4 lessons part 4
Nehemiah
Part 4
In this lesson I would like to take you through several tasks which under
Nehemiah’s leadership were established by the Lord. At the same time we
shall look at certain functions of strategically appointed people.
We have already seen in the earlier lessons that it is extremely important within
the fellowship of the church (or any kind of community or company) to have a
clear plan and strategy in order to be able to have a stable, powerful and growing
congregation.
Unfortunately when a church doesn’t grow the lack of growth is often covered up
with all sorts of excuses. Growth is a Biblical and therefore healthy principle.
TASKS (in the Book Nehemiah)
In Nehemiah 12:44-47 we read about men who were appointed to be in charge of
the storerooms
These storerooms were for : the offerings
the first fruits
the tithes
These men are mentioned in 1 Chronicles together with the gatekeepers, the
supervisors and the treasurers.
The names of these tasks indicate something of what their work involved: keeping
watch, being responsible for…, experts with understanding of and care for the
finances.
To get a correct picture of their responsibilities, we cannot avoid examining the
contents of the storerooms.
In these rooms the offerings were kept. The institution of the offerings we can find
in the book of Numbers 5:5-10. An offering had to do with the settling of a debt
of sin. If someone, man or woman, had committed a sin against somebody else,
that person had suffered damage. But by sinning the sinner had been unfaithful
to the Lord. And in so doing the sinner had piled up a debt on his own head.
Then we read in Num 5:7 how he/she could put it all right.
A. confess the sin
B. make full restitution for the damage to the injured party plus one fifth of the
value
C. in the event that there is no relative to whom restitution can be made, this
should be paid to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement
with which atonement is made for him/her.
So we see that in the Old Testament the problem of sin is quite clearly spoken
about. But also in the New Testament we read (e.g. in 1 Jn 1:9) that whenever we
sin we must confess that sin to God. There is here then no difference between
the Old and the New testaments.
In our affluent society we have many insurance companies through which we
can arrange compensation (restitution) and that is good.
But not all damages can be compensated for like that. Consider theft, lying,
murder, manipulation etc. Many people, organisations, companies and churches
are damaged by lies and manipulation and suffer loss.
In the case of stealing it is possible to arrange compensation.
The third aspect of what we see in Numbers is the payment for the priest.
During my evangelistic journeys in Portugal and elsewhere I have seen some
perverted instances of this practice. In the town of Fatima, for instance, idol
worship is preached, whereby people are taught to kneel before an image of
Fatima.
Two teachers who had made a promise to Fatima had to pay a fine to the priest
because they had not been able to keep the promise. They had actually promised
to walk 200 km’s as penance, but as a result of exhaustion and foot problems
had had to give up the walk. They confessed this to the priest in
the pilgrimage town of Fatima and he said that Fatima would be very angry now,
but if they gave him two daily wages they would be forgiven
Idol worship in Fatima Port.
Deceived by fals doctrin.
Praise God that we were there then with a team of 6 people to preach the
Biblical message of Jesus Christ. These two women were thinking over the whole
question when they met a Portuguese team member of just 15 years of age who
preached Jesus to them.
They didn’t pay the fine, but asked instead the Portuguese team for a Bible course.
In Fatima people are misled into parting with the little that they possess.
Tens of thousands each year are hoodwinked by this idol worship, while the Bible
tells us that there is only ONE mediator between God and Men, Jesus Christ who
has given His blood for these poor people. 1 Tim 2:5, Jn 3:16, 1 Jn 1:9
See Jeremiah 51:17 God’s warning about revering images.
Jer 33:3 God’s promises to those who call upon Him personally.
More: John 1:12, 1.Peter 1:18,19, John 10:9, 8:31,32, Romans 10:13, etc..
If a child of God wants to make up for damage done to someone and if for one
reason or another it is not possible to do that to the person him or herself or to
the congregation which has been sinned against, he or she can make a gift to
e.g. a missionary society or help organisation.
But this can only be done after confessing the sin to God and to the person(s)
affected by it.
A material gift can NEVER erase a sin or be a substitute for acknowledging and
confessing sins.
Only “acknowledging, confessing and repenting from our sins” can make effective
the cleansing from sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. See 1 John 1:6-9.
Nothing can be added to the death and resurrection of Jesus to make it more
effective.
The statutory contributions (in the O.T.) were for the Levites and the priests so
that they could carry out their duties and be able to live from them.
(This included the meat of the offerings.
This is quite different from what we should expect nowadays.)
They looked after the divine service and the cleansing ceremonies: Neh 12:44,45.
Now in the church from N.T. times we observe divine worship but do not go to great
lengths with cleansing vessels and lepers (Lev 14) etc as they had to do in O.T.
times.
The priests had the task to lead worship and serve in God’s house.
