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Skip Heitzig: Nehemiah chapter 11. The series title is "City in Shambles." It is, of course, the story of how Nehemiah, among others, came back to the city of Jerusalem to build it. We're in chapter 11.

Cities, like individuals, have growing pains. Sometimes cities grow to the point where the council has to figure out how we manage the growth of this city, how we provide more transportation and infrastructure and utilities, because it's housing more people.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but in the year 1800, only 3% of people on Earth lived in cities. By the year 1900, 14% of the Earth lived in an urban area in cities. By 1950, it was 30%. By 2000, 47%. Today, it's more than half—55% of the Earth's population lives in an urban environment in a city.

It is expected that by the year 2030, two-thirds of the world will be living in cities. And just to make it a little more complicated, by the end of this year, there will be 27 megacities on Earth. A megacity is the population of 10 million or more people in a single city. There will be 27 of those by the end of this year.

Nehemiah has the exact opposite problem. There's not too many people; there's too few people. He’s got to figure out a way, "How do I get people into town?" Now, I’m going to remind you of a verse. Of course, I never expect you to remember all these verses in Nehemiah. I don't remember all the verses in Nehemiah, but I’ll remind you of what was read in chapter 7. Chapter 7, verse 4 says, "The city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few and the houses were not rebuilt."

So, you have a city that is built, done, wall is built in 52 days, gates are hung, and you’ve got to get people in it. We had sort of a similar situation five years back. Any of you remember what happened five years ago? This thing called COVID? Look at New York City during COVID. Check out Chicago during COVID. Nobody’s there. I have never in my life seen the 405 freeway empty. But that's COVID. Rome, usually thousands of people around the Colosseum, nobody’s there. Paris, empty. Finally, Jerusalem itself, the city that we're talking about, holy sites closed.

They’re still living in the city during COVID; they’re just not coming out of their houses. But in this case, nobody is living in the city of Jerusalem. So, this is where chapter 11 comes in. Chapter 11 is about a mass relocation project. Nehemiah wants to urbanize the city, to repopulate the city. The way he wants to do it is all the people living outside the city in the environments of Judah and Benjamin—those two tribal allotments—he wants to bring them into the city of Jerusalem.

It has been said that a Jew never forgets Jerusalem. Psalm 137, the psalmist wrote, "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy." Though they have come to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, actually living in the city was very hard. They lacked the basic infrastructure that the city needed.

So, Nehemiah will impose a draft, a lottery, where he will take 10% of all the people and make them live in the city of Jerusalem. Think of it as a tithe. We're going to tithe human beings to live in the city. It's like if you get the short straw, you're moving to town. And they're casting lots. That is exactly how Joshua divided the land among the 12 tribes. They cast lots for the border of those tribes.

They believe that God was in it. In fact, in Proverbs 16, it says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord." So, they're casting lots, imposing a lottery to make 10% of all the people move back into town. This is what it would be like if I made this announcement: "I’m asking 10% of this service to sell your homes and move somewhere else to further God’s work." That wouldn't go over too well with a lot of folks, but that is what Nehemiah is going to do.

We're going to look at verse 1 and 2 in a moment. Let me tell you how the chapter is laid out because it’s going to give you some relief. Verse 1 and 2 sums up the entire chapter. Basically, all you need to know about chapter 11 is verse 1 and 2 because it’s a summary statement of the rest of the chapter. Then verse 3 to verse 36 are all the details of verse 1 and 2.

Look at verse 1. "Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem." So, all the leadership, all the heads, all the people in power were living in Jerusalem. And it says, "The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths were to dwell in other cities. And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem."

That's the summary of the entire chapter. Then beginning in verse 3 down to the end of the chapter, all the details, all the names, all the numbers are given—the leaders of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers. A total of 3,044 people go to town. The other 90% are going to live in the towns and villages around, and that’s mentioned in verse 25 through 36.

Here's why I'm giving you all this up front. To exegete Nehemiah chapter 11 is sort of like trying to teach out of a phone book. It's a list of names and numbers. That's what a phone book is, or a ledger with name, address, name, phone number, and so on. This chapter is the kind of chapter most people skip over. They look down at it and they go, "Yeah, no, I’m not going to muddle through all those names."

