The Lord’s Day Evening

August 24, 2008

Nehemiah 3:1-32

“Building Project”

Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas

Now turn with me once again to the book of Nehemiah as we pick it up this week in chapter 3. And for those of you who didn’t attend a certain school of engineering, I thought I might give you a help this evening in the bulletin with a diagram of the wall of Jerusalem. So as we are about to read this passage, maybe as we read along you may want to glance at the Wall of Jerusalem diagram in the bulletin.

Let me say just a couple of things about that diagram to give you some perspective. Some of you, like myself, have been to Jerusalem – that is, modern Jerusalem – and that’s just going to confuse you no end, because there are entirely different walls in certain sections of this diagram than the ones that might come to your mind if you’ve been to Jerusalem. But find the East Gate, which is also on the east, the right hand side of the diagram. You’ll see Sheep Gate, Muster Gate, East Gate. East Gate is these days called the Golden Gate. It’s a sealed gate. If you’re of a certain eschatological persuasion, it has huge significance when Jesus returns. It has zero significance for most of us here this evening. But opposite the East Gate would be the Garden of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives, so those are on that side. Now, the Kidron Valley, if you follow the old wall, that is the wall that David would have known in the Jerusalem of David’s time. The Kidron Valley runs at the bottom of the page to the south of this diagram.

If you look inside the wall, Nehemiah’s Wall, you’ll see certain letters, and somewhere between B, F, and D, to the left there against the Broad Wall, probably would have been the location of the temple, both Solomon’s temple and the temple that has just been rebuilt after the return from Babylonian captivity. These days of course the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock occupies that space. The broad wall there on the left – some of you might be able to identify that as what we now today would call the Wailing Wall. And the section that sort of goes down to the right from the Broad Wall would largely be the aspect of the Wailing Wall that exists today, although at a much higher elevation than what you have in this picture.

Well, before we read the passage in Nehemiah 3, let’s look to God in prayer.

Our Father in heaven, we are thankful to You again for the Scriptures. We acknowledge every word of it is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine and reproof and correction and instruction in the way of righteousness, that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. We ask now for Your blessing. Just as the little children this evening were learning that a heart cannot be made new except by the Holy Spirit, so we cannot understand the Scriptures apart from the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. So come, Holy Spirit, and shine Your light. And we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This is God’s holy and inerrant word:

3:1 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel. 2 And next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.

3 The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. 4 And next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz repaired. And next to them Meshullam the son of Berechiah, son of Meshezabel repaired. And next to them Zadok the son of Baana repaired. 5 And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

6 Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the Gate of Yeshanah. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. 7 And next to them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, the seat of the governor of the province Beyond the River. 8 Next to them Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, goldsmiths, repaired. Next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, repaired, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. 9 Next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. 10 Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph repaired opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah repaired. 11 Malchijah the son of Harim and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab repaired another section and the Tower of the Ovens. 12 Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired, he and his daughters.

13 Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall, as far as the Dung Gate. 14 Malchijah the son of Rechab, ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

15 And Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the king's garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David. 16 After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the district of Beth-zur, repaired to a point opposite the tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool, and as far as the house of the mighty men. 17 After him the Levites repaired: Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him Hashabiah, ruler of half the district of Keilah, repaired for his district. 18 After him their brothers repaired: Bavvai the son of Henadad, ruler of half the district of Keilah. 19 Next to him Ezer the son of Jeshua, ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section opposite the ascent to the armory at the buttress. 20 After him Baruch the son of Zabbai repaired another section from the buttress to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest. 21 After him Meremoth the son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz repaired another section from the door of the house of Eliashib to the end of the house of Eliashib.

22 After him the priests, the men of the surrounding area, repaired. 23 After them Benjamin and Hasshub repaired opposite their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah repaired beside his own house. 24 After him Binnui the son of Henadad repaired another section, from the house of Azariah to the buttress 25 and to the corner. Palal the son of Uzai repaired opposite the buttress and the tower projecting from the upper house of the king at the court of the guard. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh 26 and the temple servants living on Ophel repaired to a point opposite the Water Gate on the east and the projecting tower. 27 After him the Tekoites repaired another section opposite the great projecting tower as far as the wall of Ophel.

28 Above the Horse Gate the priests repaired, each one opposite his own house. 29 After them Zadok the son of Immer repaired opposite his own house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, repaired.

30 After him Hananiah the son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph repaired another section. After him Meshullam the son of Berechiah repaired opposite his chamber. 31 After him Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants, opposite the Muster Gate, and to the upper chamber of the corner. 32 And between the upper chamber of the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants repaired.

