Bible Study: January 24, 2024

Okay, well we're gonna talk about Nehemiah. This is a book that, the two books that came in last week when we did the poll at the end of the Isaiah summary were Nehemiah and Ezekiel. We'll go into Ezekiel next, but Nehemiah is quite an appropriate book for us to be looking at. You know, we live in a time where we do have, we are, God has called us all to be building spiritual temples individually and collectively with each other in our local congregations and around the world as he is building us. And as we look at Nehemiah, we're going to see where the complete, you know, Nehemiah went to complete the construction in Jerusalem. But we have to look at the book of Ezra to get a better feel for the book of Nehemiah. So I want to spend a little bit of time in talking about Ezra. We won't go through the entire book, but I want to give you some dates, to give you some background on it that'll help us to understand Nehemiah better. Let me pull up a screen here if I can get this to work this week. You know, on some Ezra and Nehemiah timelines. Originally, the commentary say that Ezra and Nehemiah, which we have as two books in our Bible, were one book. Later they were divided into Ezra 1 and Ezra 2, and then Ezra and Nehemiah two more to find the characters, the figures, the Bible figures that were key in these things. But if you look at the timeline here of the book, you see that it's timely that we're looking at these chapters and these events here, because we mentioned in the book of Isaiah, actually, what King Cyrus, if you remember, that Cyrus would come in, Babylon would be defeated, and the Jews would be able to go back to Jerusalem. That's exactly what Ezra and Nehemiah are talking about. Going back after the Babylonian conquest, after they're released, and King Cyrus, who was mentioned in Isaiah, is the one who gives the Jews the okay, if you will, gives them the order that they can go back and build these temples. So we have these timelines that I put up here, and these are from commentaries. They're fairly accurate as things go on, but here in the... we have the first deportation of Jews from Babylon. If you remember, as Nebuchadnezzar came in and began to conquer Judah, he moved the people in three stages. So the first deportation was, they say, around 606 BC. The final defeat of Judah was around 586 BC, and then the people began to return to Jerusalem. The people began to return to Jerusalem around 538 BC, and so the commentaries say that, you know, the 70 years prophecy. Remember, it was 70 years they would be in exile, and after 70 years they could go back to Jerusalem. Cyrus gave that in his... he began his reign, they say, in 538 BC, and so he gave that authority or gave that edict that the Jews could go back to Jerusalem around that time. That's just about the 70 years. Now in 538 BC they didn't begin the rebuilding at exactly that time. They got there. They got things set up. We're going to look at a few chapters in Ezra to see how they went about rebuilding the temple. But you have the first return after the exile. It went on for about 20 some years, and you can see that about 70 years from the first deportation, as Nebuchadnezzar was exiling people from Jerusalem out to Babylon.

It took a while for the temple to be built. Down there a little bit longer, you'll see the 22 years it took, but then he had this interruption in the building, if you will, during the time of Ezra. You can see that they came back again in 457 BC, but things were in a disarray until the time of Nehemiah, when he was moved by God, to go and complete the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and particularly the wall that was torn down at that time. So you have this long space of many, many, many years in this rebuilding process. We're going to learn why, because as they went to build the temple, they had a lot of resistance from the people in the area. They didn't want that temple built, and they threw a lot of distractions at the people during that time, anything they could do to stop it, much like Satan will do anything he can to stop us in the process of doing God's will and letting him build in us who he wants. Interestingly, as you look at this, you have the book of Esther. You remember King Ahasuerus, and the book of Esther, and that time of Esther, they say, occurs in between the time of the time of Ezra and the time of Nehemiah. So you have this interlapping between the books, and as we have Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther in order in our Bibles, the time frame there is somewhat right, but the chronology is a little bit off, because Ezra and Nehemiah really should occur sometime after Isaiah, since Isaiah was a prophet, if you remember, in Judah, back around 7 between 740 and 685 B.C., or something like that. So several hundred years before this, and he named, specifically named Cyrus, who we're going to see here in Ezra 1-1.

