Participating in the Celebration (Nehemiah 12:27-47)

Sometimes, the people of God have a public celebration. In the Bible, we can think of the celebration of the children of Israel at the Red Sea over the great victory that God had given to them over their enemies. Or we could think of the occasion when David participated in the celebration connected to the ark of the covenant coming to Jerusalem. On those occasions, the people danced and sang with delight and joy.

But we don’t only look back to historical events. The gospel allows us to look forward to a great celebration when Jesus will return and his people, a number that no one can count, will gather in the presence of God and thank him joyfully for his great salvation. We could almost say that the smaller celebrations are pointers to the greater one that is to come. And if that was true of Miriam and David, so also was it true of Nehemiah who with Ezra led the celebrations after he with God’s help had made the city secure by completing the wall.

It would be beneficial for us to study the accounts of the celebrations of Miriam and David and learn lessons from what they did in response to God’s goodness and mercy. And we can do the same with Nehemiah and his helpers with regard to the city wall. So what does their celebration about the wall say to us? Can we take insights from what occurred and use them in some way to help us to celebrate the great actions by the Lord on our behalf? At least three aspects can be identified, and each can help us in our response.

Purification

The first detail that we can consider is the necessity of purification even of those who had done something important for the kingdom of God. This cleansing is mentioned in verse 30: ‘And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.’ We are not told how they purified themselves, but their actions would have been according to the methods for cleansing that God had given through Moses centuries earlier. He had provided instructions concerning such purification rituals and no doubt they were engaged in by the people. Why did they need to purify themselves? One answer is obvious – they were sinners who had defiled themselves by their wrong thoughts, words and deeds. So too is another answer: they were dealing with the God who is holy and who does not tolerate the presence of sin in his people.

What is involved in purification for us today after we have served the Lord and engaged in work for him? Jesus spoke about this matter when he was having a discussion with Peter in the Upper Room about the difference between having a bath and a foot-washing (John 13). Jesus explained that the forgiveness of sin that happens at conversion is like having a bath and that pardon for specific sins is like a foot-washing. People at that time would not have a bath every day but they would wash their feet of the sand and dirt that would cling to them after walking on the roads or working in the fields. In Christian experience we receive total overall forgiveness when we are converted, and after then we are given daily cleansing by God from the effects of sin. The apostle John writes about this when he says in 1 John 1:7: ‘But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.’

A second way in which sinners are cleansed is mentioned by Paul in his letter to Titus when he writes, ‘he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit’ (Tit. 3:5). The washing is a reference to baptism, but Paul is not suggesting that baptism in itself brings about cleansing. Rather, baptism is a reminder that God cleanses us inwardly by giving us new life by the regenerating work of the Spirit and then continues the renewal of our hearts throughout life by the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. We could describe this twofold experience as initial sanctification and progressive sanctification.

Paul mentions a third way for us to think about cleansing when he reminds the Ephesians that Jesus cleansed the church ‘by the washing of water with the word’ (Eph. 5:26). He says that God’s Word, whether in reading or studying it or hearing it preached and explained, has a cleansing effect upon us because it informs us how we can live holy lives. Obedience to it can keep us from defiling ourselves by sinful behaviour.

An important aspect of daily cleansing is confession of sin. John again reminds us of this reality when he says in that same chapter of 1 John: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9). That verse is part of God’s Word, we are enabled to obey it by the Holy Spirit and confess our sins to God, and we receive forgiveness and cleansing from God because of the atoning work of Jesus.

As we look forward to the great celebration to come, we realise that our participation in it is connected to what Jesus did: ‘Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”’ (Rev. 7:13-14).

Praise

The praise is performed by the priests, Levites and singers. We might imagine at a first reading of the account that Nehemiah took whoever was available and whatever instruments they had and used them in a casual manner. What he actually does is follow the instructions that were given by David regarding who among the priests and Levites was to play which instrument and who was to lead the singing in the praise of God. We can see that the people divided into two groups, and one group walked round the circular wall in one direction and the other half walked round the wall in the other direction. 

