Nehemiah 3:5-12 Building of the walls and the people involved
Channel: Mike Attwood
Date: 2024-03-23

In every work there are workers and shirkers.  In every warfare there are soldiers and deserters.  Where do I stand?

The name of the high priest, Eliashib, means "God will restore".  God is in the restoration business.

In verse 8 we find people we might not expect to see.  We would presume goldsmiths do fine, delicate work, but here they are moving boulders and rubble.  Apothecaries, likewise, were perfume makers; not people we would expect to see in such work at rebuilding a wall.

Verse 13:  A thousand cubits, 1500 feet.  It's a long stretch of wall these people built.  There are some people with incredible capacity for work.

Verse 14 dung gate:  where all the garbage is taken out.  Where do you work?  Imagine.

Verse 20 earnestly repaired: Although everybody was working, something about this man was different.  He was eager.  He had a zealousness about him.  We should never pour cold water on someone with zeal.

We have a wonderful example in this chapter of what can be accomplished if God's people work together.  In 52 days, what seemed like an impossible task, is completed.  What could be accomplished in our assemblies if we work together this way?

There is an example in verse 31 of restoration.  Malchiah is also found in Ezra 10:31, where he had earned reproach by marrying a foreign wife, 13 years earlier.  Thirteen years have past, he is now restored, and is helping to build the wall.

Second topic:  Jerusalem's Gates

In chapter 3 only ten gates are mentioned.  In the new Jerusalem there are twelve gates.  Actually there are twelve gates in Nehemiah's Jerusalem as well, but only ten are mentioned in chapter 3.  Why only ten?  Often times the number 10 is related to human responsibility and failure, e.g., the ten commandments, the ten tribes, the ten spies.