So Nehemiah, as we get into Nehemiah, he's going to come over around 445 or 444 B.C., several years after the temple has been built, and when he gets there, he's pretty focused. He doesn't let anything distract him from the mission that he's on. He stays there for 12-some years, but the wall gets built in 52 days. When he puts his focus on getting the job done that God has sent him over there to do and letting nothing distract him, in 52 days the wall gets built after all those year intervening years that it sort of sat there in disarray until God sent Nehemiah and that led him to complete that building process. So it's a very interesting few books here, and pretty straightforward in the reading if you decide to go back and read Ezra. You can see pretty much there there's not a whole lot of interpretation that has to go on. It's in tricky verbiage or something. The story is very good, but you also want as you read it to look at the physical and spiritual applications. The first part of Ezra, the first six chapters, are all about this physical rebuilding that's going on. Then when Ezra comes back in Ezra 7, it's all about the spiritual rebuilding. People have been there for a while. At that point, they've been in Jerusalem for 50 or 60 years, and you can see where their spiritual state has just deteriorated. So Ezra, at the end of the book, has to come in. They've done some things that they knew better than to do, and yet he had to correct them. The people did repent when they saw what they had done and how they had displeased God. It was painful for some of the families that were there because the key thing that Ezra talks about is they had interfered with some of the pagan women there and allowed them to lead them astray. We'll get into that a little bit, but let me bring you back here and stop the share. Let's get into the book of Ezra and just recount it a little bit for the first half of the Bible study to set the stage. We should have time to get into the book of Nehemiah tonight as well and continue the story. Let me begin in Ezra 1, verse 1 here. It says, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia—remember, you don't need to turn there, but Cyrus was specifically named by God in Isaiah 44 and Isaiah 45 when Isaiah is prophesied about Judah will fall, but then they will be brought back. Cyrus will deliver them. I'm just going to read to you in Isaiah 44 where God specifically mentions him. Isaiah 44.

Yes, okay. So, verse 26, Isaiah 44 says, God confirms the word of his servant, performs the counsel of his messengers, who says to Jerusalem, you shall be inhabited. To the cities of Judah, you shall be built, and I will raise up her waste places. Who says to the deep, be dry, and I will dry up your rivers. Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built, and to the temple, your foundation shall be laid.

And then he mentions Cyrus again in verse 45. He says, God calls him his anointed to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut. And then he talks about going before him, and God says, when this happens, you will know, you will know that I am God. So with that, written here, a few hundred years before Ezra and the people go back into Jerusalem, after the time of Isaiah, Judah does fall to Babylon, as prophesied.

Cyrus does come, and he and Darius do defeat the Babylonians. And here in chapter 1, verse 1 of Ezra, it says, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, the word of the Lord came by the mouth of Jeremiah.

In fact, let me read it. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth, the Lord God of heaven has given me, and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people?

May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is God, which is in Jerusalem. So you can kind of see how God has inspired Cyrus. The words that he says, he's following God's way. It shows us that God can influence people. He can open their minds.

He can lead them what to do when they're receptive. Cyrus was very, very receptive here. Whoever, verse 4, is left in any place where he dwells. Let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock beside the free will offerings for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.

So the temple of Solomon's time has been completely dismantled, has been completely destroyed, and now the people, as prophesied, are free to go back and to rebuild the temple. So King Cyrus gives him the proclamation. He says they have my authority to go back and do this. Verse 7, he even brings out all the treasures of the house of the temple that Nebuchadnezzar had taken. Verse 7 says, King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods.

He brought them out, take them back, rebuild your temple, the temple of God, do that to his glory and to his honor. In chapter 2, then, we see it gives you a list of the people who went back there. These are the people of the province who came back from the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own city. So you have all the list of all the people who went back there. They're all going back to do the building, to do God's will, and to build that temple back.

They are energetic. They are ready to go. They have the zeal of God, and they know they have the power of God behind them to do what he wants them to do. In chapter 3, we see several months have passed. They're in Jerusalem now. They've gotten themselves all transported over there. They've gotten things set up, and here seven months have passed by.

We see them beginning to plan to build the temple, but they don't build the temple first. They prepare the altar so that they can begin sacrifices. For those of us that live in this age, I think it's a very telling thing that as they went back, they just didn't decide they were going to build the whole temple first, and then put the altar in place, and then start the sacrifices. They began the sacrifices first. They knew where the temple was to be built. They sent the altar up. They had all the tools, everything ready to go, and they began the sacrifices first before the building ever began. Let's just read through the first few verses of chapter 3 here.

