The people respond

Chapter 9 states what has been learned through the reading of the law: all the history of the peoples’ ups and downs in accordance with whether they stayed with God or were disobedient to Him.

Now they were ready to sign the covenant in renewal of their contract with God first made between Israel and the Lord at Sinai (Ex. 24), and renewed by Hezekiah (II Chron. 15.12) and Josiah (II Chron. 34:30-33).  Actually, the princes, Levites, and priests sealed the covenant.

 

Joyce Voysey

 

Ed. How interesting are some of the names here: Bunni and Bani for instance.

Ezra's marathon undertaking - what an occasion!

Chapter 7 is big on “who was there”. These amazing listings must have been so helpful. 

I love the reading of the book of the law of Moses as recorded in Nehemiah, Chapter 8. I found that this reading was required to be done, as recorded in Deuteronomy 31:10-13. These verses are here copied from Concord –

10And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,

11When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

12Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:

13And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

This reading had fallen into neglect and the people who had been exiled could no longer read Hebrew.  So dear Ezra read, and it was translated sentence by sentence into Chaldee, the dialect which they had spoken in Babylon.  How glad the people were to hear it! 

No too long ago, I read this story on a Wednesday evening as part of the readings.  When I finished verse 4 with all the difficult names of the translators (6 on his right hand, and 7 on his left) I said, “Or something like that.”  (Giggle)

What a marathon undertaking by Ezra!  Verse 18 has, “Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God.”  That is 7 days of reading.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. I love the NLT (New Living Translation) for verses 4 and 5:

Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform that had been made for the occasion. To his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Kilkiah, and Maaseiah. To his left stood Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

Ezra stood on the platform in full view of all the people. When they saw him open the book, they all rose to their feet.

What a moving occasion it must have been!

Tempted to be discouraged?

Chapter 6 –

The carrier of discouragement was not always Sanballat or one of his cronies, directly; in one instance it was what could possibly be called “the enemy within” – Shemaiah, one of the inhabitants of Jerusalem (my Bible Dictionary says he was a prophet), having been bribed by Sanballat and Tobiah, tried to get Nehemiah to (as Eugene Petersen in The Message has it), “scare me off – trick me – a layman, into desecrating The Temple and ruining my good reputation so they could accuse me.”

As always Nehemiah talked with God and his fears were allayed.  And the work went on.

Uhoh!  One of the “enemies” was a woman!  Verse 14 speaks of the prophetess Noadiah as one of those who “would have put me in fear.”

The wall was finished in 52 days.  But, hey!  The book goes on for 7 more chapters.  What more can there be to say?

 

Joyce Voysey

Nehemiah qualities triumph

Some years ago when the story of Nehemiah was in the Christian Science Bible Lesson, I made two lists: one of the qualities which would try to destroy good efforts and intentions, and the other of the "building up" qualities.

“Sanballat and Tobiah” guises and suggestions	“Nehemiah” qualities
Distraction	Focus, attention, determination
Ridicule (Neh 2: 19 “…they scoffed contemptuously…” NLT)	Appreciation, support, encouragement; undeterred (Neh 2:20 “I replied, ‘The God of heaven will help us succeed.” NLT)
Hatred	Working together harmoniously, affection, loving care
Hopelessness	Hopefulness, resolve
Disappointment	Moving on; resoluteness; spiritual aims; anointed; appointed
Regret	Looking ahead; focus forward; course correction; finding the blessing
Confusion	Clarity
Restlessness	Poise, calm, presence of mind, control, settled work (Neh 6:11 “Should someone in my position run from danger?” NLT)
Indolence	Activity, purpose, energy, animation, aspiration
Apathy	Interest, enthusiasm, devotion
Work not valued	Put value on your work
False charity	Stand firm, not tricked
Ignorance	Watchfulness, alertness, thorough understanding, application (not theory), works (not words)
Gossip, rumour (Neh 6: 7 “You can be very sure that this report will get back to the king…” NLT)	Be a law to yourself, un-entangled, loving thoughts, watch what you say and think; get the facts (Neh 6:8 “There is no truth in any part of your story. You are making up the whole thing.” NLT)
Constrained by time	Work in the present; gratitude; orderliness; focus (Neh 5: 16 “I also devoted myself to working on the wall…” NLT); systematic; admit possibilities (Neh 6:15 “So…the wall was finished – just 52 days after we had begun.” NLT)
Busy-ness	Diligence; disciplined effort; inspired activity
Aimlessness	Clear goals; fruitful activity; willingness to work; vision; high goal
Selfishness	Selflessness; care for others; big picture thinking
Subtlety	Realism; common sense; attention to detail; don’t “major in the minors”; get the facts Neh 6: 12 “I realized that God had not spoken to him…they were hoping to intimidate me…” NLT)
Hypnotism, drowsiness	Awake; alert; not hypnotised; informed; thoroughly prepared
Crowd thinking	Individual and independent reasoning from first principles; unimpressed by world thought; get the facts yourself; check the facts
Materiality	Spirituality
Truth reversed	Truth stands tall
Retrograde	Progressive; holding fast; intact; DONE
Displacement	Home, harmony, New Jerusalem, the sacred city; sanctuary; church; constancy
Chaos	Order, peace, gratitude, holiness

