip to Jerusalem and a few hundred more were sent for this purpose.

A fast was proclaimed in spiritual preparation for the journey. “I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, ‘The good hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.’ So we fasted and petitioned our God about this and he answered our prayer.”

Fasting before a long trip doesn’t seem so wise either. This is a setup for God’s hand to work in their successful trip.

They divided up all the treasures, gold and silver and sacred articles, among various ones of them, weighing it all out carefully and charging each treasurer-bearer to bring it all for weighing in when they arrived in Jerusalem at the Temple.

“On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way.”

They arrived in Jerusalem, rested for three days, and then weighed all the treasure into the Temple. Everything was there. Everyone had been trustworthy. (But, where were they going to go?)

Following this they conducted sacrifices at the Temple. “They also delivered the king’s orders to the royal satraps and to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, who then gave the required assistance to the people and to the house of God.”

Ezra 9 2007 February 14^th for March 14^th

It was brought to Ezra’s attention that many of the Israelites who had returned to Jerusalem, including the leadership, had intermarried with the locals. He tore his clothes and tore out his hair and sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.

He then delivered a lengthy prayer. It began with an expression of his shame and disgrace to even come before God under such circumstances. God had, after all, been gracious in this brief piece of history, to even allow the remnant to return to Jerusalem with all of the political support that it had in the first place. He had supported them in exile and protected them on their return.

But God had also said, “The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other.” He had commanded them, through his prophets and servants, not to intermarry with these people as this would promote the prosperity of those peoples while weakening Israel.

Yet, they had not only not stayed away from these people, but they had intermarried, beginning with the leadership, and were now well entrenched.

God had always punished less than their sins had deserved. God might well destroy them for this, removing what little remnant had survived.

He concluded, “O Lord, God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”

Ezra 10 2007 February 15^th for March 15^th

All of Ezra’s wailing and protestations drew a crowd. When members of the crowd found out the problem, unfaithfulness due to marrying foreign women, they too wailed. It was decided by the leadership that all of the returned exiles should covenant to restore their relationship with God by putting away all the foreign wives and their children.

Ezra withdrew from the sanctuary to someone’s house where he fasted and even went without water while the proceedings went forward. A proclamation was sent out to all of the returned exiles that they should assemble in Jerusalem within three days. The penalty for not being present was exclusion from the community of exiles and forfeiture of all their inherited properties in Israel.

All of the people did assemble, on a very rainy day, and when they were told the problem they agreed, but they also said that this was too big of a problem to solve in one day standing in the rain, so they affirmed that leadership should act on their behalf and all who had entered into these foreign marriages would appear one at a time to be judged until God’s wrath abated.

Four opposed this plan, and their names are listed, but it was put into effect. The remainder of the chapter lists the names of over a hundred men, some of them priests and Levites, who were found to have these foreign wives, some of them having had children. All of these women and children were put away. It does not say where they went, possibly back to the nearby communities from which they had come. The local environment would be lethal to anyone not in a community.

Concluding Thoughts on Ezra 2007 February 16^th for March 16^th

Ezra is the story of the first high priest to return to Jerusalem from the exile and the issues he had to face.

After promising that God would protect them on their return from Babylon to Jerusalem, they then had to make the trip without any military protection. There was political resistance, but the reigning kings at the time continued to favor the return of the exiles with material and legislative support, effectively ordering that this opposition be transformed into support.

It was discovered that intermarriage with the local non-Jews had begun to occur, disturbing racial and religious purity. Some, including the leaders, had taken local wives and some had even born children. Perhaps some of the Jewish women had also married local men but this is not mentioned, probably because they would have become the property of the people they married and therefore out of the picture. Though this is the natural order of things, to trend towards local equilibrium, it was seen as against the Law and the Jewish men were counted as the transgressors. With minor dissent, they elected to put away the foreign women and their children. This decision, the resulting exercise, and detailed lists of those who were involved, consumed the last chapters of the account.

This sort of ethnic purity is not politically correct today but you can see how religious leaders today can use such texts to support various suggestions of racism and exclusionism. Frankly, I’m not sure how to read this myself. It could be seen as a case of, “If some issue is important to you, it’s important.” In the context of the time and place, however, these actions are viewed as responses to an edict from God and their troubles as results of disobedience to that edict. I have difficulty accepting either premise; after all, troubles are ubiquitous, so I think I’ll reserve judgment until we see what happens in the next book, Nehemiah.

Preliminary Thoughts on Nehemiah 2007 February 19^th for March 19^th

The introduction to Nehemiah in my Bible gives an historical placement that orients this story for us. It occurs in the 5^th and 4^th centuries BCE.

