Nehemiah Overview
The books Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther all deal with the events
that happened after the children of
If we wanted to put these book in chronological order we
would have to put Ezra’s first 6 chapters first, which covered there 1st
return to
Nehemiah is the last of the 12 history books of the OT. The name Nehemiah means Jehovah comforts.
The author of Nehemiah has been debated for many years. Jewish tradition says that Ezra wrote the Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, but others believe that Nehemiah wrote this book because the very first verse starts out saying, “The words of Nehemiah.” In fact let me give you 2 quotes from O.T. commentaries in favor of Nehemiah being the author.
Keil wrote:
"The contents of the book itself do
not furnish the slightest opposition to the view that the whole composition was
the work of Nehemiah." (C. F. Keil, Keil and Delitzsch's Old Testament
Commentaries, Vol. 3c, p. 150.)
Also Whitcomb pointed out:
"The fact that Nehemiah is written in
the first person is evidence that Nehemiah is the author, and the places where
he is mentioned in the third person can be explained in harmony with his
authorship." (Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 435)
The Date the Nehemiah was written was around 430 B.C. Ezra
had been in
Some of the key words found in this book are Rebuilding, prayer and work, which were are related to the rebuilding of the wall. There are also several key verses that point out why Nehemiah was successful in getting the people rebuild the wall.
Nehemiah 4:6 So we built the wall, and the entire wall was
joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to
work.
This
verse also contains the key phrase of this book, which is the “people had a
mind to work.”
Nehemiah 4:9 Nevertheless
we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them
day and night.
Nehemiah 4:17 Those
who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that
with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.
Nehemiah 4:20 "Wherever you hear the sound of the
trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us."
All these key verses in
the chapter show how the Nehemiah was able to stir the people up to restore
what God had given them and they did this by trusting in God, actively praying
to Him for strength, and by determining in their minds to work together to
restore the wall and they had confidence that God would fight for them. Our
next key verses show they accomplished what the set out to do.
Nehemiah 6:15 So the
wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two
days. 16 And it happened,
when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these
things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they
perceived that this work was done by our God.
Not only did they
accomplish this great task in 52 days, it caused their enemies to become
discouraged after they saw what they were able to do with the help of God
almighty. The key chapter of this book chapter 9 because Ezra confesses the sin
of
Let me give you a basic
outline of Nehemiah.
1-2 Covers Nehemiah’s
return
3 The gates are rebuilt
and a general list of the workers of the wall and gates are given
4-6 Deals with the events
that happened during the rebuilding and completion of the wall
7 Lists those that returned back with Zerubbabel.
8 Ezra reads the Law for 7 days
9-12 The children of
13 The Jews had become lax with their tithes, the Sabbath and mixed marriages and Nehemiah deals with these problems.
The great theme of
Nehemiah is restoration. This is why Nehemiah teaches a great lesson for the
Christian today because we live in time where there were hundreds of
denominations in the world and we keep seeing bigger congregations in the
Lord’s church that are moving away from the Law of Christ. The need to restore
people back to the New Testament Christianity is just as strong and necessary
as it was in Nehemiah’s day.
One thing you will notice
is that Nehemiah did not attempt to design and construct new walls with new
material. Instead a great deal of the wall was rebuilt using the old stones.
With this thought in mind, we need to understand that we should never seek to
build a new church. Instead, our goal should always be to rebuild and restore
the church that Jesus built. We have no right or authority to add to or take
away that which Christ has built. Anytime a congregation tries to go beyond the
blueprints that God has left us then something other than church is in place. When
Christians decide to do this, its time for those walls to be knocked down and
for true restoration to occur. We must learn from the example of Nehemiah and
get people to understand the importance of follow God’s Word, having an active
prayer life and trusting in God.
These physical walls were
built to protect the Jews from their enemies. In a similar way its important
that we build strong spiritual walls around us to protect us from our enemy the
devil. The stronger the wall the more protection we will have. We can make
those walls stronger by studying God’s word and living by it and the mortar
that binds the walls together is our prayer life.
While the walls were down
around
We also learn from Nehemiah that there was
internal corruption after the wall built. Some time after the completion of the
rebuilding of the walls, Nehemiah made a trip to
Nehemiah 4:3 "Whatever they build, if even a fox goes
up on it, he will break down their stone wall."
This is the same Tobiah
who had conspired to make war against
Nehemiah 13:8 And it
grieved me bitterly; therefore I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of
the room. 9 Then I commanded
them to cleanse the rooms; and I brought back into them the articles of the
house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
Notice, he didn’t
tolerate this corruption and he threw out all this stuff that did not belong.
In this same chapter he refused to allow the people to disobey the command of
God by desecrating the Sabbath. He
condemned the intermarriage with foreign women because these forbidden
marriages had resulted in children who spoke half in the language of
Again this needed today
because there are some in the Lord’s church who have started engaging in open
fellowship with denominationalism to the point that many brethren now speak
their language. Those in the denominations have tendency to redefine Biblical
terms and unfortunately, do to a lack of study, some in the church are
accepting a corrupted version of the truth.
In the past, many of the
denominations out there were conservative and that had a deeper respect for the
authority of the Scriptures and they use to defend the positions they held, but
today these same denominations have moved farther and farther away from the
word of God. Many denominations are hard to distinguish between the world
because they now teach a message of love and tolerance for sin. Basically, they
have opened the door to allow anything and everything to come in. They are
getting to the point of teaching all will be saved no mater what.
