Tag Archives: Nehemiah 4-6

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2023 Bible Study — Nehemiah Made Plans To Overcome All Obstacles, But Refused To Think He Was More Important Than Anyone Else

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 4-6.

Before I get into my study of today’s passage I want to make note of something I only really became aware of after I started writing these blogs:  Nehemiah did not come to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls which had been destroyed during the Babylonian conquest which immediately preceded the Exile.  Rather, he was rebuilding the walls which had originally been built by those who first returned under Cyrus.   So, when Nehemiah got the Jew started rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, their enemies, Sanballat and Tobiah the Ammonite, ridiculed them for even trying to rebuild the walls.  As we read on we realize that part of the reason Sanballat and Tobiah thought the rebuilding effort was a joke was because previous governors of Jerusalem(I am unsure what the correct title was for Nehemiah and his predecessors) were corrupt.    In fact, we even see that a significant number of the Jewish leaders with whom Nehemiah had to work were corrupt, or on the side of Tobiah and Sanballat for other reasons.  n any case, Nehemiah encouraged the workers who were building the wall and they continued to work hard at it.  This led Tobiah and Sanballat to plot, or perhaps, just plant the rumor that they were plotting, to attack the builders when and where they were unprepared.  Nehemiah met this threat by making sure the men who had come with him could be clearly seen to be prepared to repel attackers, and got the rest of those working on the wall to do likewise.

In the middle of today’s passage, which is mostly about the attempts to prevent the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls and how Nehemiah countered those attempts, we have a bit where Nehemiah learns that the elites of Jerusalem, including himself, were oppressing their fellow Jews who were poor.  Initially, it seems like a separate issue from Nehemiah’s efforts to get Jerusalem rebuilt and functioning.  However, I realized today that this bit in the middle explains why Nehemiah was successful in building the walls while his predecessors had left them in ruins.  When Nehemiah realized that he was getting rich off of the misfortune of others, he immediately changed his business practices and convinced the others who were doing likewise to follow his example.  By behaving in this manner, Nehemiah showed the people that rebuilding the walls was not a vanity project for Nehemiah.  He wanted to rebuild the walls because he cared about the protection this would offer the people who could not afford armed guards.  Nehemiah pushed rebuilding the walls because he believed it was in everyone’s best interest to do so.  Which led those who liked things the way they were, because they profited from the vulnerability of others, to attempt to assassinate Nehemiah, or failing that to make him look like he put his interests ahead of those of everyone else.  Despite having been appointed by the king of Persia to govern Jerusalem, and being the leader who could inspire the people to restore it to being a major city, Nehemiah refused to act like he thought he was more important than anyone else.  We should seek  to follow Nehemiah’s example…and its flip side, we should refuse to view ourselves as less important than anyone else.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2022 Bible Study — Nehemiah Refused To Take Special Privileges

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 4-6.

I was going to write a completely different blog today than what I am writing now, but I found myself getting down into the weeds of the passage, writing about things you can read for yourself.  Then it struck me that the reason we read this book is because Nehemiah refused to back down.  When the people working on the wall were beginning to get overwhelmed by the effort, were beginning to feel that they weren’t getting anywhere with the project, Nehemiah stood up and laid out a plan.  And he did not just give them a plan, he put his back into the plan and worked alongside of them.  When people complained to Nehemiah about the rich oppressing them, he did not point the finger at other people and say that they needed to change their ways.  No, when he asked the rich to do more to help the poor, he asked them to follow his example, and he did more than he asked anyone else to do.  When he was personally threatened, he refused to take a defensive position not available to the common people because he was more important to the cause then anyone else.  He was, but he refused to let that justify giving himself special privileges.

I have written all of the above, and I think it is a pretty fair reading of the passage, but it fails to capture the thoughts behind it.  I have respect for how Nehemiah behaved as a leader of the people, but I cannot quite get it put into words.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2021 Bible Study Keeping Spirits Up In The Face Of Opposition

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 4-6.

