Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): Nehemiah is a good example to us of how to go about the work of the Lord. It's to be done for the glory of God. Pastor Bill Lubkeman asks, what is God calling you to do?

Bill Luebkemann: You know, it's been said there are three kinds of people, people who don't know what's going on, people who watch what's going on, and people who do the work. And here was a guy that did the work. And there was a purpose in what he did. And it was for God's glory here. We're going to rebuild the wall for God's glory to stop the reproach and the mocking. And as we said, the church is often mocked, and the church is often a reproach, and people make fun of the church, pick on it, and what have you.

And here, what an idea, do some work for the Lord. Do what he's calling you to do.

Guest (Male): The book of Nehemiah chronicles the story of a man who accomplished an incredible task through God's strength, even though he had a mountain of obstacles in his way. With each triumph came setbacks. Isn't that so often the case for us? After all, we do have an enemy who is trying to disrupt the work of God. This is hope from the word. And we're in the midst of a verse-by-verse study of the Old Testament book of Nehemiah right now. As we enter chapter three, Nehemiah continues his quest to rebuild the community of his roots. Armed with only a powerful faith in God and a love for his homeland, Nehemiah accomplished the impossible by God's grace.

Let's see how as we hand things off to Pastor Bill Lubkeman.

Bill Luebkemann: Then Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brother and the priests and built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and hung its doors. They built as far as the tower of the hundred and consecrated it. Then as far as the tower of Hananel. Next to Eliashib, the men of Jericho built. Next to them, Zaccur, the son of Imri built. Also, the sons of Hashabiah built the Fish Gate. They laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. You know, when he was all done here, Nehemiah, when this wall was all done, he gave credit where credit was due.

If you look in the next chapter, you just sneak a peek to chapter four, verse six, he says, so we built the wall. And then later in the same verse, for the people had a mind to work. He didn't say he built it. He didn't say, you know, I came, what a great guy I am, I pulled this all together, aren't I something else? I'm a legend in my own mind. You know, it's been said there are three kinds of people, people who don't know what's going on, people who watch what 's going on, and people who do the work.

And here was a guy that did the work. And there was a purpose in what he did. And it was for God's glory here. We going to rebuild the wall for God's glory to stop the reproach and the mocking. And as we said, the church is often mocked, and the church is often a reproach. And you know, there are scandals in the church at large. And I don't mean Calvary Chapel of Marlton or even Calvary Chapel. I mean just mean the church, the body of Christ, other believers. There's always some scandal going on. And sometimes they make the news media even.

Make people make fun of the church, pick on it, and what have you. And here, what an idea, do some work for the Lord. Do what he's calling you to do. Don't just You know, the body of Christ, everyone has something to contribute. We can read about the gifts of the Spirit in in the New Testament and how uh the Holy Spirit has given gifts to man, and he's given them as he sees fit for the work of the ministry. So that everybody has something to contribute. Everybody has something to do, and it's not just helping the law of gravity to keep the pew on the ground.

The pews are not going to float away. We don't need to sit in them just to keep them there. You know, as we read through chapter three here, a chapter that a lot of people would skip. They just skip it. Ah, it's just a bunch of names and play can't even pronounce half of them names anyway. What's it even in here for? We're going to see there's something like 38 workers, 42 different groups mentioned. The the word built was used six times. The word repair And by the way, when you see the word built used six times, it's referring to rebuilding cuz that's what they were doing here.

The word repair is used 35 times. We see all different groups of people. We're going to see the rulers were helping to build, priests, officials I think are in here, men and women, not just a man or a woman thing. They're both helping, craftsmen, people who knew something about what they were doing and people who didn't, people who lived in the town and people who are from outside of the city. But you know, local Jerusalem residents with a local zip code and people from the surrounding area came in here. But you can see that it starts with the leaders.

Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brother in it. The way it's worded here almost makes it sound like he was one of the first to do it, and maybe he was. He was the high priest, and what an example that would be. He rose up with his brother in the priest and built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and hung his doors. The Sheep Gate, well, that was where they brought the sheep in, the animals that came in. It was near the temple. That was the gate that they would normally bring the sheep in that they were going to slaughter.

That 's why they called it the Sheep Gate. And you can understand why the priests would be the ones rebuilding that gate because well, that gate was extra special to the priests since they were in charge of the sacrifice. As we go through this here, we're going to see there's something like 10 gates mentioned and a few towers and not necessarily every gate is mentioned. There are some other ones that are not mentioned here, kind of going around the city counterclockwise, starting on the north, going around to the west, the south, and the east. That's the direction that this explanation here goes.

