Nehemiah is a prophet who completed his duty of rebuilding the wall of city Jerusalem, depending absolutely on God and fighting against those who interrupted the work of rebuilding.Historical Background
When Judah was destroyed by Babylon, the Jerusalem temple was destroyed as well. Afterward in B.C. 537, King Cyrus of Persia who conquered Babylon was moved by the LORD God and made a proclamation and put it in writing to build the Jerusalem temple (Ezra 1:1-4).
However, afterward the enemies such as Rehum and Shimshai sent a letter to the king of Persia [Artaxerxes] and denounced that the Jews would rebel against him. Then the building of the temple was stopped for 15 years.
In the second year of Darius of Persia (B.C. 520), as prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied, the building of the temple began again.
This time also there were enemies who interrupted the work.
They sent a letter to King Darius, but because he knew what happened in the past, he commanded the Jews to build the temple in Jerusalem as King Cyrus did. He also let it be written that some of the tax to the king could be used for building the temple, and that if there was anyone who interrupted the building of the temple, he would be hung from a beam of his house and that if the kings destroyed the Jerusalem temple, he wanted God to destroy them.
So in the 6th year of King Darius (B.C. 516), the temple was completed.
Nehemiah Became a Governor of Judah
In the time of King Artaxerxes of Persia (who was different from the former king, Artaxerxes), there was a cupbearer to the king called Nehemiah. He feared God and kept His laws.
In the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, Nehemiah's brother Hanani and other men came to the citadel of Susa of Persia from Jerusalem in Judah and said to Nehemiah about Jerusalem, "The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire." When Nehemiah heard this, he wept and for some days he mourned and fasted and prayed before God.
One day in the month of Nisan, Nehemiah went before the king to give him wine. King Artaxerxes noticed that Nehemiah was sad and asked him for the reason. He told the king that his people were in suffering and the Jerusalem wall had been broken down and its gates had been burned with fire. Then he asked the king to let him go to rebuild the Jerusalem wall.
The LORD God moved the king, and he appointed Nehemiah to the governor of Judah and allowed him to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.
The king made the keeper of the king's forest give Nehemiah timber, and for a safe travel to Jerusalem the king also sent army officers and cavalry with Nehemiah with letters to the governors. Nehemiah promised the king that he would come back in 12 years and left to Jerusalem.
Building the Wall of Jerusalem
When Sanballat the Horonite who was the governor of Samaria, and Tobiah who followed him heard that Nehemiah the governor of Judah came to rebuild Jerusalem, they were very disturbed and began to think how to interrupt him.
Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem and saw the walls broken down, and its gates destroyed by fire. He gathered the priests and nobles and officials and explained that God had moved King Artaxerxes and that he had been appointed as governor for rebuilding the wall.
Ne 2:17 『 … "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace."』
The people heard Nehemiah and began to rebuild the wall in teams. Every family including that of the priests participated in the rebuilding of the wall delightfully.
Sanballat from Samaria became angry and was greatly incensed when he heard that the Jews were rebuilding the wall. He ridiculed them, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble-burned as they are?" Tobiah who was at his side said, "What they are building-if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"
However, Nehemiah and the Jews didn't care them and concentrated on rebuilding the wall and prayer. Then God helped the Jews and frustrated the enemies' plot. They all began to rebuild the wall.
Half of Nehemiah's men participated in the work of rebuilding, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. Each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. Every man who rebuilt the wall stayed inside Jerusalem at night to guard the wall and worked during the daytime. Nehemiah and his brothers and his men didn't even take off the clothes and participated in guarding and rebuilding the wall.
When the wall was almost completed, Sanballat, Tobiah and other enemies sent letters to Nehemiah and asked him to meet together. He knew their purpose was to harm him and refused to meet them and prayed to God even harder.
The enemies plotted again. They hired Shemaiah and made him give a wrong prophecy to Nehemiah. To intimidate the heart of Nehemiah, Shemaiah said to him, "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you-by night they are coming to kill you."
However Nehemiah was concentrating only on rebuilding Jerusalem according to God's will, so the threat of the enemies didn't work.