Or this is the chapter you read if you have insomnia at night and you want to figure out a way to go to sleep. You just work your way through this chapter and you'll be nodding off. However, we have a New Testament verse that tells us all Scripture is inspired by God. Second Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable." I have to believe there are some principles in chapter 11 that are profitable.

What I’ve done with this chapter is I’ve lifted out some lessons for a community. Life in the big city. Any community of God’s people, including the church, can learn from these lessons. Let me give you the first lesson: all places are significant, but this place is sacred. All places are significant. You have significant places in your life. You may be from another state, you were raised in a certain city, you have memories, you were nurtured there. That’s a significant place for you.

The people of Judah and Benjamin had significant places, but there's something special about the city of Jerusalem. This place is sacred. I want you to notice something in verse 1 you may have just passed over. It says the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem; the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem. Now, notice the next three words: "The holy city."

Jerusalem is a holy city. It’s actually mentioned 10 different times in the Bible. Two of those times are in this chapter. Verse 1 and verse 18 call Jerusalem the holy city. That's a nickname for Jerusalem. Cities have nicknames. You know them. I’m going to say the city; you’re going to shout out the nickname. You ready? New York City? "The Big Apple." Chicago? "Windy City." Detroit? "Motor City." Las Vegas, Nevada? "Sin City." Santa Fe? "The City Different." New Orleans? "The Big Easy." Los Angeles? "City of Angels." Jerusalem is a word that means "the heritage of peace" or "the possession of peace."

Guest (Male): You’re listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, friends like you help bring clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching to people searching for truth in a world that often feels confused, divided, and uncertain. And this month, we want to thank you with a powerful resource designed for times like these. When you give, you’ll receive City in Shambles, Pastor Skip’s complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD, plus digital download.

In these messages, you’ll discover how God works in seasons of spiritual and cultural collapse, how prayer and obedience become the starting point for renewal, and how ordinary believers can respond with faith instead of fear. We’ll send this resource as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, let’s return to today’s teaching.

Skip Heitzig: What you may not know is that Jerusalem is given 70 nicknames. And this is one of them. For example, Psalm 48, it’s called "the city of the great King." Isaiah 29, it’s called "Ariel," which means "the lion of God." Zechariah 8:3, it’s called "the city of truth." But here it’s called the holy city. Qodesh is the Hebrew for holy. It means consecrated, dedicated, or set apart for divine purposes.

You're wondering, "Well, what is that purpose?" That purpose is stated in Deuteronomy chapter 12. God calls it through Moses, "the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes to place His name there." So, it’s set apart. All places are significant; this place is sacred. I remember the first time I went to Jerusalem, 1978. I saw the city of Jerusalem, and it strangely felt like home almost, like I had been there before.

It was probably because I was used to reading from the scripture about Jerusalem, but it felt like I was home. The first time my wife, Lenya, saw Jerusalem, she wept. It was a genuine emoting over, "This is the holy city." The Jewish sages had all sorts of sayings about the city of Jerusalem. In the Jewish Talmud, it says 10 measures of beauty were given to the world; nine of them were taken by Jerusalem and one was distributed to the rest of the world.

Now, if you see Jerusalem, you’re going to go, "Really?" because it doesn’t look like Maui or like the mountains of Montana or Colorado, but this is the most beautiful city, according to the Talmud it is. They also said 10 measures of knowledge were given to the world; nine were taken by Jerusalem, one given to the rest of the world. Also, 10 measures of suffering were given to the world and nine were taken by Jerusalem. If you know their history, that’s a very apt description.

The city of Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible more than any other city—831 times Jerusalem is mentioned. Why is it mentioned so often? Not everybody’s going to agree with this statement, and you know me well enough to know I don't care, but Jerusalem is the most important city on the planet. It’s not Washington, DC, it’s not New York City, it’s not Tokyo or Rio de Janeiro or Paris. It's not Rome, it's not Albuquerque. It’s Jerusalem. Jerusalem is at the center of God’s plan and purpose, redemptively as well as eschatologically.