In the Hebrew Bible, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are one book, dealing with the various phases of the return from exile. That means that as we start into the story of Nehemiah, we are in the middle of the story viewed from this larger context.

The initial group that returned to Jerusalem was blocked by local opposition from doing much with the Temple or the city. After about twenty years, this opposition was quashed by an appeal and favorable ruling from Darius. Over 80 years after the initial group, Ezra’s group arrived. We saw all of this in the book of Ezra.

Some years ago the church I attend was in a rebuilding process. Not rebuilding of buildings or properties, but rebuilding in terms of purpose, mission, approach and spirit. The chair during this effort took inspiration from the book of Nehemiah and passages were read and studied throughout the process.

My memory from that is that, while Ezra was the priest in this period (as we have already seen), Nehemiah was a civil leader who undertook to organize the work of rebuilding the walls. This, too, ran into local opposition. Indeed, virtually any undertaking of any kind runs into opposition. It seems to be the natural order of things.

Nehemiah 1 2007 February 20^th for March 20^th

Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king. I think that means Artaxerxes but it doesn’t say that. Cupbearer was a high position of trust.

Some men arrived from Judah and he questioned them about the situation in Jerusalem. The report was bad. The walls of the city were broken down and the Temple was in ruins. The returned exiles faced local opposition.

Nehemiah speaks, “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”

He then made a personal proclamation. He confessed his sins and those of his nation to his God and he called upon the promises from Moses, that the disobedient Israelites would be scattered among the nations but when faithful they would be gathered into God’s own chosen gathering place once again.

He concluded his prayer by asking for favor with God and with “this man,” by which he apparently means his supreme boss, the king.

Nehemiah 2 2007 February 21^st for March 21^st

One day Nehemiah was sad when he brought wine to the king. It was a serious offense to be sad in the king’s presence. He was in mortal danger for this and knew it and was afraid. The king asked him about his countenance and asked if he might be sick.

Nehemiah replied that he could not be happy if the city of his forefathers (that is, Jerusalem) lay in ruins. The king asked what he wanted. Nehemiah prayed (on his feet, as it were) and asked to be allowed to go rebuild the city. He also asked for letters to the governors in the area for safe passage and to the official over the forests so that he could get timbers for the work. Artaxerxes granted all this plus an armed escort for his journey.

There were a couple of local non-Israelite rulers, who were not happy with this development, Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite.

Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem and after waiting three days, went on a nighttime reconnaissance of the city, particularly its walls. He told no one he was going to do this or, in fact, what he was in town for. He took only his closest allies with him. None of the priests, nobles, or other leaders had any idea what was going on.

He found walls breached, burned, and otherwise destroyed. Jerusalem was indefensible. He declared they should start the good work of rebuilding immediately.

“But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshme the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. ‘What is this you are doing?’ they asked. ‘Are you rebelling against the king?’”

Nehemiah’s reply was that they would in fact start rebuilding, their God would give them success, and none of these nay-sayers would have any “share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”

This sounds something like the political situation there today.

Nehemiah 3 2007 February 22^nd for March 22^nd

This chapter is the list of all of the places along the wall that were repaired and says who performed the repairs. The places and sections mentioned are: Sheep Gate, Tower of the Hundred, Fish Gate, Jeshanah Gate, Broad Wall, Tower of Ovens, Valley Gate, Dung Gate, Fountain Gate, wall of the Pool of Siloam, King’s Garden, the artificial pool, the House of Heroes, wall of Ophel, Water Gate, Horse Gate, East Gate, Inspection Gate, and, coming full circle, back to Sheep Gate.

As at other such lists in the Bible, there are a few intriguing vignettes into the personalities involved. For instance, just before the Jeshanah Gate the section was repaired by “the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.” The section near the Tower of Ovens was repaired by “Shallum son of Hallohesh, ruler of a half-district of Jerusalem, … with the help of his daughters.” Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, made repairs” to one section.

Apparently what happened was that people who lived and worked in the city were asked, conscripted, or inspired to make repairs local to themselves. By dividing the work in this democratic way, the entire city could be protected once again. It took the leadership of the noble Nehemiah to organize it and make it happen. This was the analogy when we organizationally repaired our own church.

Nehemiah 4 2007 February 23^rd for March 23^rd

Of course, there was local opposition to the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. There is always opposition to any change in status of anything.

Sanballat and Tobiah jeered and made threats. They said things like “if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!” They said they would attack by surprise and kill the workers and stop the work.

This opposition made a big job look impossibly big. The people were getting tired and the piles of rubble did not seem to be getting any smaller.

