Building on God's Word (6 of 8)
Series: Nehemiah
Ross Lester
Nehemiah 8:1-18
Intro:
Morning church. Nehemiah 8 is where we will be. Where we left off last week, the walls of Jerusalem were built, and Nehemiah had ordered and obtained an accurate and up to date census of who was with them and the available resources that they had, so that Jerusalem could function not just as a place of safety, and commerce and trade, but also as it was supposed to always function ... as a place of worship.
Here is how it was left in chapter 7.
73 So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel, lived in their towns.
And when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.
- Ne 7:73.
So this is helpful. Here we see a little bit of how life was structured in these ancient cities. You have the urban core inside the gates of Jerusalem, who live there full-time, but then you have these small developments of housing outside of the city gates, where people commute into the city to participate in trade and civic and religious life. These are like the suburbs of the day. They probably have overbearing HOA's and passive aggressive yard signs and community forums where people get to speak about suspicious looking newcomers. You know, suburb stuff.
So things seem to be going pretty well. Much progress has been made. But, there is much yet to do. You see, the purpose of Jerusalem wasn't just so that the people of God could have a flourishing life in the worldy sense of flourishing. The purpose of Jerusalem was that it would be a place where the people of God would rightly worship the one true God as a testimony to the nations.
And here is the tension ... Nehemiah tells us that it is the 7th month. This means that the wall was finished in the month of Elul (6:15) and the people now find themselves at the start of the month of Tishri, and you know what that month is in the Hebrew ...
Series: Nehemiah
Ross Lester
Nehemiah 8:1-18
Intro:
Morning church. Nehemiah 8 is where we will be. Where we left off last week, the walls of Jerusalem were built, and Nehemiah had ordered and obtained an accurate and up to date census of who was with them and the available resources that they had, so that Jerusalem could function not just as a place of safety, and commerce and trade, but also as it was supposed to always function ... as a place of worship.
Here is how it was left in chapter 7.
73 So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel, lived in their towns.
And when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.
- Ne 7:73.
So this is helpful. Here we see a little bit of how life was structured in these ancient cities. You have the urban core inside the gates of Jerusalem, who live there full-time, but then you have these small developments of housing outside of the city gates, where people commute into the city to participate in trade and civic and religious life. These are like the suburbs of the day. They probably have overbearing HOA's and passive aggressive yard signs and community forums where people get to speak about suspicious looking newcomers. You know, suburb stuff.
So things seem to be going pretty well. Much progress has been made. But, there is much yet to do. You see, the purpose of Jerusalem wasn't just so that the people of God could have a flourishing life in the worldy sense of flourishing. The purpose of Jerusalem was that it would be a place where the people of God would rightly worship the one true God as a testimony to the nations.
And here is the tension ... Nehemiah tells us that it is the 7th month. This means that the wall was finished in the month of Elul (6:15) and the people now find themselves at the start of the month of Tishri, and you know what that month is in the Hebrew ...
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