Well, thus far God’s holy and inerrant word.

Now as we read a section like this it’s tempting to think that perhaps today this is something you’d find in an appendix at the back of a book. But this is Scripture; this is God’s word; this is how God has inspired the Bible. What’s it all about?

It’s about skill. It’s about organization. It’s about leadership. It’s about doing God’s work. It’s about building God’s kingdom. It’s about being obedient to the Lord’s will at a certain point in the history of redemption. It’s about kingdom unity, and what under God’s blessing the kingdom of God can achieve and do – what the church can do. What the church in the Old Testament, to be sure, but what the church at any time can do under the blessing of God.

About six months ago in Tel Aviv, a fairly distinguished archeologist, Dr. Eliat Mazar, gave a paper: findings of excavations that she had done in a certain part of Jerusalem proving, at least to her and some of the archeologists present, that she had in fact discovered Nehemiah’s Wall. For centuries and centuries archeologists, egged on by liberal critics of the Bible, have often pooh-poohed Nehemiah’s Wall, saying that it’s a figment of someone’s imagination…some redactor. Well, this archeologist now claims to have found Nehemiah’s Wall, finding Persian pottery going back to the fifth and sixth century in exactly the place where it should have been found.

Well, what’s it teaching us? Four things.

I. The heart of servant leadership.

First, the heart of servant leadership. What makes a good leader? Giftedness to be sure, but humility, too. And it’s fascinating that in the very first verse reference is given to Eliashib the high priest. He and his fellow priests roll up their sleeves, get shovels and trowels and whatever other implements were necessary, and they get their hands dirty. They build the wall at the Sheep Gate. The Sheep Gate was adjacent to the temple. They had some investment in the Sheep Gate. It’s called the Sheep Gate because it’s through the Sheep Gate that sheep would have come – sheep for sacrifice – hundreds, thousands of them at Passover. It’s part of Nehemiah’s extraordinary strategy and wisdom to make certain people responsible for areas that were adjacent to where they worked or where they lived. They had some investment in this part of the wall, and they build part of this Sheep Gate, from the Tower of the Hundred over to the Tower of Hananel. It’s servant leadership. The high priest! You didn’t see the high priest with his sleeves up working building walls…this was an extraordinary thing. It’s servant leadership.

It’s not always like that. You see in verse 5 a reference to the Tekoites, and then to the nobles or the rulers of the Tekoites “who would not stoop to serve their Lord.” Now the Hebrew text is a little ambiguous, and it could be that they refused to stoop to serve God, but more than likely what the text is saying is that they refused to stoop to serve Nehemiah, their new overlord recently come back from Persia. These nobles of Tekoa (Tekoa is about ten miles south of Jerusalem), probably egged on by a character we’ve already seen, Geshem, who had much influence in the southern district below Jerusalem – these nobles thought it was beneath their dignity to be involved in this project. Now the rest of the Tekoites build not just one section of the wall, but in fact they build two sections of the wall.

It’s about servant leadership. Are you willing to serve? What did Jesus say? “I am among you as one who serves.” He takes a towel and some water and gets down on His knees and washes the disciples’ feet. We’re looking for office bearers, but we’re also looking for servants, men who are willing to serve with humble hearts. It’s as though this passage is saying “Wanted: Men [and in this case, women too!]… “Men and women who are prepared to serve no matter what the cost, no matter what the pain, no matter how menial the task may be. Moaners and complainers need not apply.”

The heart of servant leadership. It’s a beautiful thing. It must have been an extraordinary thing. It took about 60 days or so for this [we’re given an exact reference in chapter 6, but it eludes me now]…but it’s about 60 days or so that this wall took to build. It must have been a beautiful sight to see priests and the high priest with a trowel and perhaps a hammer of some kind, and busily engaged day after day constructing this wall. The heart of servant leadership. Do you have a servant’s heart? Do you have a servant’s heart?

II. The strength of solidarity.

Second, the strength of solidarity. We have a little cameo in verse 12. It’s an extraordinary, beautiful thing: “Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem…” This is one powerful figure! “…repaired…” [and isn’t this touching?] “…he and his daughters.” And you have to picture that now – this seemingly extraordinary powerful man with his daughters. I don’t know how many. And there they are building the wall, lifting stones, choosing the right size, engaging in the work, joining together.

There are 42 different groups mentioned in this chapter: priests, Levites, temple workers, high priest, goldsmiths, perfumers, merchants, officials, rulers of various hinterland areas outside of Jerusalem – places like Jericho and Tekoa and Gibeon and Mizpah…and women! And they’re all working together. It’s the strength of solidarity. What this chapter is giving us is an illustration. It’s a little cameo of what the church can do when it works together, when it’s united about one purpose and one cause: the kingdom of God, however that kingdom is defined at that moment in the history of redemption. And for this moment in the year 445 BC it was about building a wall.