 I am sure we can all keep adding to this list. What is wonderful is that Nehemiah proves that evil is powerless to stop the work.

Julie Swannell

When the going gets tough, great wisdom and sacrifice required.

Chapter 5 brings the rulers and the nobles back into the picture.  The question of usury is an old one for the Jews.  Nehemiah sorted it out, so that the nobles and rulers agreed to “restore... their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil" (Neh. 6:11) that they had exacted of them. 

A favourite passage of Nehemiah for me is where he points out that he hasn’t been a charge on the people – he even seems to have entertained VIP’s at his own expense.  He thinks he is in God’s good books: “Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people” is the conclusion of the chapter.

 

Joyce Voysey

 

Ed. The Message (by Eugene Petersen) offers clarity to some of the difficult passages here e.g. "Then I called a big meeting to deal with them (the nobles and officials), "We did everything we could to buy back our Jewish brothers who had to sell themselves as slaves to foreigners. And now you're selling these same brothers back into debt slavery! Does that mean that we have to buy them back again?"

Who is the enemy?

Nehemiah Chapter 4

 

Perhaps we can look to Sanballat and Tobiah’s arguments against re-building the wall, and expect that they may be the same arguments we might need to face and meet when building up a church.  The “enemy” is always mortal mind posing as our own mind, isn’t it, and the arguments might sound like this: 

·         I am are not strong enough.

·         This is a crazy idea.

·         Can we protect ourselves and the wall?

·         The stones we have to build with are just charred rubbish.

·         The wall will not be strong enough – “if a fox go up, he shall even break down the wall.”

However, like the builders, we know how to pray to God and find the truth which will dispel the darkness of that thinking.  “The people had a mind to work.”  Hurray!

The opposition didn’t stop, neither did the people’s prayers, however the Jews closest to the enemy were fearful, so Nehemiah took practical steps and saw to it that there were weapons for their defense.  He also spoke to the nobles and rulers urging, “Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord.”  The Lord will be with you as you fight for your families.

I love verse 17: “They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held a weapon.”

Nehemiah was a great leader.  I don’t know Shakespeare very well, but I am reminded of Henry V’s St. Crispen’s Day Speech.  I recall being very impressed with Kenneth Branagh’s masterful rendering of it in his movie.  A great rallying call!

At least the Jews were able to "put off (their clothes) for washing” (Neh 4: 23).  I wonder if Henry’s men did.

 

Joyce Voysey

Many hands join the work though some are reluctant to do their part.

I like that the names of the folk who worked on the wall are recorded.  It reminds me of something I happened upon on JSH-Online.  I entered "Marie K Fox" (looking for my daughter’s writings) and the first thing that came up was –

March 1892 Journal

Building Fund, Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston. Mass.

Receipts, November 2 1891, to January 1892, inclusive.

There followed a list of all the people who had contributed to the building of The Original Mother Church in those months.  Perhaps there are other lists in other Journals.

In verse 5 of Chapter 3 we read that the “Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.”  In our language we might say that the high-born people wouldn’t stick their necks out in this dangerous situation.  Even if it was the work of the Lord!  I may be way off with this explanation, but it satisfies me.

It is of interest that the men who worked were often classified as “rulers”, so there was still order and governance among these people.