I see a connection between what was going on with the attempts by outsiders to intimidate the Returned Exiles into giving up on rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls and the exploitation of the poorer Returned Exiles by those who were wealthier.  The outsiders were discouraging the work on the wall on purpose, but the wealthy Returned Exiles were doing so because they thought more about their self-interest than the interest of the people as a whole.  At least some of the wealthy had not realized the impact their actions were having on their countrymen.   Even Nehemiah had been doing so, but when he realized the effect his actions were having on those less fortunate than himself he acted to change things and to recompense those whom he had previously exploited.  The willingness of Nehemiah, and others like him, to expend their resources to make the project come to fruition gave heart to those who only had their physical efforts to contribute.

I hope those of you reading this can see the spiritual lesson which I got from this passage and tried to convey in the above words.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2020 Bible Study Some Leaders Use Their Position to Serve Their Own Interests, But Godly Leaders Use Their Position for the Interests of the People They Lead

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 4-6.

Understanding that the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt once already since the return from exile puts the reaction of Nehemiah’s enemies in context.  One begins to understand that they were taking advantage of the disrepair of Jerusalem for their own purposes.  They wanted Jerusalem to be in a state of disrepair in order to facilitate their own illegal activities.  Initially they tried to discourage the Jews from repairing the walls by deriding their work as inadequate.  When that failed, they planned to send “bandits” to attack the city, destroying the work which had been done.  However, Nehemiah received word of their plans and implemented a defensive strategy.  The passage does not make it clear why Nehemiah’s enemies did not follow through anyway, but I suspect that a successful attack on Nehemiah’s defenses would have revealed that the attackers were not just bandits…or perhaps, their forces WERE just bandits and thus not up to taking on a well prepared force of defenders.  With the failure of this strategy they attempted to lure Nehemiah to where they could ambush him by threatening to lie to the King of Persia about his intentions.  This failed.  Part of the reason this failed was because Nehemiah had clearly laid out his plans to the King of Persia before he left to come to Jerusalem.

In the middle of the above, Nehemiah discovered that the poor among the Jews were being exploited by the wealthy and thus being driven even further into poverty.  When he realized this was true, he called the elites from among the Jews together and demanded that they stop.  But, he did not exempt himself from liability.  Rather, he recognized how his own actions contributed to the exploitation of the poor, even though that was not his intention.  Overall the portion of the passage where Nehemiah worked with the elites among the Jews to stop the exploitation of their poorer neighbors also provides us with an example for all leaders.  The passage points out how Nehemiah did not take advantage of many of the perks of his position which would have allowed him to become more wealthy in ways someone else would not be able to do.  Those perks were intended to allow a man of less wealth than Nehemiah had to fulfill the duties of his office.  However, reading between the lines one realizes that most people in a position similar to Nehemiah’s used those perks to make themselves even more wealthy and powerful.

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2019 Bible Study — Virtue Is the Antidote to Corruption

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 4-6.

When Nehemiah started construction work on the walls of Jerusalem, Sanballat and Tobiah were angered by the work and tried to discourage the workers.  Both Sanballat and Tobiah were officials of the Persian government and had seen Nehemiah’s letters from the King of Persia.  Neither Sanballat nor Tobiah had any official authority over Jerusalem.  However, both had unofficial interests there and their official positions had given them significant clout with those who had had authority in Jerusalem before Nehemiah’s arrival.  The passage does not spell it out, but I believe that at least part of their opposition to Nehemiah was related to his economic reforms.  An account of one of those economic reforms is sandwiched in between passages describing how Snaballat and Tobiah tried to intervene in Nehemiah’s governance of Jerusalem.