Consider the offering and reconciliation rituals where they clearly performed a
mediating as well as a serving role in the preparation of the offerings and treating
the lepers, for instance.
TREASURERS
Now who were the treasurers? In Nehemiah 13:13 we find, ”And I appointed as
treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe and
Pedaiah of the Levites and as their assistants Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of
Mattaniah, for they were accounted faithful; and their duty was to distribute to
their brethren.
Treasurers: A. Priests, Scribe, Levite
B. Assistants for these people
Required characteristic: C. Were known to be faithful
Task: D. To distribute to the brethren
What was brought into the storehouses? The tithes of corn, oil etc. In short
everything that was necessary to maintain the lives of the people who were in
service at the temple.
Now there is often a discussion about the tithe. Is it for us today in the New
Testament fellowship or was it only for the Old Testament times?
There is also often discussion about poverty in this world.
And we could ask ourselves whether these two things are connected.
I don’t want to lay the blame for the poverty on the fellowship of the church of
Jesus Christ. Unfortunately many people fall into the devil’s trap of taking the
blame on themselves for all sorts of things for which they have absolutely
nothing to do. Also not all poverty is real poverty, but the result of financial
mismanagement. In this last case there is more need of education rather than
boxes of food, which may do nothing to teach those in need.. It is easy but not
constructive. Help must therefore always be coupled with education and help
must be constructive, so that people learn to look after themselves.
Are there in reality needy people in the church ( as well as close by us)? These,
according to the Bible, are who the storehouses are for. In the fellowship of
Jesus Christ there should be no poverty. Sharing is characteristic of God’s
kingdom.
A storehouse should be an important part of the church.
We must always realise that its use and purpose must be in line with the Bible:
to provide for the needs of the poor in the fellowship.
In addition to this there should be a team of several faithful (trustworthy) persons
who are appointed from different sections ( so not three elders or three youth
workers, etc). Faithfulness must be characteristic of them in detail.
Deacon. In Greek the word diakonos = servant. In the New Testament the first
deacons appear in Acts 6:1-6, although the word deacon doesn’t appear in the text.
In this passage it is about distributing food to widows, who according to some
lacked support.
The apostles made it clear that this caring should not take place at the expense
of preaching and prayer, which they were continually involved in.
The tremendous thing that we see in this passage is that whenever the church
takes its task seriously God will (by His Holy Spirit) establish His word
even more and more and more people will join the church. See Acts 6:7
In Nehemiah 13:6-11 we see another financial problem.
During Nehemiah’s absence, the people had stopped paying the tithes from which
the temple workers had to live. RESULT:
the workers (Levites and singers who carry out the temple service) had been
forced to leave to work his own fields in order to provide for his livelihood.
In this respect I would like to mention the workers in the mission fields.
They too are fall under the responsibility of the house of God, the church members.
Nehemiah discussed this with the leaders (13:10) and said: “ Why is the house
of God left to provide for itself?”
Nehemiah goes further: I called them together again and appointed them to their
offices. And all of Judah brought the tithes of corn and oil, etc AGAIN INTO THE
STOREHOUSES.”
( Here it was not a question of money but of goods for their livelihood and the
temple worship).
SUPERVISORS
In Numbers 4:16 we see an example of the task of supervisors.
Here we see the description of the supervisory task of the priest Eleazar.
I would like to draw a parallel here with the priest in the New Testament in
1 Peter 2:9
Here in Numbers we see the task, in 1 Peter the basis for the task in the light
of the New Testament, and so for the New Testament church of Jesus Christ.
The born-again person ( being converted to and believing in God and being
baptised), the child of God, is called here to a “royal priesthood”. Here it is no
longer a select group which is indicated, but all believers who have become
Christians through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
This is the Biblical basis on which a task in the fellowship of the church of Jesus
Christ can and may be carried out. For instance the office of supervisor and
deacon (Phil 1:1, 1 Tim 3:1-10 and compare Acts 6:1-3, 6)
I would also like to draw a connecting line between supervisors and gatekeepers
etc and Ephesians 4:11-16, where we read about the five-fold ministry which Paul
speaks and which has as its objective:
A. Equipping the saints for service
B. Building up the body of Christ, the church
C. To bring into practice the unity of faith and full knowledge in Jesus Christ
D. To develop the church members to maturity and the measure of fullness in Christ
E. To train the members to speak about their faith and be stable in it
F. By this to make them resistant to false teaching and other traps
G. To encourage spiritual growth in the church
H. To realise the unity of believers
I. To motivate and stimulate every member to living, active faith
J. To present the final aim: to build up the body of Christ in love
We also see in the book Nehemiah that every member had his/her place and task
and that it all led to achieving the ultimate objective.
A Nehemiah was led by God’s Spirit to serve his people Neh 1&2
B Nehemiah calls up the Jews, priests, nobles, officials and leaders to the
rebuilding.