The people, led by Nehemiah, called out to God for his help and protection. They also made a working plan. Half of the men would stand guard while the other half continued their work on the walls. Each man working would have a sword at his side. All the workers would spend the night in the city and night watch would be posted. The people carrying materials would do so with one hand while they carried a weapon at the ready in the other hand.

The man with the trumpet stayed with Nehemiah and the order was that if they heard the trumpet, everyone was to run to that place and join the fight, for families, nation, and God.

They were quite spread out and the gaps in the wall were still low and large.

Nehemiah concludes, “Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.”

My footnote says, “The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause [going for water] is uncertain,” but we know what it means.

Nehemiah 5 2007 February 26^th for March 26^th

Nehemiah received complaints from the people that they were enslaved to their brothers and everything was mortgaged and that they were having to borrow additional money to pay their taxes to the rulers. Nehemiah investigated and found that it was true, that the nobles and leading citizens, the wealthy, supposedly, were charging “usury” to their countrymen.

This made him angry and he called a big meeting. The “usury” they were charging was one percent of the loan. It doesn’t say if this was per annum or just whenever paid back, but one percent was considered “usury.” Charging interest of one’s fellow Israelites was against the Law of Moses.

The nobles agreed to stop doing this and to pay back interest they had charged. Nehemiah shook out the folds of his robe to demonstrate what would happen to anyone who didn’t keep his promise and honor this agreement. That is, they would be excluded from the society like crumbs shaken out of a garment.

Although Nehemiah was appointed governor over Jerusalem for twelve years, from the twentieth to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes reign, he did not use his privileges to tax or to eat more luxuriously than his fellow countrymen. He lived modestly and concentrated his energies and resources on the rebuilding of the walls. He did this even though 150 of the Jewish leaders ate at his table daily.

So, those of us who take the Bible literally cannot be capitalists since the foundation of capitalism is the time-value of money represented by interest earned or paid, a practice prohibited for countrymen. Also, following the example of Nehemiah, our leadership would not exercise any special privilege, but would focus rather on service.

Nehemiah 6 2007 February 27^th for March 27^th

The opposition to the rebuilding continued. Sanballat, Tobiah, and another person, Geshem the Arab were unhappy with that progress was being made. The wall was finished and there were no gaps in it but Jerusalem was still vulnerable because the gates had not yet been hung.

These enemies sent word to Nehemiah to come meet with them in “neutral” territory, somewhere far from the city, but Nehemiah, expecting conspiracy, replied that he was in the middle of a major project and wouldn’t stop it just for that. This exchange of invitation and rejection happened four times. The fifth invitation was in the form of an unsealed letter in which it was stated that rumors were flying around that Jerusalem was rebuilding because they were going to rebel and that Nehemiah was going to name himself king and that he had appointed prophets to proclaim this soon.

Nehemiah replied to this that no such things were happening and that they were just making it all up out of their heads. Kind of reminds you of playground doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, not only did Nehemiah not have his own prophets hired, but Sanballat and Tobiah had hired prophets to snare him. One of them suggested to Nehemiah in confidence that he should go into the Temple and take refuge there in fear that someone was trying to assassinate him. Nehemiah saw through this also and refused to do such a thing, which would have been sinful. He prayed that God remember these actions of his enemies and their hired prophets.

The walls were completed after 52 days of work, and the enemies, realizing that this was done with God’s support, lost confidence. There were still political problems, however. Many of the nobles in Jerusalem had sworn allegiance to Tobiah and reported everything Nehemiah said to him. They also brought back letters of intimidation from Tobiah.

Nehemiah 7 2007 February 28^th for March 28^th

The walls were finished and Nehemiah had the gates hung. He then appointed stations to the gatekeepers, some near their homes and some as needed and gave them the instructions not to open the gates until the sun was hot in the day and to shut them before the keepers went off duty in the afternoon-evening.

Although the city was now enclosed, not many people lived there. The middle part of this chapter is a long list of the family names of everyone who came there on the return from the exile and how many descendants they each had. Some had a few dozen, others more than two thousand.

The totals are reported. “The whole company numbered 42,360, besides their 7,337 menservants and maidservants; and they also had 245 men and women singers. There were 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.

The singers rank ahead of the horses.

These 50,000 or so occupied a space that had in the past and would today house over a million. The population density was fairly sparse.

Families contributed to the work beginning with Governor Nehemiah who gave about 19 pounds of gold plus garments for the priests and bowls and such. This was about two or three percent of the total contributions from everyone.

With the completion of this work, everyone settled into their own towns.