The wall was completed 52 days after they began to rebuild it, fighting with the enemies. When the enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of God.
After the wall was rebuilt and Nehemiah set the doors in place, the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed. He put his brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel.
Nehemiah let the gates of Jerusalem be opened when the sun became hot, and made the appointed residents guard the wall. In the seventh month, all people gathered and learned the laws of God through Ezra the prophet and kept the Feast of Tabernacles holy.
They decided to keep all the laws of God such as the Sabbath day, Sabbath year and each annual feast. They also decided to make the priests serve for the sanctuary by making the people offer tithes, and not to intermarry with the Gentiles.
12 years passed and Nehemiah went back to Persia as he promised the king. Afterward, Nehemiah was allowed again by the king to return to Jerusalem.
When he returned to Jerusalem, he found out that Eliashib had provided Tobiah, who had disturbed building the wall, a large room in the temple, formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and oil prescribed for those who served for the temple, as well as the contributions for the priests.
Nehemiah learned about the evil thing and threw all Tobiah's household goods out of the room. He had the room purified, and then made that room to be used as the way it should be. He also found out that people didn't offer offerings properly to those who served for the temple, so they all had gone back to their own fields. So he reformed the system so that they could serve for the temple again.
Nehemiah also found out an evil thing that some Jews were treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys. They were bringing various things into Jerusalem to sell them on the Sabbath day.
Nehemiah rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this wicked thing you are doing-desecrating the Sabbath day?" And when evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, he ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over.
Moreover, he rebuked those who intermarried with the Gentiles. He found out that a grandson of a priest became the son-in-law of Sanballat and evicted the priest out. By doing so, he made everything be prepared for the Israelites to worship God.
Teachings for Us
Here ended the records about Nehemiah the righteous man and prophet.
The history of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem by Nehemiah is a symbol of the history of building the spiritual city Jerusalem. So it has a very important meaning in this age when the new Jerusalem is being built.
Nehemiah worked for God's glory and loved Jerusalem where God's holy name was. We are impressed by his thought and faith.
In the period when kings' words were as powerful as laws, to look sad in front of a king could mean death. However Nehemiah didn't hesitate but went to the king and asked him to let him go to Jerusalem.
Nehemiah was so eager to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem which God loved that he didn't fear the enemies who interrupted his rebuilding the wall but kept building it, depending on God who created the heavens and the earth.
Those who are like Sanballat and Tobiah are interrupting our building the wall of Jerusalem today. If there were no interruption today, there would have been no interruption in the time of Nehemiah. Because the history of building the physical Jerusalem city is a copy, and the history of building the new Jerusalem in this age is the reality.
Just as most people interrupted Nehemiah, people around us, those who do not want the new Jerusalem to be built, are interrupting us. Their interruption will last until the new Jerusalem is completed.
When the earthly Jerusalem was almost completed, the enemies gave a false prophecy to intimidate Nehemiah and the Jews. The same thing will happen in the last days.
What is certain is that the enemies cannot stop God's work. The enemies attacked Nehemiah to stop his building the wall but God frustrated their plot. Therefore in building the new Jerusalem also, Christ Ahnsahnghong will frustrate the enemies' plot and help us, so we don't have to fear them.
As in the time of Nehemiah people built the wall with arms with them, we should also keep building new Jerusalem, fighting against those who interrupt the work.
When we keep faith in the Holy Spirit and the Bride, fight a good faith for building the new Jerusalem and overcome all interruptions, we will have the name of new Jerusalem and the new name of Jesus written on our foreheads.
Rev 3:11-12 『I am coming soon. … Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of … the new Jerusalem, … and I will also write on him my new name.』
♡ Christ Ahnsahnghong & Jerusalem Mother ♡
World Mission Society Church of God(WMS COG)
Christ Ahnsahnghong came to Korea, at the ends of the earth in the east, and restored the new covenant.
The truth of the new covenant has been spreading rapidly throughout the country. As a result, over 400 branch Churches have been established nationwide in the past half century.
All the Churches celebrate the feasts of God including the Passover of the new covenant, and speedily carry out the gospel work according to the prophecy of the Bible.
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