C Nehemiah sanctified the rebuilt parts Neh 3:1
D The people were taught to sanctify themselves and to praise the Lord Neh 9
E The people were encouraged to stand fast and persevere despite
opposition Neh 4
F The people learnt to make choices when building relationships Neh 13:1-3
G After the day of sanctification and cleansing in Neh 9 they entered into a pact
to maintain all the ordinances which the word God gives.
H The ultimate objective to which Neh strove was a safe city for his people and
that his people would live in complete freedom in absolute submission and
dedication to the God of heaven.
GATEKEEPERS
In Sam 18:26 we first read about the gatekeeper.
In this verse we see that the watchman on the city wall would keep watch and
whenever anyone approached he called out and warned the gatekeeper.
In 1Kings 7:10,11 we see the same description of the gatekeeper and in
1 Chron. 9:17,18 we see the gatekeepers at the Levites army camps.
In verse 19 their task is described as keepers of the threshold of the tent.
These guarded the entrance to the tent of meetings. In verse 22 we see that the
two terms cover the same task, so “gatekeepers at the thresholds” are spoken of.
In Ezra 2:36-42, 70;7:6,7 we see in the middle of a list of those who returned from
exile the task of priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers…
Now in Neh 7:1,45 we see the gatekeepers restored to their position as soon as
the city wall is completed and the singers and Levites are also appointed by the
Governor Nehemiah.
In Neh 10:28-30 the gatekeepers are also named among those who are totally
committed and devoted to the word of God. Here too it is recorded that they must
not mix with men and women from other nations where they have other gods and
the associated customs. They had to give themselves completely to God who
had led them out of Egypt and other repression. They subscribed completely to
the word of God and decided to refuse all other compromises.
So here we see people who were dedicated to God and who supervised the city
(church) so that nothing could come in without it first being subjected to close
scrutiny.
It is therefore not surprising that we read right at the beginning in Neh 2 :10, 19
how the enemy panicked when he heard about the rebuilding.
In the same way we often see in the church how that as soon as clear aims are
set up for spiritual building-up and strengthening of the fellowship and extending
its activities, the devil very quickly and in devious and sometimes pious ways
comes into action to undermine, confuse and if possible to stifle the efforts to
realise the plans.
The enemy never has any trouble with a church which degenerates into a passive
tradition. As long as there is not up -building going on spiritually or in activities or
size there will be hardly any opposition.
Nehemiah actually calls us to a living and active faith. As a strategist he calls
us to be alert and watchful. He calls each of us to take up his/her position and
to carry out the assigned task completely. He calls us to sanctification and
dedication to the Lord the God of heaven.
THE SINGERS
The singers, as we have seen, are organised together with the gatekeepers etc in
1 Chron 25:1-8.
The first ones were sons of Asaph a well-known psalm writer who composed
Psalms 50 – 83.
Psalms 42 – 49 were composed by the descendents of Korach.
In 1 Chron 25:6 we read of the sons of Asaph who prophesied while playing
harps, lyres and cymbals.
Then in verses 3 to 7 we read about the sons of Jeduthun who under the direction
of their father were prophesying, praising and glorifying the Lord while playing
the lyre. We also read of Heman and his sons who translated the words of the
Lord for the king.
And all these people took part in singing in the house of the Lord with lyres,
harps and cymbals during the worship sessions.
These singer-prophets were set apart for God’s service 1 Chron 25:1
They were appointed and set apart by King David (25:2)
They were under the direction of their father (Asaph, Jeduthun)
They prophesied while worshipping and praising the Lord (25:3)
We see also Heman the king’s seer (prophet-counsellor), who interpreted God’s
words to “raise the horn” (= make mighty)
(See also Luke 1:69 “…and has raised up a horn of salvation for us…” i.e.
a mighty and courageous helper, the author of salvation.
This comes from the Amplified translation).
Coclusion singers: Neh. Singers were originally appointed by David and Asaph
and trained (1 Chron 25:7) to serve in God’s house.
Task: Singing, music, prophecying, interpreting the words of God.
From this we see that the task of the singer-musician in God’s house is a task for
people who have a good relationship with God. They should be dedicated to God
and His Word to be able to understand and discern the voice of God and His
special messages and to pass them on to God’s people through song and
prophecy.
A prophet is God’s ambassador who speaks on His behalf and proclaims what
God has inspired him to pass on. (Jer 1:9)
Nehemiah calls us all to a living and active faith. As strategist he calls us
to be alert and watchful. He calls each Christian to take up his/her position
and to carry out his/her appointed task. In the New Testament we read this
sort of exhortation to us in the letters of Paul.
Like Nehemiah Paul calls us to sanctify ourselves and to dedicate ourselves
to the Lord the God of heaven, the God of the Bible.
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