If you've been following along
in Nehemiah, you know that I've often referred to Chapter 12,
and in Chapter 12 we have this remarkable event of the dedication
of the wall, the culmination in a sense of Nehemiah's work,
the culmination and the amazing answer from the Lord for that
prayer that he prayed in chapter 1. He was in distress and that
distress was seen by the king and seen by the king's wife.
And he prayed that remarkable prayer where he earned the character
of God in his faithfulness to his covenant in sending these
people to Babylon and reminded God of his covenant. And that
covenant included the bringing of these people back to himself.
And the culmination of all that is down here in chapter 12, verse
43. What a remarkable history we've
had in Nehemiah, just in those first 8 chapters, just covering
52 days and the people saw that the wall was built. and it was
built because of the hand of God upon these people. But the
purpose, of course, is not just the building of a wall. The purpose
of God in all of these things is in verse 43, isn't it? Also that day, this is the day
of the dedication, they offered great sacrifices and rejoice,
and listen to these words, for God had made them rejoice with
great joy. And the wives also and the children
rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar
off. are far off to be in the years
of Sambalap and Tobiah and the others who stood opposed to this
all the way through, all those enemies that they are surrounded
by. And of course, it's just a great picture, isn't it? It's
a great picture of God's faithfulness to his people in this world,
but also his faithfulness to his people, his faithfulness
to his bird, his faithfulness to his covenant, his faithfulness
to his promises to love his people, to shepherd his people, to guide
his people, to care for his people, all ultimately culminate in Heaven's
glory and the glories of the new creation. And what will that
be? A place where God has made them
rejoice with great joy. That's where we're heading to,
brothers and sisters. So I thought we'd just look at these verses that lead to
this remarkable place. We have, as we've seen going
through this, These people are a gathered people, they are a
preserved people, they are a protected people, they are a separated
people. God has gathered his people together,
surrounded them with walls of protection, separated from them
from the others, caused his people to be a worshipping people, but
worship in God's Kingdom comes through His people being made
to see what they are, to see that they are sinners. see that sin is what they are. They are, in chapter 8, a humbled
people and a weeping people, as the Word of God was read to
them. The Word of God became powerful
to them, in verse 10, these people that were weeping and mourning,
for they heard the words of the law, and then God said to them
through His Spokesman, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this
day is wholly unto our Lord. Neither be ye sorry, for the
joy of the Lord is your strength. And of course what's happened
as we move from Chapter 8 through to Chapter 12 is that we actually
now have Jerusalem a walled city, and we have Jerusalem now a populated
city, and we have Jerusalem now a people, a place where God's
sacrifices are carried out because God's Levites are there and God's
priests are there. So these people, humbled and
weeping, they've been moved to build the temple, moved to build
the wall, and now that this city is there, it's not only a populated
city, we'll see in these verses that it's a city that is provisioned. provisioned for living in Jerusalem,
there are provisions for sacrifices, there are provisions for providing
for the Levites and the priests, because God will only be worshipped
in His ordained way, in His ordained place, with His ordained sacrifice. And these people are now crowned
with praise. So let's go and look together. I'm not going to read the lists
of names. That doesn't mean that the names aren't significant. There are lots of wonderfully
significant things amongst all of these names. Now these are
the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel, the
son of Shealtiel and Jeshua, Shariah, Jeremiah and Ezra, not
the Ezra that we'll read about later on. And there we have a
list of these priests and that list culminates in verse 7. And so there's a list of the
priests from the time of Zerubbabel when they first came back to
build the temple for that 140 years, I believe it is, until
they actually dedicated the wall. It was a long process and again
and again the people were stopped and the people were distracted
and the people had God's prophets come and say, build and build
and build. and continue on and finally of
course Nehemiah comes and that work that had begun all those
years before was brought to completion. And of course in these lists
of one following the other we actually have yet another sign
of God's covenant faithfulness to His people. again and again,
written in history. Even when they were in Babylon,
they still had priests and these priests went right through and
we find down in In verse 11, starting in 10,
we actually have these people producing sons. Within that family
line, there were people there made and provided by God to sustain
His people in worship. And the one in verse 11 is a
famous one in history at the end of January. He was the high
priest. when Alexander the Great visited
Jerusalem after the battle of Tyre, and after the battle went
down in verse 22, that that last Darius, the Persian,
was defeated. And Alexander the Great, the
story goes from Josephus, is that Alexander the Great came
to Jerusalem and the high priest went out to meet Alexander dressed
in his high priestly robes and he had in his hand the Book of
Daniel and he showed Alexander the Great, that the things that
Alexander the Great had done to Tola and had done to Babylon
were there written in the Word of God. And Alexander the Great,
so the story goes, honoured him enormously. It's remarkable. Obviously as you would know from
the chronology, those verses are not written by Nehemiah,
they were added later on. They were added in the days of
the Maccabees. It's no less than God's Word for us. But it is
just remarkable how the history of the people of this world is
a history that always manifests to the faithfulness of God. And
the story of Tyre is one of those remarkable ones. We read of the
pride of Tyre and in Ezekiel you can read about Tyre being
proud and God promises. He says, Tyre will be a place
where fishermen dry their nets. And Tyre was a two-part city.