I believe when he rode around on his horse looking, he might have gone the opposite way. Unfortunately for this guy, Eliashib here, he wasn't always a good guy. If you look over, turn a few chapters to the right, Nehemiah chapter 13, it says Eliashib the priest, having authority over the storerooms of the house of God, was allied with Tobiah. He's the bad guy, remember? And he had prepared for him a large room where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, uh etc. He's letting Tobiah use this room in the temple. This was while Nehemiah was out of town.

When Nehemiah came back, he got all ticked off at that and he ejected Tobiah from the temple. Here's a guy, Eliashib the priest, who was one of the compromisers and his faith. We need to be faithful at what we're doing, and we need to stick with it and do the work. Retirement's not mentioned in the Bible. You know, if you're fortunate enough to retire from your job and and get a pension, that's great. Then you can spend more time serving God. We don't retire from serving God. And I can never understand it when people tell me they went on vacation, they didn't bring their Bible with them or go go to church wherever they were at.

You taking a vacation from God? Don't they have any churches where you went? Visiting churches in other cities, that's that's a lot of fun, especially if you visit Calvary Chapels cuz they treat you like you're their long-lost brother. If you just tell them you're from a Calvary Chapel, it's like being in with your friends. We are on vacation from God. We're not going to retire from God. People say, well, I've been doing this for so long, I am tired. Well, suck it up, buddy. You know, cuz we're going to work until we cross the finish line.

And Paul said to run the race as if you want to win. Well, that's what Nehemiah was doing here. Eliashib doesn't seem like he's a guy that wanted to win the race. He rose up and he got into it, but then as the humdrum daily grind continued, he kind of slacked off maybe a little bit. They built as far as the tower of the hundred consecrated it, then as far as the tower of Hananel. So they built quite a quite a large area, it seems. Next to Eliashib, the men of Jericho built. Next to them, Zaccur, the son of Imri built.

Also, the sons of Hashabiah built the Fish Gate. They laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars, referring to some type of reinforcing bar that held the door in place, prevented it from being broken down. The Fish Gate that was supposedly where the fishermen brought fish in that had been when they had been fishing. There's some speculation that there might have been um uh a market in that area where where seafood where fish was sold. And next to them, Malchijah, the son of Harim, the son of Koz, made repairs. Next to them, Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshelemiah, made repairs.

Next to them, Zadok, the son of Baana, made repairs. Next to them, the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord. So they they were believers cuz it was their Lord, but they weren't doing the work. They had some officials there, and it doesn't really say why they weren't doing the work. Maybe they felt like it was below them. Uh, we don't have to do that. We're the officials. We let the worker bees do that, you know? That whole thing, clergy and laity, that's another big fallacy.

The work of the the work of the Lord, we all do the work of the Lord, the body of Christ. Everybody has gifts. There's no difference between anybody, clergy and laity. Just throw those words out and reverend, throw that work word out too. I hate it when I see reverend so and so. What's so reverend about the guy? I look at him, he doesn't look any doesn't look any reverend to me. All people, all the body of Christ, all the same. And these these nobles here, they probably thought they were reverends and they didn't have to do the work of the Lord.

I'm just speculating, but it's fun to speculate. Moreover, Joiada, the son of Paseah, and Meshullam, the son of Besodeiah, repaired the Old Gate. They laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. This was probably near the Corner Gate we're thinking about in the northwest part. So remember we said we started on the north, we're going around to the west. And next to them, Melatiah, the Gibeonite, Jadon, the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and Mizpah repaired the residence of the governor of the region beyond the river. Next to him, Uzziel, the son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths made repairs.

So we see craftsmen were involved also. And even though he was a goldsmith, he was still helping to build the wall. Also next to him, Hananiah, one of the perfumers made repairs. And they fortified Jerusalem as far as the broad wall. So they did a stretch also. A perfumer and a goldsmith working together here. And next to them, Rephaiah, the son of Hur, leader of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs. So we have leaders here, officials, I think some translations may say. These were the officials that understood that everybody joins in together. We don't just have some people bossing other people around here.

These are the officials, but yet they're there working. I still remember Chuck Smith talking about that story when he got to his church some Sunday morning and some storm drain was backed up and there was a big lake in the parking lot and all the guys were standing around looking at it. And he pulled up his pants, took off his shoes, went into the storm sewer, pulled out the trash, and all the water ran down. He said, what are you guys all looking at? You know, you there what do you think you you you shouldn't do that, you take out the trash, whatever, do what needs to be done.