The sons of Korah were Levites and some of them were involved in composing psalms to celebrate what took place in Jerusalem after the exile was over. One of their psalms that focuses on the repopulating of the city is Psalm 87, which speaks of great and surprising population growth that included people from other nations. They also composed Psalm 48, and in that psalm they tell one another to ‘Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever’ (Ps. 48:12-14). It would have been possible to walk round Zion in different ways, and here Nehemiah arranges for them to march around on it and to praise their God as they did so.

The two groups walked round the walls and met up in the temple area (v. 40). When they reached there, great sacrifices were offered in praise to God as they observed the wall of security that he had provided. Surely when we come to praise God we also praise him for the security he has provided for his people. How secure are we as members of his church?

Think of the words of Jesus in John 10:28-29: ‘I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.’ There is double protection there illustrated by the references to the hand of Jesus and the hand of the Father. Or take the words of Paul in Colossians 3:3: ‘your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ Again the reality of double protection is mentioned. Who can find the people of God hidden in that double security of the Father and the Son?

And when we get to the great gathering when Jesus returns, will we not be assured by the eternal security that God will provide for ever? And even now we can obtain confidence from thinking about what he has provided for his people.

Pleasure

Nehemiah mentions something remarkable in verse 43: ‘And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.’ Five times in that verse there is a reference to their happiness and pleasure.

We are told that their joy was connected to their worship (the sacrifices that they offered), that God enabled them to rejoice, that the women and children shared in the joy, and that people far away heard the joyful sound from the city. As we consider the verse through New Testament eyes, it tells us that joy is connected to gratitude to God, that it is produced in his people by the Spirit of God, that it includes families joining together joyfully in the presence of God, and that joyful believers are a powerful witness to the salvation of God.

Which aspect of the joy is most striking? I would say that the fact that God is the provider of joy is the most striking. Remember that he is infinite in his resources. He is the fountain of joy. The joy that we can have is the joy of the Lord. Nehemiah said earlier to the people that the joy of the Lord is their strength. Jesus informed his disciples that he had given his joy to them: ‘These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full’ (John 15:11).

There is also something very beautiful about the family aspect of the joy that is described here. The Christian church in itself is a family and a congregation is often composed of families in a literal sense. Parents and children participating together should be a normal spiritual activity as they consider according to their capacity their covenant God who has promised to bless them. Children are not merely the future of the church, but they are also part of the church in the present.

The joyful noise from the city dwellers reached a considerable distance. Whatever else could be detected about the city and its inhabitants, people would affirm that it was composed of happy people. Spurgeon, when preaching on this passage and applying it to his congregation, observed that ‘The joy of the Lord should be observed throughout our neighbourhood, and many who might otherwise have been careless of true religion will then enquire, “What makes these people glad, and creates such happy households?” Your joy shall thus be God’s missionary.’

Then we can look ahead to the great gathering to come. One of its experiences will be the incredible joy that will be known: 

Joyful, joyful will the meeting be,

when from sin our hearts are pure and free;

and we shall gather, Saviour, with thee,

in our eternal home.

In Psalm 16:11, Jesus, the builder of the church, describes what heaven will be like: ‘in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.’ Ahead of Christians is an experience of endless joy in the presence of God, and therefore they should rejoice greatly now.

Lessons

This was a remarkable day for the city and its wall. Earlier in the story, Tobiah had taunted the builders by saying that the wall they were building would not be strong enough to support a fox. But here it was, strong enough and wide enough for a large number of people to walk together on it. The lesson from this is never to assess a project for God by what the world think of it at the beginning.

The completion of the building of the wall was a reminder to Nehemiah of the truth that Paul framed when he asked the question, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ The formidable enemies that had attempted to derail the progress of the wall had failed to prevent its completion. Whatever he is involved in is bound to succeed. Therefore, our hope and confidence is in him, the God who makes and keeps his promises, as we engage in his service.