Stand firm, Paul says. ‘Stand firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together side by side for the faith of the gospel, not frightened by anything of your opponents.’ This is a beautiful example of that. All kinds of people working together.

Now you and I both know it’s not like that in the church. I’m still looking for that church, because too often, friends, we’re not working together. We’re not singing off the same page of music. [“Oh, say can you see/what’s in it for me?”] And it’s a beautiful thing to see all of the people of God of diverse backgrounds and abilities working together for a common cause, the kingdom of God.

III. The curse of professionalism.

The third thing that we see here is the curse of professionalism. I wasn’t sure how else to put that…but the curse of professionalism. Let me put it in a different way: the tyranny of experts.

You know we live in a day and age where unless you are an “expert” your opinion is almost of no value. Even in the fairly reclusive world of a seminary, one department will often discount the opinion of another department because they’re not “specialists” in “that” department.

There are no stonemasons here. It’s an extraordinary thing. This is all about building walls, but there’s no mention of a stonemason. Actually there’s no mention of a carpenter. It’s not about particular skill sets here. It’s about the people of God recognizing at a crucial moment of their history that they are family; they are one people; they are the people of God.

You remember what Nehemiah has just said to Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem at the end of chapter 2? That they “have no part in this city or this kingdom.” These were God’s people, and in order to reinforce that they were God’s people, that God had called them, that God had separated them, that God had made them a holy people, the people of God, they were given this task to do.

I think over those 40, 50, 60 days they learnt what family means. You know, this wall, this city of Jerusalem, the old city of Jerusalem, it’s very small. It’s not as big as you imagine it to be. There are certain points in the topography of Jerusalem where you could see probably half the other groups working. You’d be working at this part of the wall, but across the way and down the valley you could see others…wheelbarrows taking, perhaps, soil…perhaps they were engaging in singing…perhaps you’d hear in the course of the morning or the late afternoon the Psalms of David beginning to be sung, as perhaps the priests and the temple workers were encouraging the people of God to sing while they worked. [I’m making all this up, of course! It’s not in the text.]

But they were family. They were family. It’s about…well, I think this illustrates every-member-ministry. What does Paul say in Ephesians 4? That “He gave some as apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors, teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” He gave these skill sets, to be sure, in order to equip the saints for the work of ministry. And here’s a beautiful example of the saints…of the people of God engaged in ministry. Jim Boice says the church too often resembles a football match: 80,000 people in the stands and 22 people on the field, badly in need of a rest! Every single individual seems to have been employed and engaged in the work.

IV. The missing name.

The fourth thing I want us to see is the missing name…a missing name from this chapter. It’s not Ezra, although that’s a puzzle. We don’t know why Ezra isn’t mentioned. The missing name I want to refer to is of course Nehemiah. Where was Nehemiah?

Nehemiah of course is the organizer. Nehemiah is the one with the skill to motivate and to ensure that this work was actually accomplished in the space of about seven and a half weeks. He left his own name out. How do we get Nehemiah 3? Well, by the inspiration of God, to be sure! But Nehemiah 3 comes from the personal records of Nehemiah. He was a politician. Every politician keeps a diary. I was hearing this week of one particular candidate for vice-president (who didn’t get the job) who keeps a very meticulous diary. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t get the job! [Laughter] He records everything that he does and says every single day. He’s going to write his memoirs and probably make a lot of money. Nehemiah wrote his memoirs, and he utilized the information that he knew to be true and accurate, but he left himself out because this was about the people of God, and more importantly it was about God himself.

Turn forward to chapter 6 and verse 16. [And there’s the number…I’ve been guessing the number all night. It’s there in verse 15. It’s 52 days.] Verse 16:

“And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help four God.”

It wasn’t accomplished by the wisdom and skill of Nehemiah. That’s true, but that’s not what Nehemiah wants us to see. It was by the skill and wisdom and over-ruling and empowering of Almighty God.

My dear friends, there’s a work to do. It’s not building a wall, but it is growing the kingdom of God. There’s a work to be done right now. Will we do it together? Will we do it as family? Will we do it in such a way that we promote the other’s good in preference to my own? And will we do it for God’s glory?

Let’s pray together.

Father, we thank You for the Scriptures and thank You for this passage. Though two and a half thousand years old, yet it still speaks to us. Write it now upon our hearts for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Please stand; receive the Lord’s benediction.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

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