This guy was a leader. He was an official, and yet he was doing the work as well next to them, Jedaiah, the son of Harumpha. Would you like to be Harumpha's son? So you people say, yeah, my dad's Harumpha. People say Next to them, Jedaiah, the son of Harumpha, made repairs in front of his house. And next to them, Hattush, the son of Hashabneiah, made repairs. Look, uh here we see in verse 10 a guy doing it in front of his house. I think we have to give Nehemiah a lot of credit here for this.

He didn't have per charts or whatever they call them and you know, all the management tools we have today uh to figure out how to get the project done. Somehow he organized this. But one of the things we're going to see here a few times is people working in front of their own homes. Well, that makes sense. If you live near the wall and you're going to help repair it, you're going to repair the part in front of your home. No sense bringing somebody from over here to work in front of your house and sending you over there to do that work.

Let the people who have a home work in front of their house, let the other people that do not have a home or if they're from somewhere else, put them in the areas where you need them. It seems like there was some common sense here to his layout. And you got to give him credit for being able to do all this so long ago. Thousands of years ago, Malchijah, the son of Harim, and Hashub, the son of Pahath-Moab, repaired another section as well as the tower of the ovens. And next to him was Shallum, the son of Hallohesh, leader of half the district of Jerusalem.

He and his daughters made repairs. Plenty of women were involved in this project. And again, we see an official. Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They built it, hung its doors with its bolts and bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the Refuse Gate. So here the Valley Gate now, we're thinking about southwest corner here. So we've come across the top and down the western side of it. The Valley Gate, the Refuse Gate, also called the Trash Gate, that was the way they took the garbage out to the valley of Hinnom, also known as Gehenna.

That's where they burned the garbage, Gehenna being a word that is used to describe the everlasting fires in hell. But in their time here, that was just the incin- local incinerator where the trash was taken. And the Valley Gate and the Refuse Gate basically both opening out towards that valley there. These people did a lot of the wall, a thousand cubits. A cubit was the distance from your elbow to your end of your hand. Could have been anywhere from 17 to 25 in. Various length cubits have been found, but most people figure about a foot and a half.

So a thousand cubits will be about 1,500 ft. We're on a quarter of a mile. That's a pretty good stretch. If that's five football fields long. These people did a lot of work. Some people here seems like really worked hard, did a lot of work. Malchijah, the son of Rechab, leader of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Refuse Gate. He built it and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. So again, we see another official that's involved. Shallun, the son of Col-hozeh, leader of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He built it, covered it, hung its doors with its bolts and bars and repaired the wall of the pool of Shelah by the King's Garden as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David, the Fountain Gate here on the east wall, north of the Dung Gate, near the pool of Siloam, near the Gihon Spring in that same general area.

Jerusalem was was one ancient city. Didn't have a big river running by it. They had a sp- some springs and reservoirs, and they had to be very careful about their water usage. I don't think they had a huge amount of excess, although I'm I could be wrong on that. But this gate was near that spring. It was near where the water supply came from. After him, Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, leader of half the district of Beth-zur This would be a different Nehemiah. Made repairs as far as the place in front of the tombs of David to the man-made pool and as far as the house of the mighty.

After him, the Levites under Rehum, the son of Bani, made repairs. Next to him, Hashabiah, leader of half the district of Keilah, made repairs for his district. After him, their brethren under Bavai, the son of Henadad, leader of the other half of the district of Keilah, made repairs. So we keep seeing officials and leaders who are leading and officiating by getting right in there and helping out with the work. And not saying, well, you work while I watch. And next to him, Ezer, the son of Jeshua, the leader of Mizpah, repaired another section in front of the ascent to the armory at the buttress.

After him, Baruch, the son of Zabbai, carefully repaired the other section from the buttress to the door of the house of Eliashib, the high priest. This guy gets special commendation here. Baruch here. Special commendation. It says here he carefully repaired his section. The word is also translated as earnestly or zealously. So we're seeing here this was a guy who was zealous about it. He was excited about it. He was earnest about it, so much so that Nehemiah thought it worthwhile to point that out. This guy He's I think the only guy in here that gets this kind of commendation.