When Nehemiah became aware of how the wealthy were using their economic power to further impoverish the poor, he took action.  I am going to read between the lines a little bit here.  It appears that to one degree or another, the wealthy described here had built their wealth, at least in part, on the basis of being descended from those who had been taken into Exile from Jerusalem or the surrounding area.  However, they used that wealth to gain more wealth from other Returned Exiles who failed, for one reason or another, to capitalize on that heritage.  The wealthy were using their wealth to take advantage of the misfortunes of those who were not wealthy.  Rather than helping their coreligionists when they experienced misfortune, they were taking advantage of their misfortune.  The passage does not spell out the point I am about to make, but I think it fits what the passage does say.  The wealthy had gained their wealth because of favorable business arrangements which they were able to gain because they were members of the Returned Exiles.  However, rather than offer similar favorable arrangements with the less well off members of the Returned Exiles, they took advantage of their misfortunes to pad their own wealth.  Once they had gained their wealth they began to see themselves as having more in common with the corrupt officials of the surrounding peoples than with their fellow Jews. 

The corrupt officials among the surrounding peoples realized that they were going to be unable to stop Nehemiah from refortifying Jerusalem.  Further, he was convincing the Jews to close ranks and support each other rather than take part in the corrupt practices from which these officials profited.  So, they tried to set up a clandestine meeting with Nehemiah.  Again the passage does not say this, but the wording suggests to me that they implied an opportunity for Nehemiah to collaborate with them for both to profit.  Nehemiah, however, believed that they intended to ambush him if he went to the meeting.  When that failed, they attempted to blackmail Nehemiah with false accusations.  Again, the passage does not clearly say this, but the blackmail appears to have been, “Either cut a deal with us, or we will tell the King that you are plotting rebellion.”  That failed because Nehemiah was acting within the mandate he had received directly from the King of Persia and Nehemiah knew that it would take more than mere rumors and unsupported allegations to undermine his position.  They next attempted to take advantage of Nehemiah’s paranoia to make him an ineffective governor.  They hoped to get him to hide from assassins, which would have served the dual purposes of making him less aware of corruption among those under his authority and discredited him with his supporters for taking protective measures which were not available to them.

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2018 Bible Study — Nehemiah, a Study In Leadership

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 4-6.

    When Nehemiah actually got the project started to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, Sanballat and Tobiah began to actively campaign against him. Initially, they spread rumors that they were going to launch an attack against the Jews. It is not clear to me that they actually planned to attack the Jews, they may have merely hoped to frighten the Jews into stopping work. However, based on the way people have behaved throughout history, it is likely that if the Jews had ignored the threats and continued building they would have attacked. Nehemiah was bright enough to take precautions against attack. At the same time as these rumors about an attack were spreading some of those working began to complain that they needed additional help with the rebuilding. I suspect that the writer intends for us to conclude that these complaints were planted by agents of Sanballat and Tobiah.

    I was going to continue to write about how Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem sought to disrupt Nehemiah’s efforts, but I realized that the important part of this was the leadership which Nehemiah demonstrated. First, he worked alongside of those he was leading, expending his own resources in the effort. Those resources were not just his wealth and property, the way I read this Nehemiah actually went and labored beside those working on the wall. He kept his focus on the project and did not let himself get distracted playing politics. When those attempting to derail the project asked for a private meeting with him, Nehemiah rejected it in no uncertain terms. We do not know if the plan was to assassinate Nehemiah, as the passage suggests, or merely to use the meetings to compromise him. In either case, Nehemiah knew that nothing beneficial to his project could come from such a meeting. Then when they threatened to spread false rumors about him and even use them to cause a divide between Nehemiah and the King if Persia, he called their bluff. As far as good leadership goes, Nehemiah had covered this one by arranging in advance how long he would be in Jerusalem.
    Finally, we have Nehemiah’s leadership when the poor complained about the hardships they were suffering. Nehemiah did not just demand that others change their behavior. He recognized that his own behavior had contributed to the problem, that he had profited off of the suffering of others. In the past I had always read the place in this passage where Nehemiah recounts how he did not take advantage of many of the perks available to him as governor as being somewhat boastful. However, as I read it today I realized he was saying, “I worked really hard to avoid being corrupted by position of power and I still missed where I was abusing my power.” Nehemiah did not get defensive when the poor complained. Instead he looked at their complaint and changed his behavior.