It says, When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. They went with one accord, one focus. We're going to build. We're going to get this building done. And Joshua the son of Josadac and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brethren, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. So that's the first thing that they did.

Though fear had come upon them, because of the people of those countries, notice, as soon as—I'll get to it in just a minute here, Tracy—notice that as they got back and they got settled and it became known, they're here to build a temple again. What's the first tool that was used against them? The people of the land who didn't want that temple back. They didn't want the Jews back. It was God's edict. Fear had come upon them. They were getting threats. They were getting whatever it is that people did to make them feel afraid to kind of maybe have them just forsake their mission to build that temple. But they didn't let that fear stop them. They kept their eyes on the goal. Despite it, they knew they were doing God's will and decided to just keep going. So it says, well, let me stop there. Tracy, did you have a question or a comment?

Okay. If you do, Tracy, and you're muted if you're saying something, you'll have to... Yeah, I was muted.

I had trouble getting in because I didn't get the email and I have no idea where you are right now. Oh, I'm in Ezra 3. Ezra 3. Thank you. Ezra 3, and we're in verse 3. Did I see another hand go up?

Yes, not. Okay. So Ezra 3, verse 3, though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries, they set the altar on its bases and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening burnt offerings. So they started the sacrifices first. They were taking it to God. They were showing their commitment to Him, you know, much as when we are maybe afraid or feeling fear, what do we do? We go to God and we repeat our faith to Him and we build our faith in Him and look to Him and know He is the one who delivers us. He is the one who gives us the strength to do whatever it is He gives us to do. Though fear had come on them, what they did was they began the sacrifices. God was pleased with their commitment to Him. The temple wasn't built yet, though. They also kept the Feast of Tabernacles as it is written. They offered the daily burnt offerings and the number required by ordinance for each day. Afterwards, they offered regular burnt offering, those for new moons and for all the appointed feasts that were consecrated and those of everyone who willingly offered a free will offering to the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to the Eternal, although the foundation of the temple had not been laid.

So as we even look ahead, you know, sometimes we get into discussions on, some people will say, and only God knows exactly what's going to happen. There will have to be a third temple built in Jerusalem before Christ returns so that they can begin offering daily sacrifices. You don't need a temple. We're shown here to offer daily sacrifices. You need an altar. You need the instruments. And as if the reports that come out of Israel are accurate, they have all those already done. So at any point in time when they determine where is the place of the temple, where is that offering should be, because there are a couple of theories out there about where the temple actually is, and only God knows exactly where it is, the sacrifices could begin at any time. They're ready. You don't need the temple. And here we have this example of them going back to build the second temple. And when they were afraid, they began the offerings and drawing themselves close to God. Yes, Becky. Becky? Hey, I actually have a question. I'm hesitant to ask. Hi, can you hear me? We can hear you, yes. Okay, so I'm curious about, I know there will have to be a sacrifice that resumes, but I wonder how that plays in with the fact that Christ died as our sacrifice. I don't think I've ever really visited that in my mind, or how that comes together. Remember that the Jews in Israel don't accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, right? So the reason they're not doing sacrifices today, the Orthodox Jews, is because there is no temple. So when they determine, you know, maybe it's because of fear that comes upon them, maybe it's the threat of all the nations that in that area of the world turn against them, and they need, or they feel they need to reach God, they would not look to Jesus Christ. They would look to reinstituting the sacrifices and believe they need to do that. So. So you think there might be some event that causes that? It could be. I'm about to come about.

You know, the Bible does indicate in Daniel that the sacrifices will be taken. I mean, how that happens only God knows, but I'm just pointing out some so many people say a third temple has to be built. The Bible shows us it doesn't have to be built for any sacrifices to begin. That's kind of the main point of here. How it happens is totally up to God, and we will all learn as we see the events as we see the events happen. So. I agree. Thank you. Let me see. So then they begin. Let me look at my verses here. So then they begin to build the temple. They lay the foundation in verse. Let me see. Verse 8 here. In the second month of the second year, so now they've been there for a while. They've started the sacrifices. They're doing all the preparation. They're there in Jerusalem for a while. So in the second month, verse 8, in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, Sarubabel and these people and the rest of their brother and the priest and the Levites and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem began work and appointed the Levites from 20 years old and above to oversee the work of the house of the Lord.

