Christ in Nehemiah

Nehemiah 1 is almost entirely a prayer, and it is the prayer of a man whose heart has broken over news from far away. Safe in the Persian palace at Shushan, cupbearer to the most powerful king on earth, Nehemiah hears that the survivors back in Judah are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire (v. 3). He could have stayed at a comfortable distance; instead he sat down and wept, and mourned cert…

Christ Connection - The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail

Jesus tells Peter: "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). The gates are the locus of power - the place where a city is most defensible, most strong. To rebuild the gates of Jerusalem is to rebuild the power to defend what is sacred. When Jesus speaks of building His church and the gates of hell not prevailing, He is saying: I am building a people, a city, a kingdom that no power of darkness can overcome.…

Nehemiah 3 reads at first like a builders’ register - forty-odd crews, each named, each repairing a measured stretch of Jerusalem’s broken wall. But the New Testament hands us the pattern it quietly draws. A whole people, every family at its own section, the priests every one over against his house (v. 28), goldsmiths and apothecaries and a man with his daughters all building one wall - this is the body whose every member has a measured work: the whole body fitly joined to…

Christ Connection - The Builder Armed for Battle

Paul writes to the Ephesian church: "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11). He tells them to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:14-17). The builders of Jerusalem had literal swords. The church of Christ has spiritual armor. But the principle is the same: the work of God requires both faith and vi…

Nehemiah 5 turns away from the enemies outside the wall to a wound inside it, and the word that holds the whole chapter together is the fear of God. While the people build, the poor cry out - they have mortgaged their fields and sold their children into bondage to pay the king’s tribute during a famine, and the ones lending at interest are their own wealthy brethren. Nehemiah is angry, and the question he throws at the nobles goes past the economics to the heart: ought ye…

Nehemiah 6 is the story of a work that nearly anything could have stopped - and nothing did. The wall is almost finished; only the doors remain to be hung, and the enemies of Judah know that one well-timed distraction could undo months of labor. So Sanballat and Geshem send a courteous invitation to a meeting in the plain of Ono - four times - and four times Nehemiah sends back the same refusal: I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease…

Nehemiah 7 opens with a wall finished, doors hung, and a city that now needs guarding - and the first thing Nehemiah does is look not for a soldier but for a trustworthy man. He gives charge of Jerusalem to his brother Hanani and to Hananiah, and the single line that explains the choice carries the whole chapter: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many (v. 2). The gates are kept shut until the sun be hot, watches are set, and every man is posted over against h…

Christ Connection - The Joy That Strengthens

The promise "the joy of the Lord is your strength" echoes throughout the New Testament. In John 15:11, Jesus says to His disciples: "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." And in Hebrews 12:2, we are told that Jesus "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." The joy of alignment with God’s purpose, the joy of covenant, the joy of understanding His will - this is the strength that sustains. The T…

Christ Connection - The Seal of the New Covenant

In the Old Testament, seals authenticated documents and covenants. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is described as the "seal" - God’s mark upon His people, authenticating the new covenant (Ephesians 1:13-14). And Christ Himself is the mediator and fulfillment of all covenants. The blood of Christ, shed for the remission of sins, ratifies the covenant of grace that the confession of Nehemiah 9 anticipates - a people forgiven, restored, renewed. The confession leads no…

Christ Connection - The Mediator of a Better Covenant

In Hebrews 8:6, Paul writes: "But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." The covenant sealed in Nehemiah 10 was written on parchment, sealed with names, requiring constant effort to maintain through tithes, offerings, and Sabbath-years. But Christ is the Mediator of a covenant written not on stone or parchment, but on the hearts of His people. His promises are be…

Nehemiah 11 reads like a register, but it is the register of a consecrated people, and the New Testament takes up its very themes. The wall is built and the gates are hung, yet the great city stands nearly empty, so the lot is cast to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city (v. 1), and then the whole congregation blessed all the men, that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem (v. 2). A tenth of the nation given up to live where the work of God was…

Nehemiah 12 reads at first like a register and then breaks into song, and both the names and the singing point beyond themselves. The chapter records the priests and Levites who came up with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and the men set to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God (v. 24), the porters keeping the ward at the thresholds of the gates (v. 25). Then the wall is dedicated: the Levites are sought out, purified, and gathered with th…

Nehemiah 13 closes the book not in triumph but in the unending labour of reform, and the New Testament reaches past that labour to the One who answers it. When Nehemiah finds that Eliashib has lodged Tobiah the Ammonite in a chamber of the temple, he acts with a holy violence: it grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff to Tobiah out of the chamber (v. 8), and they cleansed the chambers (v. 9), restoring the vessels and the offerings. That zeal for a…