Nehemiah 11-13
The issues of these final chapters of Nehemiah are…
- The resettlement of Judah. Chapter 11 outlines the plans for who resettles Jerusalem (vv. 3-24) and who resettles in the villages outside of Jerusalem (vv. 25-26). 70-120 years after the exile, I wonder how many things had changed.
- The re-commissioning of the Levites. With a rebuilt temple, newly protected by Nehemiah’s walls, temple worship could begin again in earnest.
- The dedication of the walls. My favorite feature of this incredible event is the split choir (Half of you go this way; half of you go that way!*). Nehemiah called them “Thanksgiving Choirs,” and they did indeed sing in opposite directions along the newly completed wall! (Nehemiah 12: 31, 38)
- The restoration of the Law. The book of Nehemiah concludes with a journal of his most difficult jobs: correcting the many abuses that obedience to the Law had suffered in the unsettling years of the exile. Among them were evicting a heathen who had set up house-keeping in the temple, restoring Sabbath observance, and—the most difficult of all—dealing the “mixed” marriages.
Nehemiah finishes with the words, “Remember me, O my God, for good!”
May God raise up more good and godly leaders like Nehemiah.
Your brother,
Pastor Gary
* Who said this in The Wizard of Oz?
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