You can see how they look
like the world because they are allowing women to be elders, deacons and
preachers. Some of them are even allowing active homosexuals to preach and
serve in church. There sermons talk a lot about God’s love, mercy and grace,
but they don’t talk much about God’s wrath for the disobedient. The list can go
on and on, but what’s sad is that some in the church are following this same
trend and they are speaking the same languages as these denominations.
That’s exactly why we
have churches like Max Lucado’s, Richland Hills and Quail Springs embracing
denominationalism. They want to move beyond what God has authorized just like
these people of Nehemiah’s day were trying to do. These churches that are
moving away from God need a Nehemiah to warn them and to get them back on track
because they are desperate need of restoration. All the stuff they are adding
needs to be thrown out and they need to get back to the Bible instead of
calling themselves a progressive
Another thing we can
learn from the Nehemiah is how to overcome those things the hinder us from
doing our spiritual work. We can see how to do this by how the Jews of
Nehemiah’s day overcame their opposition.
1. They overcame the
scorn and ridicule of their enemies by having confidence in God Neh. 2:20
2. They overcame their
enemies’ wrath and disrespect for them through prayer and hard work Neh. 4:4-6
3. They overcame
conspiracy and conflict with prayer and watchfulness Neh. 4:9
4. They overcame the
negative and defeated attitudes of their friends through their faith and
steadfast courage Neh. 4:13-14
5. They overcame selfish
greed by the rebuking of Nehemiah and by the self-sacrificing example he gave
Neh. 5:6-17
6. They overcame the
false accusations that were made as a distraction by standing firm and saying
no this is not true Neh. 6:1-14
If we apply these 6 steps
to our lives, we will have everything we need to keep us on track so that we
can carry out the spiritual work that we should be doing.
The last thing I want to
look at this evening is the Character of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was one of the
great leaders in O.T. at a period that is much like our own. We need preachers and elders with the
qualities of Nehemiah.
He was a man who agonized
over the condition of God's people. When he heard that Jews were in distress
and greatly oppressed and that the walls of
Nehemiah 1:6
"please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear
the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the
children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of
Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have
sinned. 7 "We have acted
very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes,
nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.
When we start thinking
about the condition of God’s church in the
Nehemiah was a man of
courage. He was cupbearer to King
Artaxerxes and he had the courage to come before the king even though he was
afraid. True courage is not the lack of fear, but it is overcoming that fear by
doing what you should do. So, Nehemiah pleads with the king to allow him to go
to
Nehemiah was willing to
sacrifice because he had a high position as the king’s cupbearer and he would
have had plenty to eat, a good place to live, and the prestige of a job close
to the king. But because of his love for God, His Word, and for His people, he
left all this behind to help his people rebuild the wall and their
lives.
Again, we need to have
this same attitude today. If it becomes necessary for us to leave the comfort
and security of lives to restore the church that Jesus built then let us do so.
Nehemiah was also man of persistence in the face of scorn and
ridicule. Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem
laughed them to scorn and despised them (Neh. 2:19). Mockery and ridicule are the first resort of
those who do not have Scripture and reason on their side; but it can be very
effective psychologically. No one likes
to be an object of ridicule. I am
convinced the reason some brethren are embracing denominationalism is their
desire to please man instead of God. If they put themselves in a non
confrontational position then they never have to worry about being mocked or
made fun of for standing on the principles of God’s Word. People who think this
way are more concerned about being popular than being pleasing to God.
Thankfully there are
Christians today who will not allow themselves to comprise God’s truth for
popularity or money. They hold the same value as Nehemiah who said,
Nehemiah 2:20 The God of heaven Himself will prosper us;
therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or
right or memorial in
Nehemiah was persistent
in the face of a frontal attack. When his enemies saw that ridicule did not
work and that Nehemiah and his workers were serious about rebuilding the walls
of
Nehemiah 4:7 Now it
happened, when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites
heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were
beginning to be closed, that they became very angry, 8 and all of them conspired
together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion.
Their enemies thought
they were going to be successful on their attach, but Nehemiah was aware of what
they were trying to do and he had men read for them and when they came they
were driven back and they knew that God had warned the Jews about their attack.
The Jews stayed prepared for battle after that as we read in,
Nehemiah 4:17 Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded
themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the
other held a weapon.
This is the same way that
we should handle ourselves today. There are many false doctrines that are being
taught and it is our responsibility to confront these false teachings and
battle against the wicked way, but at the same time we cannot neglect the great
work of the great commission. As the Jews of Nehemiah day we need to defend and
fight against false doctrine with one hand and with the other hand we need to
work at reaching the lost and wining them to Christ. Both works are important
and both should be done.
Nehemiah was persistent
and he was unwilling to compromise God’s truth and neither should we. Nehemiah
was a fighter, but he did not start the fight or relish it. But he refused to
step down from a fight for the Lord. Every Christians and especially every
preacher must not avoid fighting for the truth. Fighting for the truth can
become unpleasant, stressful and it can even cause division, but we must be
like Nehemiah and be willing to fight for the Lord and His truth no matter what
the cost. As Paul said we need to fight the good fight of faith.
If we try to avoid our
responsibility to stand on God’s truth today, then God’s church is going suffer
for it tomorrow. I hope this overview of Nehemiah has shown you how important
is that all of us take a stand on God’s truth and that we pray for strength and
guidance as fight the good fight of faith.