So in verse 10, we see that the foundation begins to be built. When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites with their symbols to praise God according to the ordinance of David. And they do praise him. Here the temple is being laid. The temple isn't completely built yet, but the foundation has now been laid. And here the last two verses, when they saw the foundation, there were some people who were up for joy because the temple was going to be rebuilt. That in itself is a miracle from God. He is the one who had orchestrated. Others decried the fact that it wasn't going to be as grand and as great as the temple Solomon had built. And that became obvious to them as the foundation was laid. But there was the temple being built here in Jerusalem. If we look down in chapter 4, I think there's an interesting thing for us to do. Verse 1 of chapter 4 says, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel, they didn't come out, you notice, and attack them. They didn't come out with whatever weapons they had and say, stop, you know, we're going to kill you or whatever. They came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the father's houses, and they said to them, let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do. Now we've sacrificed to him since the days of Esirhed and king of Assyria, who brought us here. Now they're adversaries, they're enemies, they don't want to see, but they're kind of coming as friends. We can help you do what you're doing. And probably with a thought is if we're doing it, we can kind of sabotage some of the building, we can set it back for some time. Whatever they had in mind, if we can be friends, if we can be friends with you, and we can show that we want to help you, you know, that's what we want to do. And that might have been a tempting thing for the people to hear, but Zerubbabel and Jeshua are pretty astute about what's going on. God let them see the game plan here of the enemies, right? But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers' houses of Israel said to them, you may do nothing with us to build a house for our God, but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the King of Persia, has commanded us. I think that's a lesson for us. When I read that verse a couple days ago, it kind of struck me because it reminded me of Ephesians 4 16 when God said, I will provide everything you need to get the job done. If you don't need outside help, you don't need to hire contractors to get the temple built, and Zerubbabel and Jeshua was like, God will provide what we need. We don't need your help. God is the one who's directing this building. And I think about our work today, and sometimes we may think, oh, we need help from the outside. I believe God has given us everything in the church we need to get his work done today.

Whatever expertise we need as we look at various ways of preaching the gospel that we've been talking about in different ways than we have before, making use of the world's vehicles and all the different ways of communication that people of all ages use, all that expertise is in there. God gives us everything that we need to get the job done. That verse 3 just struck me. That's Zerubbabel, wouldn't say, oh, yeah, please, we could use your hands to do this. We could use it. Now, it's like, we are going to do it. We're going to do it because this is a house we're building for God, and he knows. He knows the way, and he will provide everything we need.

So, if we look in verse 4, then we see that the people in Jerusalem tried to discourage them. You know, they'll give them every reason not to build the temple they were. The people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building. They hired counselors against them to frustrate the purpose. All the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. So, they always had distractions. They always had someone fighting against them, always someone to seek to undo what they had been doing or to delay it in any way they can. We as God's people, we now have to realize that's going to be us as well. In our personal lives, there will be people who will do whatever they can to distract us. The ways the world will distract us. Maybe people that we let distract us, but we have to keep our eyes focused on what the will of God is and not allow those distractions. That is one of the tools that Satan uses to throw us off course, to delay us, to set things behind so things just don't happen the way that they should if we were just letting God lead us and we were completely yielded to him and focused on what his will is. As you go through Ezra, you see this and I'm not going to recount everything in Ezra, but as you read through it, you see the things that they did in order to taunt and to stop the people of Israel. Finally, when you get to the end of the book, as I mentioned, you know sin had set in. Here the temple was built, but things began to get in disarray. They allowed the city walls to be broken down, and while they couldn't destroy the temple, the walls were broken down. That's where Nehemiah comes in. The people began to look at the people around them and into Aaron Tirmary with people of different faiths, different beliefs, different lifestyles, directly against what God had said. When Ezra comes back, he sees things torn down around the city. It's in disarray, but it's a spiritual house that's in disarray, and that has to be said in order. It's the same thing for us. We build the house, but we have to pay attention to what we're doing and not let the ways of the world distract us from everything that God wants us to do. I reminded of Luke 21 verses 34-36 in there that says, don't be distracted by the carousing of the world. Don't be distracted by the ways of the world. We have to live in the world, but we can't allow ourselves to stop the work. We can't allow ourselves to relax. We can't allow ourselves to not have the zeal that God wants us to have, because when we lose the zeal to do God's will, things begin to break down. If we go over to chapter 6 in Isaiah, we'll see that kings come, kings go, and people in the land will write to one of the kings. You do know that the Jews here are doing this right, that they're probably going to not pay taxes, etc. We find that Darius, who's the king at this time, writes a letter saying, these Jews, do you know what they're doing? You should stop them. Everything they're doing is going to not be good. But Darius comes forth, and again, it's God's will that this gets done.