He's so impressed, Nehemiah, that he was so excited and working so hard and happy to be doing it. And just I think just happy at what God was doing, happy to be a part of God's plan. And we can learn something from this little verse 20 here. When God is working in our lives, when he's using us, are we zealous to be used by him? Are we earnest at it? Are we careful and diligent at going about it the right way, the best way? Do we bring glory to God with the way that we do things?

Or do we just slop along and you know, oh, I'm just another day just doing what I got to be doing. Wish God wouldn't give me so much work. Wish there wasn't so much to do here. I hate, you know, weeding at the church or whatever, teaching Sunday school. Wish I didn't have to do it so many weeks. They're working in the nursery or whatever, cleaning, carpeting, fixing things, whatever they are, not just at the church, whatever whatever God has called us to do, wherever that is. This guy here, we can learn something from him.

He was earnest about it. He wasn't tired. Maybe he was tired also, but he was earnest and zealous at serving God. This is the creator of the universe. I don't have any time to serve God. I I got something more important to do. Can't go to church on Sunday. My kids have a birthday party to go to at 10:00 on Sunday morning. Hey, teach your kids a lesson. Teach them what's important. They'll never forget it. Earnestly, I did that so many times. I'm so tired. Is this guy This guy was zealous and earnest. So much so it got recorded here in the word of God.

And here we are talking about this guy 3,000 years later. And Nehemiah is a well-studied book, and I'm sure lots of other people have talked talked about this guy over the year. Reminds me of the woman that poured the perfume on Jesus, and he said wherever wherever this story is told, she's going to be remembered while just like that. Here's here's this guy being remembered. After him, Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Koz, repaired another section from the door of the house of Eliashib to the end of the house of Eliashib. Doesn't sound like a really big section.

And after him, the priests, the men of the plains made repairs. And after him, Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs opposite their house. After them, Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Ananiah, made repairs by his house. After him, Binnui, the son of Henadad, repaired another section from the house of Azariah to the buttress even as far as the corner. Seems like some people did a little more work. They went a little bit farther. Some of them just did in front of their house. Some of them did a bigger stretch. They weren't all doing exactly the same amount of work.

Pahath, the son of Uzzai, made repairs opposite the buttress and on the tower which projects from the King's upper house that was by the court of the prison. After him, Pedaiah, the son of Parosh, made repairs. Moreover, the Nethenim who dwelled in Ophel made repairs as far as the place in front of the Water Gate toward the east and on the projecting tower. So the Nethenim We know were the temple workers or the temple servants. Ophel here, that's referring to a hill that was in that area. And they made repairs in front of the Water Gate.

That was another gate that led towards where the Gihon Spring was. After them, the Tekoites repaired another section next to the great projecting tower and as far as the wall of Ophel. See, the Tekoites were back in verse five. They're also here again. In verse 27, they had multiple sections that they were working on Some of these other people I may have missed them, but I think there was a few other ones that possibly were mentioned in here more than once. So there were clearly some people who were more into this than others. We can say that for sure.

Beyond the Horse Gate, the priests made repairs each in front of his own house. This word Horse Gate here uh think in terms of warfare. Um this was uh something that would remind them of battle. And uh we could remember that it's not against flesh and blood that we battle, but against principalities and powers and high places. After them, Zadok, the son of Immer, made repairs in front of his own house. After him, Shemaiah, the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made repairs. The East Gate was the gate that went into the temple.

That's the gate that was also called the Golden Gate. It is thought that that's the gate that Jesus entered on Palm Sunday, what we call Palm Sunday week before he was murdered on the cross, hung on the cross. After him, Hananiah, the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired another section. After him, Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, made repairs in front of his dwelling. Somebody else who was doing it in front of their dwelling. After him, Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. We see another craftsman here. As far as the house of the Nethenim and of the merchants in front of the Miphkad Gate and as far as the upper room at the corner.

This gate here also called the Inspection Gate. This was a military word. It refers to the mustering of the troops. This was a gate where when the troops got together to be reviewed, they would do it in this area. As we said, not every gate was mentioned, but it comes back here and ends where it started. Verse 32 and between the upper room at the corner as far as the Sheep Gate, the goldsmiths, and the merchants made repairs. Even the merchants were in on it. And it ends where it started. He went completely around. But we have to commend Nehemiah here for his organization and leadership at pulling this all together.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope from the Word. We're currently in the study of Nehemiah. You can hear this message or more Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Lubkeman by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. Or if you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope from the Word wherever you find your podcasts. We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10 a.m. And there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00.

To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. Or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org. And if you'd take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and we want to pray for you, too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study in Nehemiah next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Lubkeman, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.