Sermon Tone Analysis

Big Idea:  Jerusalem was repopulated with leaders and freewill volunteers from the surrounding villages.

I.

Intro – Transition

A.            Recounting the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the purpose in Ezra to have temple rebuilt, and the purpose in Nehemiah to have city rebuilt.

B.            Rebuilt the walls under heavy opposition and beginning in Chapter 8 started reinstituting their religious observances.

II.

Exposition

A.            Choosing who lived in Jerusalem (*Neh.

**11:1-2*)

1.

These first two verses can be seen as a summary statement for the entire chapter.

a.              Quite succinctly, they tell us that Jerusalem is beginning to be repopulated.

b.

It really picks up the story that was left off in Neh.

7:4 (*read*).

c.              Nehemiah realized that having the walls and gates rebuilt was a great start, but without the people coming back to live within the city walls, all that work would soon be for naught, as they would no doubt begin to face opposition again.

2.             So we see here in Chapter 11, the repopulating of Jerusalem.

a.

This was part of Nehemiah’s purpose all along.

i.

When he got his first report in Chapter 1, he heard that the walls were destroyed and the people had been shamed.

ii.

Even though he was motivated enough to rebuild the city walls in 52 days, a city without any people is no city at all.

b.

This is why book of the genealogy was brought out in Neh.

7:5 and the people were all called together.

c.

However, the end of Chapter 7 says that the seventh month, the month of Tishri had come.

i.               Tishri is a very important month on the Jewish calendar.

ii.

In it are the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles, which we see the people gathering together to celebrate in Chapter 8, where Ezra reads from the Book of the Law for eight days while the Feast was being celebrated.

iii.

Also in the month of Tishri is the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

In Neh.

9-10 we see the people consecrating themselves to God by making confession for their sins and signing a covenant dedicating themselves to following the Word of God.

d.

It was only after this month, and these festivals, were over could Nehemiah pick up the project he had set down some weeks ago: repopulating the city.

3.

This was done with a tithe.

a.

Not a collection of money, but an offering from the people, of the people.

b.

The word “tithe” simply means 1~/10 or 10%.

c.

In the previous chapter, the people chose to tithe of their produce and wood in order to serve the Lord.

Now they tithe themselves.

d.

It gets a little confusing here because the text reads that lots were cast for the tithe in verse 1, but then it also says in verse 2 that the people who went up to Jerusalem willingly offered to go.

i.

I think that the lot was cast to pick the family, and then people volunteered from within the family to go.

ii.

Casting lots was a bit like flipping a coin to discern God’s will.

a.)

Although it’s not done frequently, several places in Scripture mention casting lots

b.)

In Leviticus 16, lots are cast to determine which goat would be the sacrifice and which would be the scapegoat that carries the sin of Israel out of the camp.

c.)

The Promised Land was divided among the 12 tribes by casting lots (Num.

24)

d.)

The disciple needed to replace Judas was chosen by lot in Acts 1:26.

e.)           *Proverbs 16:33* says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

f.)            May seem strange to us today, but God had allowed lots to help people make decisions.

i.)             Today we don’t use or need lots because we have the full counsel of God’s Word and His Holy Spirit to help us make decisions.

e.

So we see how the people were chosen to live in Jerusalem.

But who was chosen?

B.            List of who lived in Jerusalem (Neh.

11:3-24)

1.             Sons of Judah and Benjamin (*Neh.

11:3-9*)

a.

As verse 1 said, the leaders and a portion of the people from the surrounding communities lived in Jerusalem.

b.

Here we see specifically that the vast majority of people came from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, where the rest of the people continued to live outside of the city walls.

i.

Although the classification of the people into the groups of Israel, priests, Levites, temple servants and descendants of Solomon’s servants may seem odd to us – some are grouped according to genealogy, some according to profession – he is intentionally following the grouping from Chapter 7 (Neh.

7:7-60)

ii.

In Neh. 7, the walls have been finished and the gates have been set up, and Nehemiah wants to begin repopulating the city, so he needs to see who all had emigrated out of Persia to the Promised Land.

To that end, he finds a book listing the genealogies of everyone who made the trip.

iii.

The genealogies are categorized according to the people of Israel (7:7), the priests (7:39), the Levites (7:43), the temple servants (7:46) and the sons of Solomon’s servants (7:57).

iv.

His groupings here in Chap.

11 are meant to bring us, the reader, back to Chapter 7 and understand that what he had set out to do originally, repopulate the city, was now coming to fruition.

c.

So we see why he arranges the names as he does.

And we also see who some of the key leaders were in Jerusalem in that time.

i.               From the tribe of Judah, there is Athaiah and Maaseiah.

a.)

Each of these represent a different son of Judah that were born to him back in Genesis 38.

b.)           Athaiah is from Judah’s fourth son, Perez.

c.)           Maaseiah is from Judah’s third son, Shelah.

i.)             Shilonite is better translated “Shelanite”, indicating that he came from the tribe of Shelah.

ii.)           Judah’s fifth son, Zerah, is not mentioned here, but is mentioned in a similar list in 1 Chron.

9.

ii.

From the tribe of Benjamin, Sallu is listed as the leader.

a.)

Many versions read “Jeshaiah, and after him Gabbai, and Sallai, 928” for verse 8.

b.)

I think that “and his brothers, men of valor, 928” is a better reading and makes more sense when compared with 1 Chron.

9.

 

iii.

Finally, the person in charge of all these people was Joel and his second in command was a man named Judah.

2.             Priests (*Neh.

11:10-14*)

a.

In this section, we learn that Seraiah was the high priest (“ruler of the house of God”, v. 11) and that Zabdiel was their chief officer and responsible for all the priests.