No doubt we could build up a drawing of the wall from these entries.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. What an interesting passage!

The Living Bible says (Neh 3:5) "Next were the men from Tekoa, but their leaders were lazy and didn't help."

Nehemiah 3:5English Standard Version (ESV)
⁵ And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.^[a]


Nehemiah 3:5New Living Translation (NLT)
⁵ Next were the people from Tekoa, though their leaders refused to work with the construction supervisors.

Jerusalem

Opposition to Nehemiah’s plan strikes immediately he comes to Jerusalem.  Sanballat and Tobiah objected to anyone coming to seek the welfare of the Jewish remnant.  They were of the tribes which had been displaced when the Israelites came to the Promised Land.  They were now regional governors serving under the king of Persia, the same king who had given Nehemiah leave to rebuilt Jerusalem.

That, for me, sheds light on the old story of opposition to Nehemiah’s work.  At least the people had a reason for their attitude.  It seems Sanballat was a Samaritan.  The verse “…but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem” (2:20) puzzles me somewhat.  Is it that they didn’t have a true idea of God?  Didn’t know how to get in touch with God?

Joyce Voysey

ED: NLT translates Neh 2: 20 like this: You have no share, legal right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.
The Message: You get no say in this - Jerusalem's none of your business!

It's interesting that this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson is all about "portion". It's such a current topic: How much will I be paid? How much shall I eat? What portion of the pie is for me? What is my entitlement? How much land does that country occupy? etc etc

Today on ABC Classis, Margaret Throsby interviewed author Alan Gold.  During the interview he mentioned that he has written a historical novel about Jerusalem, possibly one of the world's oldest cities, dating back some 5000 years.

Geography and ancient Persia

Having drawn my map (see earlier blog), I now find “The River” in Chapter I. This is the mighty Euphrates. In exploring (HA!) Persia I found “Persian Plateau” mentioned. I see that this plateau looks like hill country on the maps. Not my idea of a plateau, which I had thought of as being flat raised land.  This particular land is raised but there are lots of ups and downs. It seems to be a tapering off to the west of the Himalayas. I remembering flying to Europe the first time: after we left Indian airspace the country seemed to be continuous barren hills for hours. I guess that could have been this plateau.

The other thing of note from the maps is that the north of Persia/Iran fronts on to that mighty body of water, the Caspian Sea. I have never heard that mentioned in any news or documentary or novel about Iran. What a boon – all that fresh water! The capital, Tehran, is in that area.

But I should be looking at the geography of Babylon, shouldn’t I? It was part of the Persian Empire at the time we are considering. The Euphrates has a mate – the Tigris. Babylon was on the Euphrates, capital of Babylonia, the land between the rivers.  I can see why there are so many maps. One needs one for every situation.

The city of Babylon was said to be tremendously wealthy and powerful. Archaeologists have made discoveries that seem to point to the fact that the wealth and power was indeed true, not a myth.

Joyce Voysey

Nehemiah - a prayerful and active leader

In this month’s copy of The Christian Science Journal, Sandy Sandberg has written (p. 22): “The opposite of reflection is self-absorption… [which is] always attempting to satisfy its own sense of lack, or incompleteness.”  And later “Christian Science teaches that healing takes place when the human consciousness is turned away from self-absorbed, materialistic thinking, and acknowledges and affirms the spiritual mode of thought, the reflection of divine Mind’s thoughts.”

In thinking about Nehemiah, I realize that he is anything but self-absorbed. Instead, he reflects His Creator dynamically in qualities such as vision, intelligence, leadership (including encouragement of others), faith, integrity, alertness, graciousness, courage, diligence, and steadfastness, all stemming from deep prayer and listening.

“Nehemiah was a genuine leader, an excellent administrator, and a man of prayer. …Nehemiah’s single-mindedness of purpose, attention to detail, and dependence on God were combined in a man who can simply be labelled as a servant of God.” M. Breneman “Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther” p. 59 – quoted in NLT Bible.

Position

Nehemiah is placed right after the book of Ezra in the Old Testament, and, as mentioned in an earlier blog by Joyce Voysey, the two books are like a duet.

Authorship

The NLT Study Bible tells us that Ezra is the most probable author of both Ezra and Nehemiah and that the author “often works from actual sources (such as letters and decrees of Persian kings)”.