In chapter 6, we see Darius respond to them. He references the decree of King Cyrus. In verse 7, he specifically says, Let the work of the house of God alone, let the governor of the Jews, of the elders of the Jews, build this house of God on its site. In verse 12, he concludes, he says, May the God who causes his name to dwell there, destroy any king or people who put their hand to alter it, or to destroy this house of God which is in Jerusalem. I, Darius, issue a decree, let it be done diligently. So again, you see, they've had a lot of distractions, they've had some up and downs. But at the time, God leads Darius to write a very direct letter, leave him alone, let him finish what they were sent there to do, and anyone who interferes with them is violating the decree of the king. And so in verse 14, it says, So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet. God's way was there. Haggai is one of the books that are here that we said. We could actually read Haggai. He's a contemporary here. They prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet, Zechariah the son of Ido, and they built and finished the temple according to the commandment of the God of Israel and according to the command of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia. And the temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

If you go back and look at all their reigns and whatever, it's around 20-22 years, 22 years for them to complete that temple. Longer than it took Solomon, it took him seven years to build the first temple, but with all the distractions and everything that went on there took them 22 years, 22 years to build that. So the temple is built. Not everything is completely done, but the temple is built. That's part of the job. There was a wall. Let's just read that. Verse 17 there in chapter 6 says, They offered sacrifices at the dedication of this house of God. Well, all these things.

Okay, yeah, I mean they assigned the priests and everything like that. Anyway, so they had the celebration in order to do that. They kept this Feast of Unleavened Bread. And then things stopped for a while. Then you could go into—you read the book of Esther. You see a king that has Euryus and his name showing up here as well. Artaxerxes is mentioned there. That's happening in the meantime. And then we go into chapter 7. The temple is built. The walls are broken down. But in chapter 7, Ezra comes back. Ezra comes back, and he is a man of God. He's a scribe. He's well known.

Verse 7 of chapter 7 says, Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all his request according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. And so Ezra came, verse 8, to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.

And verse 10, something for all of us to kind of remember, Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. So the physical building was done, but now he's coming back, and he had prepared his heart. He asked God and sought from God, what is it that you want done? What needs to happen here?

God was leading him. There is some cleanup that needs to happen. The people need to get back to the law of God. They need to get back to the Word of God, to the truth of God. They need to be living their lives the way God said. Here's the temple, but the people have broken down spiritually. The physical temple means nothing if the spiritual isn't done. So Ezra has set his heart to do that. Seek God.

Seek what his will is, and prepared his heart and took the time to do that. He had the knowledge of God, so he went back to begin to do that. He probably didn't know what he was walking into, although with God leading him, he probably had an idea that there was some spiritual work to do. King Artaxerxes gives him a letter to accompany him. Let's just look at a couple of verses in that. In verse 12, you see he addresses it to Ezra. If we drop down to verse 21, it says, "'I, even I, Artaxerxes the king, issued decree to all the treasurers who are in the region beyond the river, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, may require of you, let it be done diligently.

Give him whatever he needs to do the job he's going there to do.'" Here you have this king that God has inspired because he isn't a Jew, he isn't of the tribe of Israel, but he's like, whatever it takes, let him get the job done. Don't withhold him from him anything, anything, and he gives a limit there that is quite a sum of money, to get the job done. God will give us what we need to get the job done. We just need to take the time and to get it done and to use the resources that he gives us, just as they did here.