It had a city on the land, but its main fortress was a city
out in the water. And when Alexander the Great
came through those countries, views surrendered. Surrendered
without a fight to Alexander, he treated you with great kindness. If you rebelled against him,
he completely decimated you." Thay was proud and what Alexander
the Great did was that he captured the city on the land and he destroyed
the city completely and he built a causeway out to this island
which is quite a way out into the sea. Remarkable engineering
feat, and he marched out there and he completely obliterated
the town of Tyre. And as Ezekiel had promised,
it remained for a long time a place for fishermen to dry their nets. It may be the same today. You
see, God's faithfulness is a faithfulness that operates in history, which
is why we have these lists of these men. God is faithful to
his covenant. God is faithful. He must have
two tribes, mustn't he, that survive. Obviously the tribe
of Judah must survive and the tribe of Levi must survive, that
there can be a temple. in Jerusalem, that second temple
which was going to have greater glory than the first temple of
Solomon. The greater glory of course is
that the Lord Jesus comes into it. And as we go on we see that these
Levites were given activities to do, weren't they, in verse
24, the chief of the Levites, Heshabiah, Sherabiah, and Jeshua
the son of Cadmiel, with their brethren over against them, to
praise and to give thanks according to the commandment of David. the man of God, ward over against
ward, steward over against steward. David had divided in 1 Chronicles
23, 5 and 6. He divided the Levites into 24
divisions, one for each hour of the day, but also they watched
over Jerusalem and they had a job to do. Just think about it. They
are organised. to give praise and to give thanks. Isn't it remarkable that praise
and thanks are a commandment from God? Think of some of the
praises that they sang. Think of some of the songs that
they sang. David was the great singer of
Israel, wasn't he? I'll just read a couple of the
songs that I've been looking at today. Songs that they sang. Because that's what they're called.
Psalm 48 is one that I'll read to you. A song and a psalm for
the sons of Korah. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His
holiness. Beautiful for situations, the
joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. On the sides of the north,
the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. For lo, the kings were assembled
They passed by together, they saw it, and so they marveled. They were troubled and hasted
away. Fear took hold upon them there,
and pain as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish
with an east wind. As we have heard, so we have
seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our
God, God will establish it forever. We have thought of Thy lovingkindness,
O God, in the midst of Thy temple, according to Thy name, O God. So is Thy praise unto the ends
of the earth. Thy right hand is full of righteousness."
Think of those people singing this in this city now with a
wall surrounding it, having been rescued out of Babylon. according
to thy name, O God. Such is thy praise unto the ends
of the earth. Thy right hand is full of righteousness.
Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be
glad because of thy judgments. What a remarkable word, isn't
it? We are glad, made glad because of the judgments of God. Walk
about Zion, go around about her, tell the towers thereof, mark
well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that you may tell it
to the generation following, for or because this God is our
God, for ever and ever He will be our guide even unto death."