The remainder of the chapter is the first half of a sentence that begins a new thought. We’ll include that with Chapter 8 tomorrow. Whoever numbered this section of the Bible wasn’t paying good attention.

Nehemiah 8 2007 March 1^st for 29^th

After everything had settled down and people were living in their towns, an assembly was called on the first day of the seventh month. Ezra was going to read the Law that had been given down through Moses.

It is near impossible for us today who depend so much on the written word and on near-instant communication to appreciate how information starved these people would have been. The Law of Moses was the only book in town and it wasn’t read very often. What people knew, what they did, and the rules they obeyed came from their structured, hierarchical families and neighbors, not much from book learning.

A wooden platform was erected so that Ezra could stand in view of all who came. Men and women, anyone who could understand the Law, attended. Several people of rank stood on the platform with Ezra. When he started to read the Law, all the people stood up.

The reading started at daybreak and continued until noon. This would have been the only schooling that some of these people had ever had and a rare refresher even for the educated. This was history, stories, ethics, procedure, protocol, everything rolled into one.

When they came to the part about the Feast of Tabernacles, living in booths, it was decided that they should observe the Feast since it was that time of year. The people went out into the surrounding country and brought back limbs and branches and constructed shelters for the festival. Some had them on their roofs, some out in the street, some on their property. The feast had not been celebrated with such gusto since the days of Joshua.

The reading of the Law went from beginning to end and lasted for seven days. This would have been the first five books of our Bible. Per the regulations, there was an assembly on the eighth day.

Nehemiah 9 2007 March 2^nd for 30^th

On the 24^th of the month, they all gathered again in penance wearing sackcloth with ashes on their heads. Worship was held all day. A fourth of the time was spent reading the Law and a fourth was spent praising God and confessing sins. By now everyone in the community had removed themselves from any foreign influence.

The elders stood on the stairs of the platform and recited the history of God with his people back to the Exodus. It was the interpretation of God’s longsuffering patience and favor versus the stiff-necked rebellion of his people. After salvation at Yam Suph (the Sea of Reeds, known to us as the Red Sea) and receiving the Law and the covenant and after generations of admonishment by the prophets, God took the next step and sent them into exile.

Even now, they were slaves to other people who owned them and their livestock. They did not ask God to change this but only acknowledged the reality of the situation and asked God to pardon them in their hardships.

Nehemiah 10 2007 March 5^th for April 2^nd

Following their confession of sins, the people made an agreement in writing about what they intended to do in the future. A long list (about thirty) Levites and leaders signed and sealed it, beginning with Nehemiah.

They agreed to carefully follow the Law given through Moses; not to intermarry with the neighboring peoples; not to buy or sell on the Sabbath when neighboring people showed up with goods; not to work the land on the seventh year and to cancel all debts in those years; to give a prescribed amount of money to the Temple for its upkeep and operations; to divide up care for Temple supplies and duties among the Levites as apportioned; to bring in firstborn sons and livestock; to bring tithes to the storehouses from first fruits; and “We will not neglect the house of our God.”

Nehemiah 11 2007 March 6^th for April 3^rd

This chapter is a long list of the names of people who stayed in Jerusalem while the rest went and lived in the surrounding towns on their own inherited properties. It’s very like similar lists from Chronicles or Numbers but with new people, of course.

It begins with an interesting statement:

“Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns. The people commended all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.”

It doesn’t say whether being selected by lot was considered to be “volunteering” or if there were some volunteers who agreed to live in the capital in addition to those who were drafted.

From the tone of the chapter, it was not considered desirable to live in Jerusalem, probably because this meant being separated from property and livelihood, but the leaders did so anyway since they more or less had to, along with others who were mere civilians.

The remainder of the chapter lists families from Judah and Benjamin and from among the priests, Levites, and gatekeepers who stayed. Some numbers are given in each section. An approximate total is 2000, which is about five percent of the 40,000 who had returned from exile at that time.

In today’s “first and second” worlds, about half of the people live in the cities.

Nehemiah 12 2007 March 7^th for April 4^th

This chapter concludes the lists of returned exile families with about a hundred names of priests and Levites. The listed family names include several sub-genealogies. Except for the first line, we don’t know any of these people.

“These were the priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and with Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,” and so forth.

A service of dedication for the walls of Jerusalem was held. They called out all of the singers and formed them into two choirs according to the directions from David and Asaph from “long ago”. Everyone was ceremonially purified. One choir, led by Ezra started from the Dung Gate area and started around the top of the walls “to the right.”

The other group proceeded the other way, with Nehemiah following, past the Tower of Ovens and other gates and landmarks along the wall to the Gate of the Guard, where they stopped. Many of the leaders in both groups are named.

