Recovery and Recognition (Nehemiah 11:1–12:26)

What do we think about when we think of a city? What comes to our mind when we think of London, for example? Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, the Underground? But thinking that way reveals a problem of perception because surely the first aspect of a city that should come to mind are the residents because without them there is not a city, merely a collection of buildings.

What comes to mind when we think of the church, the city of God? Denominations, historical events, statistics of numerical strength or weakness, programmes. But thinking that way reveals a problem of perception because surely the first aspect of a city that should come to mind are the residents because without them there is not a community. The church is about the people who belong to it and their relationship with God.

What comes to mind when we think of the city of Jerusalem, or maybe we should ask, what would have come to the mind of Nehemiah at the time recorded in this passage of his book? A wall rebuilt, a restored religious programme of God-given festivals, a sense of revival expressed through making a covenant commitment to God had taken place. Was that enough for Jerusalem? Each of those things was very good in itself. But what was the benefit of them for the city if there were no residents, or not enough residents living in the city?

It is interesting that Nehemiah calls Jerusalem by the title ‘the holy city’. He does not say it is ‘a holy city’. There was only one holy city, Jerusalem, and what made it so was that it was the dwelling-place of God. He had set it apart for himself by dwelling in the temple in the holy of holies. We can ask why he chose to call it by this title here. Nehemiah is describing those who are going to dwell in the same city in which God dwells. So such will have a sense of privilege as well as awareness of the need for purity and holiness.

This passage with its long list of names from long ago might seem to have very little to do with us in our contemporary situation. Yet I would suggest that there are some lessons that we can take from the actions engaged in by Nehemiah and others, and if we imitate them in a suitable way we may see divine blessing.

Divine arranging

We can see from verse 1 that of the important groups in the country only ‘the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem’. The solution to this problem was for the people to cast lots in order to discover who should go and live in the city. The matter of casting lots was a public acknowledgement of the sovereignty of God and was used often during Old Testament times in Israel. In an obvious way, the people were revealing their dependence on God for obtaining new inhabitants for the city. He responded to their desire and revealed to them through the lots who the people were that he wanted to dwell in the city.

The lesson from this practice for us is not that we should start casting lots. As far as Jerusalem was concerned, the targeted audience was known and all they had to do in a sense was to find a way of identifying those who should move from the country areas and live in the city. Instead of casting lots we have other methods of discovering who God wants to live in the church and in our congregation. One of those methods is prayer in which by faith we ask him to add to the numbers in our congregations. Another method is by spreading the gospel and inviting people to receive through trust in Jesus the spiritual blessings that God gives to those who believe.

Deliberate acceptance

We might imagine that the almighty God would have forced those identified by lot to move into the city. He certainly could have, for who could resist his great power? But that is not how the process is described. Instead those identified by lot freely went into the city. They were eager to do God’s will. When thinking about how this applies to ourselves, we should note that God not only makes people willing to be saved he also makes them willing to serve. Reflecting on two Bible passages can help us see the importance of this reality.

In Psalm 110, David celebrates the exaltation of Jesus to the throne of God after his ascension to heaven. The psalmist includes in his joyful description the dedication of the people to their exalted King: ‘Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments’ (v. 3). They are clothed in the garments of salvation, and they dedicate themselves as an army ready to do the bidding of their Sovereign. Obviously, they realise who he is and therefore consecrate themselves to serve him in spiritual ways.

In the first eleven chapters of Romans Paul has detailed the core features of the salvation God has provided for sinners. He does so by describing salvation in its past, present and future aspects. When reading the letter, we discover the significance of the doctrines of election, justification, adoption, sanctification and glorification, doctrines that describe the great things God has in store for sinners. But the apostle does not leave it there, as if it were enough to know a summary of those doctrines. Instead he calls on his readers to dedicate themselves to God at the start of Romans 12: ‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship’ (v. 1). His words reveal full consecration as the only valid expression of gratitude for such an amazing salvation. It is likely that he is alluding to the burnt offering described in Leviticus and which illustrated total consecration.

Delighted acknowledgement

Another aspect of the people’s response is described in verse 2 when it says that the people blessed those who were willing to go and live in the city. What is involved in blessing others? There would be words of encouragement and words of exhortation. It looks like an enormous sending service for willing servants of the Lord. Sometimes, when a person has decided to serve God in a particular way and place, a congregation can hold a commissioning service in which appropriate comments are said and some promises, such as committing to pray for them, are made.