What songs they had to sing. What songs they had to sing that
caused them to remember the faithfulness of their God. They sang with
cymbals, with those that next word means lyres, and harps. And they gathered themselves,
sons of singers, in verse 28, they gathered themselves together
both out of the plain country and round about Jerusalem and
from the villages of Nedapati, also from the house of Gilgal,
from down near Jericho, from the fields of Geba, in that Levitical country, and
as Maveth. The singers had built them villages
round about Jerusalem. They'd actually come from these
places and they'd established themselves around about Jerusalem
so they were ready and available for singing. And the priests and the Levites
purified themselves and purified the people and the gates and
the wall. You see, only the pure can serve
God. Isn't it wonderful that He accepts
only the worship of the pure, only the worship of the holy. Of course that purification is
a reference to that remarkable ceremony that was conducted and
the ashes of this red heifer were kept in Jerusalem for people
who had had contact with death. It's called the water of purification. It's also called the water of
separation. And it's quite a remarkably lengthy
process to create the ashes of this heifer. You can read about
it in Numbers 19. But not only did the priest have
to, in a sense, defile himself and then go and wash himself
and be unclean until evening, the one that burnt this red heifer
had to wash his clothes in water and bathe his flesh in water
and he was unclean until evening. The man that is clean gathers
up these ashes and he lays them without the camp in a clean place
and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children
of Israel for a water of separation." It is a purification for sin. that even the man that gathered
the ashes shall wash his clothes, and he is unclean until evening,
and it shall be unto the children of Israel. It's he that touches,
verse 11 of chapter 19, the dead body of any man shall be unclean
seven days. It is remarkable, isn't it? The
Lord Jesus touched a dead body. And as I said to you before,
when the Lord Jesus touches someone, they must be instantly holy and
clean and alive and no longer dead. Otherwise he would have
to, under the law, go through this remarkable process, didn't
he? Think of what it cost Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea on that
day when they touched a dead body what they were saying in
their identification with the Lord Jesus on that day. They
were saying that your Passover tomorrow, your Jewish Passover,
is a Passover that I cannot and will not have any part in whatsoever. What a remarkable thing, how
their families, how their friends, Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel,
God calls him, the greatest teacher, the leading teacher in Israel,
could not participate in any Jewish festival for another seven
days. But remarkably what happened
to the body that Nicodemus touched? It didn't undergo any corruption
in 3 days on that Sunday morning. Nicodemus would have been rejoicing
in the most remarkable way. Purification. They purified themselves. and they purified the people
and the gates and the wall using this water of purification, this
water of separation. All of it, of course, symbolic,
all of it representing the Lord Jesus. In verse 31 down to the
end of this section of the scripture we actually have this beautiful
picture that I've talked about Let's read it. Then I brought
up the princes of Judah upon the wall and appointed two great
companies of them that gave thanks. Wherefore one went on the right
hand upon the wall towards the dung gate. So one went on the
right hand side and went down and around and the other one,
and then it has a list of them. of these people. After them went
Hoshea and the princes and half the princes of Judah and then
it lists all these people. And these people in verse 35,
certain of the priests' sons with trumpets namely Zechariah,
the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattiah,
the son of Micaiah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Asaph,
and his brethren with musical instruments of David the man
of God. And Ezra the scribe, Ezra the
priest leads this one company. And at the fountain gate, which
was over against them, they went up by the stairs of the city
of David and going up the wall above the house of David, even
under the water gate eastward. And so they went out and right
and eastward. And the other company isn't it
wonderful, that gave thanks, went over against them, and I
after them. And half the people upon the
wall, from beyond the tower of the furnaces, even unto the broad
wall, and from above the gate of Ephraim, and above the old
gate, so they went north-west, above the fish gate, the tower,
I went north and then went west. The Tower of Hananiel, the Tower
of Meir, even under the Sheep Gate, they stood and they stood
still in the prison gate. And so the two companies, so
these two companies go up on this wall and as we have seen
so often in Isaiah 26 and many, many other passages in the scriptures,
talk about this wall, don't they? He says, in that day, Isaiah
26.1, in that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. In fact, you can leave out the
italicised words there. Salvation, the Lord Jesus, will
appoint walls and bulwarks. What a wonderful picture of God's
people walking around the wall that God had placed around them,
as if they walk and circumnavigate all of Jerusalem. That wall,
that wall that was built by God, that wall of His sovereignty,
that wall of His covenant promises, that wall that separates His
people from the people outside, that wall that represents the
wall of fire that God encamps around His people, it's as if
the people of God get up and they walk around this wall and
they examine it. They examine God's covenant promises. They examine His powerful protection. They see His wisdom in bringing
them back. They see His faithfulness. They see His power. They see
again and again that they are the remarkable recipients of
the grace of God. And where do they finish up?