They sang responsively and great sacrifices were offered to God. “The sound of the rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.”

Men were appointed to be in charge of the storerooms where the tithes and firstfruits and other offerings were received and from which portions for the priests, Levites, and singers, were distributed.

“So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers. They also set aside the portion for their Levites, and the Levites set aside the portion for the descendants of Aaron.”

This was how the excess in the Israeli economy was used.

Nehemiah 13 2007 March 8^th for April 5^th

The final chapter of Nehemiah is in three parts. They detail three sets of reforms that he made much later than the rest of the narrative.

In the 32^nd year of the reign of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah had returned to the king. After a time he asked permission to go back out to Jerusalem where he found several things not being done according to the law.

The standard in the Middle East is not one of individuality. Once any part of your family or clan or nation has done something, you and everyone else is responsible for it, in perpetuity. This is a very foreign concept to American individualists, but, with rules like theirs, it is no wonder that no one has ever been able to coexist in that region.

“On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them, (God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) When the people heard this law they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.”

This had happened hundreds of years ago to Moses himself, before the time of David that was fourteen generations of kings before the exile; yet, Moab and Ammon were still responsible for inhospitality.

What had happened in Nehemiah’s absence was that one of the priests, Eliashib, had provided Tobiah a room in the Temple, a major travesty. Also the distributions to the Levites from the storerooms had been neglected so that most of them and the singers had found it necessary to return to their family plots outside of the city and raise their own food.

Nehemiah gathered everyone together, chewed them out good for this, and put things back in order; appointing priests, Levites, gatekeepers, and singers back to their originally specified job.

He concludes, “Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.”

Also, he found significant work being done on the Sabbath, people treading winepresses, and bringing goods into the city to buy and sell on that day. Immediately he had the newly reappointed gatekeepers shut the gates on the Sabbath and not reopen them until it was over. For a few weeks some of the merchants camped out besides the gates, but Nehemiah told them to quit that. “If you do this again, I will lay hands on you.” So they stopped coming on the Sabbath.

Then there were some men who had married foreign wives. Some of the children did not even speak Hebrew. Half of them spoke the language of their mothers. “Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?” Even a grandson of Eliashib the priest had such a marriage. He was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. (Some would see this as a useful local political alliance, but not Nehemiah, following Moses on the purity that God requires.)

This is a very interesting statement. Even king Solomon, despite the blessings and so forth. One wonders again how such events were possible. Universal imperfection (“original sin”), I guess. God’s love seems not to be conditional on behavior, although we see it spelled out that way in the promises and covenants.

“Remember them, O my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

“So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties each to his own task. I also made provision for contributions of food at designated times, and for the firstfruits.

“Remember me with favor, O my God.”

Concluding Thoughts on Nehemiah 2007 March 9^th for April 6^th

Nehemiah was a great civil leader of Israel at a critical time. Critical times and great leaders often go together. Trained for service to royalty, he had exposure to and experience with power and was released from the ruling king for a time to return to Jerusalem and lead the civil restoration there.

He was careful not to do what just about everyone else seemed to do at that time (and at this time), to make himself a supreme civil or religious ruler. He was careful to respect the laws and ordinances of the faith and to lead the nobles without being appointed over them, not even governor. He also faced significant political opposition, both external and internal, and survived it.

Although he had a charter from the ruler to do these things, he did not have a title of supreme authority nor did he seem to want one. Nehemiah is an example of what can be done in such a situation. In fact, most situations (not all, but most) seem to have more responsibility than authority and for leaders to discover how to work in that environment seems to be best all around.

Nehemiah did not have perfect cooperation from anyone, but he did get the job done. He and those with him were responsive to the Laws delivered through Moses in the way that most people respond to God’s Law who respond with integrity, with repentance and a sacrificial change of ways. First, and this is a novel concept to those of us who live in the “information age”, he had the Law read for all who could understand it. It even says, explicitly, “men and women.”

We could discuss the apparent racism or at least nationalism that is a major theme of the leadership of both Nehemiah and Ezra, but this may be unfair. They were reading the Law of Moses and doing the best they could with it. And, as we’ve discussed before, there was a real danger to the fabric of their society from mixing with the locals whose religion and ethics were very different. Of course, the pressure is always to slip towards local equilibrium but the reforms of both leaders tried to reduce the entropy.

At this point in the historical account, the Judah and Benjamin have been taken into exile, and a remnant has been allowed to return and re-establish their city and their faith. The other ten tribes are gone.

© Courtney B. Duncan, 2007