Ten percent of the population had agreed to move to Jerusalem, which means about five thousand were involved. How did the other forty-five thousand express their blessing on them? Perhaps they sang a suitable psalm or maybe they were led in a communal prayer. There was a recognition of the sacrifice that those moving to the city were prepared to make, and the other people thought well of them for doing so. They did not wonder if they had ulterior motives. Rather they commended them for their willingness to serve the Lord.

Paul often speaks well of other Christians. At times, he refers to individual Christians and at other times he refers to congregations. A clear example of such Pauline responses is found in his letter to the Philippians. He commends the congregation for their commitment in helping him at different times and he also commends people like Timothy and Epaphroditus for their service of the Lord. He also reminded Titus to teach people that they should not speak evil of anyone (Tit. 3:2).

David, too, describes other believers in very positive ways. In Psalm 16, he describes them as the excellent of the earth. Spurgeon cites Thomas Goodwin as saying about this: ‘It is strange to hear how men by their speeches will undervalue a saint as such, if without some other outward excellency. For whilst they acknowledge a man a saint, yet in other respects, they will contemn him; “He is a holy man,” they will say, “but he is weak,” etc. But is he a saint? And can there be any such other imperfection or weakness found as shall lay him low in thy thoughts in comparison of other carnal men more excellent? Hath not Christ loved him, bought him, redeemed him?’

I read recently what Andrew Bonar said of a ministerial friend called William Hewitson: ‘How blessed are those who walk with God! I feel as if few of such were now left. What a consciousness there was in him of the realized presence of God!’ That was a good commendation for one Christian to make of another believer. Surely we can always see evidence of grace at work in another believer, habits that help us speak kindly of them to others.

Division of activity

It goes without saying that one purpose of the lists given in Nehemiah is to highlight the variety of roles that were required. If everyone in the city did the same thing, not much would get done. But when each person fulfilled his or her role, then a great deal could be achieved. In this list of names, several chiefs, priests, Levites, gatekeepers and others are mentioned.

This reality reminds us of the New Testament emphasis on every believer receiving at least one spiritual gift from Jesus when he or she was converted. Paul phrases it by describing those gifts as grace from Christ, and by describing them in this way he is indicating that heavenly help will be given in order to practice them. Those gifts are not the same as natural talents, although both should be used for the Lord. The challenge that comes to us is whether we have consecrated our gifts and talents to the Lord or do we only offer them occasionally, and perhaps not fully when we do.

Desirable anonymity

In this passage, there are many names but apart from Nehemiah they are not on the tip of our tongue. Some of the names don’t have any comment beside them and a few have a brief description of a few words. Yet we know that on this particular day they made choices to serve God and to live in a manner that pleased him. They may have done so on numerous days, but if they did we know nothing about it. Even those who came back under Zerubbabel on a previous occasion and started off the process of recovery have virtually nothing said about them, although their contribution had been longstanding.

The fact is, most people are going to be forgotten. We walk past war memorials, maybe even read some of the names, but don’t usually think too much about it. The response does not mean that we are not grateful. No doubt, the best response we can make is to preserve as best we can what they fought to give us. That kind of reality exists in the church as well. The people mentioned in the passage did what they did so that future generations would benefit. And that is what we do as well. We live to serve God in the present and we do so with the aim of helping others do so in the future. It does not really matter whether they know much about us as long as they will think a great deal of the Saviour and his kingdom. 

Divine awareness

We may wonder why all the names of individuals and families are recorded in these chapters. Yet there was a purpose in doing so. At a surface level, it is a city register and such registers were used in the ancient world for a variety of reasons. Psalm 87, which describes the return of the exiles from Babylon, mentions God writing names of people in his book as they join the city of God from other nations. So we could view this list as an illustration of the book of life.

Another way of looking at the list is to remind ourselves that God not only knows the names of the residents of the city, but he also knows their activities, what each of them did for the health of the city as it recovered from a difficult period. Paul reminds his readers that their activities will be brought up on the Day of Judgement, the day when the books are opened. The reward that each believer will receive is connected to their imperfect activities, although they are also the evidences of their renewed hearts. Jesus also, when describing the day of judgement in Matthew 25, mentions that the Judge will be aware of the actions that were performed by his people, actions that expressed brotherly love in one way or another.

So the list of names here reminds that God is ‘not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints’ (Heb. 6:10). He is aware of everything that his people do in his kingdom. Another reference that stresses this reality is found in Malachi 3:16: ‘Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.’

Those five details taken from this passage will help us face our circumstances even as they helped Nehemiah and those who were with him.