So these two companies come around and back and come into the court
of the temple. We see it there in verse 40. So stood the two companies of
them that gave thanks in the house of God, and I and half
the rulers with me. See, Ezra led one section that
I overlooked showing you in verse 38, that Nehemiah, who was the
governor, the king's representative there, takes the place of the
least, doesn't he? He follows them around. What
a day it must have been for Nehemiah to watch these companies and
then to see them gather. They gave thanks in the house
of God. and I and half the rulers with
me. And the priests, Eliakim and
the others, they have trumpets, they're blowing trumpets. And
then we have this worship service, this remarkable worship service
with these purified people gathered together by God, gathered in
Jerusalem, gathered to worship God, all of us, for those who
had eyes to see, all of it reflective of the Lord Jesus. The sacrifices
are reflective of Him. The temple is reflective of Him. The walls are reflective of Him.
The people are His bride. And look what they do. We can
just look briefly at these things that they do. They sang loud. They sang loud, but it wasn't
a disorganised singing. They had Jezra higher, their
overseer, so it was organised singing, but it was loud singing. It was rejoicing. In that day
they offered great sacrifices, great numbers of sacrifices.
The Lord had blessed these people in this land as He promised to
bless them in this land. They offered great sacrifices. All of those sacrifices are reflective
and represent just one sacrifice. Every single one of those sacrifices
is acceptable to God because of the great sacrifice. And they rejoiced. they rejoiced. God had made them rejoice with
great joy. Their families rejoiced with
them, the wives and the children, and this rejoicing was a rejoicing
that was heard even afar off. It wasn't just a quiet rejoicing
for them alone, it was a rejoicing that was to proclaim God, proclaim
God's goodness, to proclaim God's mercy, to proclaim His grace,
to proclaim His sovereignty, to proclaim His covenant faithfulness. And in closing, one of the things
that is remarkable isn't it, in the scriptures, and you have
heard me allude to it many times, but the thing is that we are
called upon and we are led, aren't we, as the children of God. We
are led to sing aloud. We are led to make great sacrifices. We are called upon by our Lord
to rejoice. Rejoice always. in Philippians 4. You know that
verse, don't you? Let your moderation, in a sense
let your meekness, but let your confidence in God be known to
all. And the reason is, in Philippians,
it's exactly the same reason here, in Philippians 4, the reason
is because the Lord is at hand. You see, they sing aloud But
who else sings? Why are they singing? Someone
else is singing. Let me read. Let me read these
remarkable words. Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout,
O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all
heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away thy judgments. He has cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil any more. What a remarkable word from our
God. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear thou
not, and to Zion, let not thy hands be slack. The Lord thy
God is in the midst of thee. In the midst of thee is mighty. He will save, He will rejoice
over thee with singing, with joy, sorry. He will save, He
will rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest in His love, He
will joy over thee with singing. Can you believe it brothers and
sisters? Can you believe it? He says in verse 18, I will gather
them that are sorrowful from the solemn assembly, who are
to thee to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo
all that afflict thee, and I will save her that halteth, or her
that is lame, and gather her that was driven out. I will get
them praise and fame in every land where they have been put
to shame. At that time I will bring you
again, even in the time that I gather you, for I will make
you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, and
I will turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord. His people sing because God sings. His people offer great sacrifices
because He offered the greatest sacrifice of all, His dear one
and precious Son. These people sang, they offered
great sacrifice, they rejoiced, they rejoiced with great rejoicing. Only sacrifices that are worthy
of God's honour come with rejoicing. And the joy of Jerusalem was
heard even afar off. Imagine that great day when that
city resounded with the songs of Zion, the songs of triumph
of our great God. that word that goes out afar
off. I will say to the north, give
them up. To the south, do not hold them back. Bring my sons
from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth." As the
Lord Jesus said. people will come from the east
and west, from the north and south, and they'll recline at
the table in the kingdom of God. It is a great kingdom, and we
have a great king. I was looking at the end of today,
Romans 5.21, where it says that sin reigned unto death. That sin that's come into this
world by our sin, in and with our father Adam, that sin reigned. But grace reigns unto eternal
life. Grace reigns. That's what Nehemiah
is about, isn't it? The reign of the grace of God. Grace reigns unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. We might finish there. I hope
that's been helpful. Let's pray.