In verse 27, then, in the same chapter, Ezra 7, it says, at the end of the letter, "'Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem, and has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty princes.' So Ezra was encouraged as the hand of the Lord.

His God was upon him, and he gathered leading men to go to Israel with him." So there he goes. He goes off to Jerusalem, heartened by what he knows God has given him, the blessing of the king behind him, to get over there and get the job done. So chapter 8, he mentions many of the people that came with him. And in verse 21, he says there that something we should always remember when we're doing God's will is, "'There I proclaim to fast, there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him the right way for us and our little ones, and our and all our possessions.' So he constantly remembers, this is God's work.

Seek him. Let's humble ourselves before him and let him lead this, but we have to follow him, and we have to give ourselves to him." Now we could do almost an entire Bible study on chapter 9. You can and Tan and the rest of Ezra, but that isn't my purpose here. I'm kind of giving you a lead into Nehemiah, what we're going to get to here in a minute. But you see in chapter 9 that Ezra comes into a situation he didn't foresee.

The people have sinned. Here in chapter 9, let's just read it for a couple of verses here. In chapter 9, he says, "...when these things were done, all the things that needed to have happened, the leaders came to me, saying, the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, Hittites, Parazites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and the Amorites.

For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the Holy Seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass." So he says, Ezra, things have happened in the land. They have intermixed with the people of the land. They have mixed the way of God with the way of the land.

And the leaders have been foremost in this. They've taken wives to themselves from the world, from the pagan of the world. They've taken to themselves wives from the Canaanites and Hittites. They have relaxed. They have allowed the world in, rather than building the city of Jerusalem, which was the gates of God, in which his way was to be preserved, lived, taught, and example to the nations around them. But they have mixed. Verse 3 says, when Ezra heard this, he tore his garment and tore his robe, plucked out some of the hair of his head and beard, and sat down, astonished.

How could they have done this? Do they remember what God has done? Do they remember that he prophesied Cyrus would send them back? He sent them back. He gave them everything to do to build the temple. The temple was built despite the trouble and the trials that people put upon us.

The temple was built, and now they've just kind of relaxed. They've become part of the world again. They've actually invited the world into themselves, and they aren't the pure people that God is looking for. I think the word is an astonishing word there. Ezra was just like, how could this have happened? How did this happen in this one?

Verse 4, a word that I love when we talk about the words of God, right? Then everyone who trembled at the words of God of Israel assembled to me because of the transgression that had been worked. We can hearken back to Isaiah 66, and it says, where God said, to this one I will look to those who are of a poor and contrite spirit, humble and contrite spirit, and who tremble at my word.

When they see God's word, they tremble and know we have to do it. This is the way to life. This is the way to truth.

It should stir us. When Ezra, who was astonished and was brought to their attention what they had done, to their credit they trembled. What have we done? What have we allowed to happen? How have we allowed this to happen to the house of God? They go about in chapters 9, 10, and the rest here to correct the sins that they had done. You might, after the Bible study tonight, just take the time to read through chapter 9. It's Ezra's prayer to God. He goes to God and he acknowledges the sin of the people, pours his heart out to them, and asks God to forgive everyone and give them the courage and strength to go forward and do the will of God. It's one of the prayers of the Bible that are just very inspiring when you see how God has preserved that for us. In the order of the prayers of Hezekiah, when Sennacherib had sent those letters, and Hezekiah laid them out before God, and so we don't even know what to do. We're powerless against Sennacherib physically. You are the one who is going to have to deliver us. As you go through the rest of the book, he works directly with the people. He doesn't try to make excuses for them. He doesn't ask God to just bless everything that's done here. Let's go for it here. The people pay some prices, and they kind of undo some of the things that they have done. The book of Ezra ends that way, and then the very next book is Nehemiah. We see the building of the temple, and we see the spiritual rebuilding of the people, and then we have Nehemiah. God moves Nehemiah to do a work that God wants to finish. To finish the building that was begun in Jerusalem. The people have now humbled themselves. The people now have set themselves straight, and so around 444 BC, Nehemiah seeks the permission of his boss, the king, to come to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls that are there. Let's pick it up in Nehemiah 1. I think we can get through the first two chapters here. It's very easy reading, and I'll point out a few things. But before we go there, are there any questions or comments about Ezra that we should address? Anything I didn't make clear that might have raised some thoughts?