Let me tell you why it’s the most important city. Jerusalem is the geographic center of the Earth biblically. When I went to school, my teacher would put up a world map, and guess what country was in the middle? Us. United States. Center of the Earth. That’s what we think of ourselves; we're the center of everything. When God draws a map, He puts Israel in the middle. Ezekiel chapter 5, verse 5, God says, "See, I have set Jerusalem in the midst of all the nations," right in the middle. In the Bible, North, South, East, and West are always relative to the holy city of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is the salvation center of the Earth spiritually. You recall the woman at the well of Samaria talking to Jesus. She said, "You know, we have this mountain in Samaria that we worship. You Jews say Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." Remember how Jesus fired back at her and said, "We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." The only place God ever paid for the salvation of the world was on a hill just outside the gate of the city of Jerusalem, a place called Calvary or Golgotha.

Third, it’s the storm center of the Earth prophetically. World leaders know this. They know that the Middle East, especially what's going on in and around Israel, is the tinderbox. That’s the problem area. And the Bible says that in Zechariah, God says, "I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all the people." And it is becoming that. So, it’s the storm center prophetically.

And then finally, Jerusalem will be the glory center of the Earth ultimately. In Isaiah chapter 2, "The law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." That’s the description of the coming kingdom age of Jesus Christ when He rules and reigns from Jerusalem over the Earth for a thousand years. If you look at the Middle East, you’ve got to wonder, how did that nation survive? It's the size of New Jersey, it has hundreds of millions of enemies all around, but it’s still in existence.

If this were a courtroom and I were the attorney, I would say the nation of Israel is Exhibit A that God keeps His promises. God made some pretty hefty promises, and look at Exhibit A. Look at Israel, still in existence as God said it would be. All places are significant, Persia was significant, all the towns of Judah are significant, but this place is sacred. It’s the holy city.

Second lesson that comes from this chapter: projects are important, but people are more important. From verse 3 down to verse 36 are names of people. Hard names of people, that’s why I’m not going to read them all, but names of people nonetheless. The wall was built in 52 days, but now we have the people who occupy the city of Jerusalem.

By now, because we've been in Nehemiah for some weeks, you're sort of used to Nehemiah giving you a list of names. You're used to seeing it in several chapters. And you're also used to me not reading all of those names in all those chapters, and this will be no exception. But let me remind you that chapter 3 is a list of names of workers on the wall and what they did. Chapter 7, a list of names of people who returned from the captivity with Zerubbabel a hundred years before Nehemiah.

In chapter 8, it’s a list of names of the people gathered at the Water Gate to hear the word of God. In chapter 10, 84 names of men who signed their signature on the document to keep the covenant of God to obey Him. Although names—especially really hard-to-pronounce names—might be boring to us, can you imagine if you had your name written in the Bible? I’m just thinking of it from their perspective. You go home to your wife, "Sweetheart, you won't believe it. Our name is going to be in the Bible forever. Skip isn’t going to read it because it’s too difficult, but it’s going to be in the Bible."

The emphasis of the first part of the book is all about the project—Jerusalem, building it, securing it. The emphasis of the second part of the book is all about the people—making covenant, having a revival, living in the city of Jerusalem. And that is because projects are important, but people are more important. What good is it building a city if you don't have people to live in it?

That is not just a principle here, but it is a principle period in Scripture. People are important to God. People are more important to God than projects; people are more important to God than even places. We know that this building isn’t the church, even though we say, "Let’s go to church," or even if I call my wife and I said, "I’m on my way to the church." We talk about it as a place, but we know that you are the church. The church is people. It’s not really a place, even though we typically designate it as such. It’s always about the people.

So, you have a list of names of people. This chapter is the equivalent of a list of names we have in the New Testament. The genealogy of Jesus Christ, Matthew 1. The other genealogy of Christ, Luke chapter 3. A list of names, people. It's also equivalent to Romans chapter 16 where Paul closes out probably the most important letter he ever wrote, the book of Romans. The last chapter is a list of names.

There are 26 named individuals plus two unnamed individuals. It’s as if Paul is saying, "Hey, before I close, let me tell you about the people that are around me. Let me tell you why I’m so successful in my ministry. It’s not because I’m Mr. Awesome, it’s because I have a team of people." He lists several people who are his helpers in the ministry. I love that.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember: your generosity helps share God’s word with people around the world, offering biblical truth and hope in a time when many feel discouraged or overwhelmed. And this month, we’d love to thank you for your gift of $50 or more by sending you City in Shambles, Pastor Skip’s complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD, plus digital download.

These messages will encourage you to respond to brokenness with prayer, repentance, and courageous faith, and remind you that God still rebuilds what’s been torn down. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

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