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2017 Bible Study — Overcoming The Obstacles To Performing God’s Will

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 4-6.

    Today’s passage tells us about the obstacles which the returned exiles had rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls. First of all they faced external opposition. The external opposition ridiculed them and tried to get them to give up out of embarrassment. When that did not work, the opposition attempted to frighten them into giving up. Nehemiah met both of these assaults head on. He reminded the workers that they were doing God’s work and that God would cause those who mocked His people to experience mockery. In a subtle way Nehemiah reminded the workers that the best way to repay those who mocked their efforts was to succeed. As for dealing with the threats, Nehemiah put some of his own work force on guard and encouraged everyone to be prepared to respond if attacked. We do not know if the enemies only ever planned on trying to frighten the Jews with the threat of attack, or if they gave up their plans when they saw the preparations to meet them when they attacked, but the attack never came. Finally, when they realized that Nehemiah could keep the worker’s spirits up in the face of their attacks, they went after him directly. First, they attempted to lure him out to a place where they could arrange for something to befall him. When that failed, they attempted to get him to act frightened by taking security measures which the workers would be unable to duplicate. Nehemiah refused to give their lies any credence (the ones they used in their attempt to lure him out), and he refused to allow them to intimidate him. He took the same risks which the workers took.

    The other obstacle which the Jews faced in rebuilding the walls was internal. The nobles and other wealthy individuals were making themselves richer at the expense of their poorer brethren. When the people came to Nehemiah to complain his initial reaction was anger, but he took the time to think things through before he acted. Once he came to an understanding of the problem he called for a public meeting. There he confronted those who were guilty of creating this problem, and even acknowledged that he had been guilty to some extent. He proposed a solution and applied it to himself as well as asking others to step up. Nehemiah did not use his position to make himself richer.

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2016 Bible Study — Nehemiah As An Example Of Godly Leadership

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 4-6.

    There were two men with political power in the area around Jerusalem who opposed Nehemiah and his rebuilding of the wall. Yesterday, I offered a theory for their opposition. Whether that theory was correct, or there was some other reason they opposed Nehemiah, it is clear that they considered him a threat to their power and wealth. In this passage they belittled the effectiveness of the wall which the residents of Jerusalem were building, at least in part, as an effort to discourage those doing the building. Furthermore, they planned an assault to disrupt the work on the wall. However, when Nehemiah learned of the planned assault he organized a defense of the city. From the description it seems that Nehemiah did not really believe that the planned defense would prevent the assault. But, if his enemies had launched their planned attack, Nehemiah’s defensive planning would have resulted in evidence that his enemies were behind the attack. Nehemiah would have been able to present such evidence to the king of Persia, who was known to hold him in high esteem. Knowing this, his enemies next attempt was to get him to come to a place where they could ambush him. When this plan also failed, they bribed someone Nehemiah considered a friend to convince Nehemiah that he needed to protect himself while leaving the common man at risk. Nehemiah rejected that advice as well. Repeatedly, Nehemiah showed himself to be a true leader of the people.

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    In the middle of the accounts about how Nehemiah’s enemies attempted to disrupt his work, we have a concrete example of how Nehemiah served the people rather than the other way around. When Nehemiah learned that some of the Jews were suffering economic hardship while others were doing well, with the latter doing well at the expense of the former, he was furious. He confronted them with the fact that they were taking part in the efforts to buy out of slavery Jews everywhere, while at the same time they were causing other Jews to be sold into slavery. Nehemiah admitted that he, his brothers, and his servants had been profiting by loaning money at interest to the poor. However, he was going to stop that practice and restore the profit he had made. He thus shamed the others among the elites into doing the same. It is worth noting that Nehemiah did not use his power as governor to get the other nobles to stop mistreating the poor. Instead he shamed them into agreeing to do so by his own example.