Okay. Yes, sir. Is that Xavier? I don't see you, Xavier. Is that you? Oh, yeah, it's okay. My video is up, but it's okay. In verse 3, where we just read in chapter 9, some people translate that word, astonished, as a word that we make. It means the same thing, but maybe we use a little bit different today. It translates as a Paul.

Okay, yeah, that's even a better word, right? A Pauled. Yeah, a Pauled and astonished. Yeah, that's even a stronger word of what happened. He was just amazed at what had happened. So, I see you now, Xavier. My little thing was over your face there. So, good to see you. So, okay, Nehemiah 1-1. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. Nehemiah, I guess, literally means YHWH comforts, right? So, that's what Nehemiah means when you look at his name. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah, it came to pass in the month of Kislev in the 20th year as I was in Shushan the Citadel. And Shushan was the capital, the capital at that point of Persia, I guess it was. He's there. He is the king's cupbearer, as we're going to see. He works for the king directly, so he has his audience every day. That Hanane, or Hanane, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem, just as we might do. You know, what's going on over there? What are they doing over there in Jerusalem? Is everything in order? The temple is all built. Things are going along smoothly. And they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. No, it's not a happy thing right now. It's not a good situation, right? They're in great distress and reproach.

The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.

So the temple is intact, but the walls are broken down. And the walls of a city were very important that day. You needed the territory. You needed the definition of what the city was. And without those walls, the temple was up for attack. You didn't really have a city unless you had a wall and a border. Here's some of that today with, you know, you can't have a country without borders, and you can't have back in that day a city without walls. And the walls are part of what God intended to be built around Jerusalem too. Within those gates, God's way would be practiced. Within those gates, people would be taught to live the way of God, much as when we read and look at the Kingdom of the Millennium Time in Isaiah 2, people will go up to Jerusalem. That's where they will be taught. And within those gates, the temple will be, the people will flow to that city. But the gates were broken, the walls were broken down. Now, whether those walls were broken down, that they had been built, and then invaders or people who were looking to trouble, the people of Judah that were there came in and broke the walls, and the people didn't take the time to rebuild them, we really don't know how, but we know they were broken down. It wasn't they were never built, but they were broken down, and its gates were burned with fire. So we've got an area of distress, and people haven't stood in the gap, right? If we think back to Ezekiel 22, stand in the gap and build a wall. Who's going to stand in the gap and build a wall? Well, here the people in Jerusalem at that time just let the walls sit there and disarray. The wall gates had been broken down, had been burned down, and nothing was being done. No one had the energy, and no one had the zeal. Let's get this wall built up. Let's get those gaps and build the wall around Jerusalem that needed to happen. Nehemiah hears this, and it affects him. He sees what needs to be done. He says, so it was in verse 4, when I heard these words, I sat down and wept. Again, how could this happen? How could the walls be built down? What has gone on over there? I sat down and wept, and I mourned for many days.

I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. He felt the, what do I do? How do I get the wall to be built? What was it that God wants me to do? And he fasted. God showed me, is there something that I need to be doing? What do I need to do? What needs to happen in order for this to be repaired? And I said, verse 5, I pray, Lord God of heaven, oh great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments, please let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I've re-prayed before you now, day and night. Not a one-time prayer, but over and over again, God, what is your will? God, what can I do? What, God, what is it what you want me to do? The persistent prayer, like Jesus Christ talks about in Luke, right? Asking God over and over so God says our heart really is in doing his will. It really is doing what he wants us to do. Hear this prayer that I pray before you day and night for the children of Israel, your servants, that I pray before you day and night for the children of Israel, your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which you have sinned against you, both my father's house and I have sinned.

