Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Oct 1961

I have heard of an endeavour by certain who sought to prove that Nehemiah's work of building the wall of Jerusalem came before the building of the house of God, as described to us in the book of Ezra, deeming, perchance, that the wall in the order of things should be built before the house. But this is evidently not so, for Eliashib, the grandson of Jeshua, was high priest at the time of the building of the wall (Nehemiah 3.1, 20, 21; 12.10). Obviously Eliashib could not be high priest before his grandfather Jeshua.

We must distinguish between the city of Jerusalem and the house of God within the city. In Tabernacle days we can clearly distinguish between the camp of Israel and the Tabernacle, which was God's house, within the camp. Both the Tabernacle and the camp in Moses' time had a gate, for before the Tabernacle was built, at the time of the worshipping of the golden calf, we are told that

"Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Whoso is on the LORD'S side, let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him" (Exodus 32.26).

The idea of a gate is, that it is a place of ingress and egress. It further shows that the gate of the camp indicates that there was a definite line of demarcation, and that the people had not free and easy access to the camp in the entire circumference of it, but that they had to enter and leave the camp by the gate, so that there was a definite within and without. How this line of demarcation was maintained we do not know, whether by the armed sentinels of the fighting men of Israel standing guard around the camp or by other means is not revealed. But to erect a gate in a wilderness and leave things quite open on all sides would have been folly. A gate without a fence of some sort would show a streak of foolishness in the character of Moses, who was one of the wisest of men.

The state of Jerusalem caused great sorrow to that large-hearted man, Nehemiah, when certain men of Judah came and told him that

"the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire" (Nehemiah 1.8).

This, together with the fact that the Remnant were in great affliction and reproach, caused Nehemiah to weep and mourn, to fast, and pray before the God of heaven. He knew, alas, that the Remnant were like in behaviour to their fathers. He knew that all they had suffered - himself being in Babylon away from the place of the Name - was because of his nation's disobedience. Well he knew their history and their sorrows. But the case, though one of sorrow, required action. If others were to be moved he himself must move.

God graciously heard his prayer and wrought upon the heart of king Artaxerxes to allow him to go to Jerusalem to do the work of repairing the city which was so badly needed, both physically and morally. This king was well acquainted with the longing of faithful Jewish men within his empire, for he had allowed Ezra and certain others to go up to Jerusalem to beautify God's house some thirteen years before the going up of Nehemiah. Oh that such a longing for the well-being of God's house were in the hearts of some of God's children who are in spiritual Babylon today! May God grant them a vision of His house, and keep it in the imagination of the thoughts of their heart (1 Chronicles 29.18). The house of God today may be small and appear as nothing in the eyes of some (Haggai 2.8). The former glory of apostolic times has long since passed away, the great gifts and miraculous powers no longer attend the preaching of the word, but the truth and pattern of the house remains. So indeed was it in Ezra's and Nehemiah's times. The former glory of Solomon's time had gone never to return to Israel till the coming of Messiah, when the latter glory of the house would be greater than the former.

It was this vision of the house and the city that filled Nehemiah's heart. A house within a ruined city, and the social and spiritual structure of the people no better than the ruin of the city, were inconsistent with the idea of God's house, His dwelling place; so with royal leave Nehemiah left Babylon to give effect to the purpose and decision of his heart. It was a great adventure worthy of a great man, with adversaries within and enemies without to face and combat, alongside the loyal people whose hands were oftentimes weary.

Nehemiah after being given royal leave left Babylon and with a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest to supply him with beams for gates and for the wall of Jerusalem, he arrived at length at the city. He had had a long and tiresome journey, but the king, Artaxerves, had sent with him captains of the army and horsemen for his protection. His coming greatly grieved Sanballat and Tobiah, enemies of the Loan and all godly rule, that he should come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel (Nehemiah 2.8-10).

First of all, Nehemiah made a survey of the wall of Jerusalem. He went in the night with a few men, going to the valley gate, the dragon's well, the fountain gate, and entered the valley gate. He saw the broken down state of the wall of the city and, no doubt, sorrow and hope mingled in his heart in what he saw. The ruin and the devastation were great. Satan, by human hands that served him, had done his work well. He is not only the adversary, but he is also the destroyer. How much he has destroyed as we look back over the years of Scripture history!

Nehemiah had not told the Jewish rulers and priests the purpose of his heart to build the wall of Jerusalem, but at length he addressed them as to their evil ease, but when it got abroad, Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem, a trinity of evil men, laughed them to scorn at the thought of their enterprise, but these men were told that they had no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem.

The work began with the high priest Eliashib and his brethren the priests (Nehemiah 3.1). This was beginning at the right end, with the leaders of the people. They builded the sheep gate. There seems a fitting association between the sheep gate and the priests. Next unto the high priest were the men of Jericho, the once doomed and cursed city, whose walls of protection fell fiat, on the seventh day and at the seventh circuit of the city, when the seven priests blew with the Jubilee trumpets of rams' horns and the people shouted. The wall of the men of Jericho in the past perished, now the men of Jericho build the wall, not of the city of the curse, but of the city of God. Have we not too, who once dwelt in the city of destruction, been brought, through infinite grace, to build the wall of the city of God and to set up the gates thereof? Thus side by side toiled the priests and the men of the city of the curse; strange, yet wondrous association, typical of what grace can do!

Then we read of the diligence of the men of Tekoa. We read of their work in verse 5, and in verse 27 we read, "After him the Tekoites repaired another portion, over against the great tower that standeth out, and unto the wall of Ophel." But the remarkable thing about these men of Tekoa is this, that they wrought thus hard and diligently, but they had no help from their leaders, "their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord." Here is a lesson for all who have a mind to work, let them give themselves to the Lord's work even though others, and these might be leaders, do not allow the Lord's yoke to fall upon their necks for indeed His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. We shall be rewarded for work done, not for murmuring about others who do not do their proper share of the work. Shirkers will not be sharers in the rewards of the coming day.

Then we read of Hananiah, one of the apothecaries, that he with certain goldsmiths "fortified Jerusalem even unto the broad wall" (verse 8). Here were men accustomed to weigh things in very fine balances, whose tender hands, 'mused to labour with heavy stones, were digging them out from the rubbish, toiling and sweating all day long for the glory of God. What can people not do if they have a will to do it? They can throw pride and prejudice to the winds, and lay hold on trowel and sword, as these builders are said to have done later in the book, and build for God, seeking gain in a greater city yet to come.

Later on we have a word of encouragement for women folks, in verse 12, "And next unto him repaired Shallum the son of Hallohesh, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, he and his daughters." Here was a ruler and his daughters, people, we might say, of the better class, who were not afraid to soil their hands in the arduous work of putting wrongs to right and repairing the city of the place where God dwelt. The lowest menial work in such a place is higher than to serve in kings' palaces, on the ratio of how much greater is God than a king.

Thus it was that they wrought from the rising of the morning until the stars appeared and until the work was done and the wall repaired.

J. Miller | Oct 1961
Jottings