History (from NLT Study Bible)

·        586BC – 538BC Exile

·        605BC – 562BC Nebuchadnezzar II is king of Babylon. Skilled Israelites (e.g. sailors, leaders, musicians, carpenters, monkey keepers, guards) are taken captive. See 2 Kings 25: 8-12 and compare Daniel 1: 1-5). Some of the elite prospered e.g. Daniel (Dan 1: 17, 21) and Mordecai (Esther 10: 1 – 3).  

·        586BC Jerusalem destroyed; end of the kingdom of Judah

·        It was in 538BC that Cyrus II the Great (the Persian king) granted permission for the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. See Ezra 1: 2-4.  NLT explains that “Israel regarded Cyrus as called and empowered by God to free them. Cyrus was not the Messiah, but what he did served as an example of what the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would later do in setting God’s people free from servitude.” (P. 790)

·        538BC – 400BC return from exile – see 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

·        479BC – 478BC Esther becomes queen of Persia

·        458BC Ezra (the scribe) travels to Jerusalem

·        445BC Nehemiah returned to Judea to successfully rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and organize the community.

I love the three questions given to us by Madelon Maupin on Sunday at our recent Bible Workshops:

1.      What does the text say?

2.      What does the text mean?

3.      What does the text mean to me?

Happy reading,

Julie Swannell

Working with geography: Artaxerxes and the vast ancient Persian Empire

 

I looked up Artaxerxes (see Nehemiah 2: 1).  Besides being the King of Kings of Persia, he was also Pharoah of Egypt.  Here is a reason for working with Geography in reading the scriptures. 

I guess one needs permission to reprint maps from the Internet, so I will try to outline just what the Persian Empire consisted of.  I wonder if I can draw a map and pop that in? 

Joyce Voysey

Ed. What a wonder: we were able to convert PDF to JPG and voila - the map appears on our blog, albeit much smaller than we would have liked!!

The right man for the job

On hearing bad news from Jerusalem, Nehemiah immediately “sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.”  He knew where to start – with God. Aren’t we taught that that is how we must always start?  He recognised that the Jewish people suffered because they have sinned against God.  The people had been told, “If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations.”  This is a reference to Lev. 26, where God tells the people what will happen to them of they are not obedient.  It culminates in verse 33, “And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

But Nehemiah knows his scriptures.  He quotes from Deuteronomy (4:29-31) where God promises He will not forsake the people if they turn back to Him.

For now, he prays that the King (Persian) will allow him to go and do something about the problem: rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  It seems he is a favourite of the king and has influence with him.  He is not, like Ezra, a priestly type; rather he is a man of action.  It is a case of the right man for the job.

Joyce Voysey

End of Exile 538BC

NEHEMIAH – MARCH 2015

Looking to Nehemiah takes us back to when we read Ezra back in July, 2012.  I find that I need to organize my blogging so that I can find stuff!  This is not one of my strengths on the computer.

So, Ezra and Nehemiah are a sort of duet dealing with the end of the Exile.

A little about the Exile: The Chaldeans conquered Jerusalem in 597 BC.  Around 10,000 Jewish people were forced to move to Babylon, the capital of the Chaldean empire.  Not all of the people were deported: priests, professionals, craftsmen and the wealthy were chosen; ordinary folk were left in place.  The king Nebuchadnezzar divided the land among these people, so that they were better off than before. 

Each group considered itself to be the authentic Jewish people.

The Exile ended in 538 BC when the Persians conquered the Chaldeans.  The king was now Cyrus.  Some of the exiles chose not to return to Jerusalem.  And the people did not return en masse, rather in a trickle taking place over decades.

Note: The Diaspora was the scattering of the Jews to countries outside of Palestine after the Babylonian captivity.

After the return, the Jewish people, who had felt their exile had been brought on by their disobedience, were inclined to try to live more in accord with principle and the Law of Moses. 

Joyce Voysey

Waves of fear?

As we leave our beautiful book of poems, I thought I'd take a last little peep before moving on to our book for March - NEHEMIAH.

I opened to page 98.  The poem "PRACTICE" is by Elizabeth Keyes Williams and I love it so much.  It gives us such a lovely answer to the question as to how we help others when they call for aid.  

Julie