So he always acknowledges, and you see in these prayers to God, Hezekiah's prayer and Ezra's prayer and Nehemiah's prayer and Daniel's prayer, we acknowledge we have sinned before you. We have not done your will. We haven't done the work that you wanted us to. Forgive us, but lead us, and guide us, and help us to get right with you, to do your will, to seek your will, and be committed to you. But give us the repentance we need to turn from the ways we've been doing things and turn to the way that you want things done. He says, both my father's house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you. We haven't kept the commandments. We haven't kept the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. I remember that, Nehemiah says, when we're unfaithful, you will not bless what we're doing. If we are seeking your blessing, we have to be doing what your will is, committed to it.

Now, as God's Spirit leads us to do what his will is in complete faith and following of him, and not be unfaithful to him, but be faithful to the calling he gives us. If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. Verse 9, But if you return to me, and keep my commandments, and do them. Though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. Now, these are your servants, and your people, he reminds. You know, we can pray that for God's people, too. The ones who he has called, all of us who have been baptized around the world, every single person that God will call, we are your servants.

Guide us, direct us, help us to become one, help us to be committed to the purpose you have called us to. These are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name, and let your servant prosper this day, I praise. Pray, help us to do your will. Listen to those whose hearts are with you to do what you want done, and to do it your way. Give us the truth, give us your spirit, give us the desire. Order our paths, direct our steps, and let us then, when we're doing your will, let your servant prosper this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cup bearer. So Nehemiah knew it was God who was calling him and was giving him a commission.

Okay, Nehemiah, it's you. It's you. You need to go back, and you need to get this wall built. You need to be the one doing that. And Nehemiah was in a unique position. Even though he was the king's cup bearer, which may seem like a servant to us, he had the ear of the king. He could make it happen. He could utter words to the king and ask God, let the king hear me. Remember, in those days, the kings had the power to just kill someone on the spot. If they didn't like what they said, if they didn't like a request that came in, or if they thought that it was somehow self-serving or something against them, there was any number of things that could happen to someone.

But Nehemiah was there at the place where he could make things happen. Or at least he had access to the king who could make things happen. And just like the kings who led to the building of the temple, so Nehemiah was in a position that could say, I want to go back, and these walls need to be built. So that's where we come as we come into chapter two here.

It says, it came to pass in the month of Nicin. Nicin is the Babylonian name for Abib, right? The first month of the year. It came to pass in the month of Nicin in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes. So later on that year, several months, a few months later, I guess, than what this prayer had been. When wine was, let me read it again, it came to pass in the month of Nicin in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. And remember, the cup bearer was a very trusted servant, too, because there were always people who were trying to kill the king by whatever means they could, right?

So the cup bearer had to taste the wine to make sure it was safe for the king to drink. So Nehemiah was a very trusted servant of the king there, and had the king's best interest at heart. I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now, he had never been sad in his presence before. Kings always want you to be happy, right? Everything's going well. You are thrilled to be in my domain. You are thrilled with the way I'm running things. Life couldn't be better. That's what they wanted to see on the face of their servants.

But here's Nehemiah. He's got this weighing on his mind, this building. He has to go back to Jerusalem, and he knows he needs to talk to the king about it because God has given him this job to do. And I had never been sad in his presence before. This was in 444, 445 BC, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, who began, I guess, in 465 BC. Therefore, the king said to me, Nehemiah, why is your face sad?

Since you aren't sick, you're here. What do you look so down about? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. So what's going on? Why aren't you happy? You're in my presence. You're in my kingdom. You should be happy. Notice what Nehemiah, what he, felt as the king said that. What's wrong with you? So I became dreadfully afraid. Here was like, whoa, the king is calling me out. He sees the look on my face. My life could be over in a second. I mean, he literally has the power to say, I want to see him no more.

End his life and get him out of here. So we have that adverb there. I became dreadfully afraid. What would Nehemiah do? Would he continue with what he knew God's plan for him was? Or would he back off and say, okay, let me just go back and make the king happy and forget this. This is too scary. Nehemiah didn't do it, but he also realized, we see as we get into the next few verses here, he knew he couldn't rely on his own power to do it.

He needed God. He needed God in this instant. So I became dreadfully afraid and said to the king, may the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies waste and its gains are burned with fire?

Now I've heard these things. It's an awful thing that's happened. And the king may not know exactly what he's talking about. And the king said to me, what do you want to do? Now our excerptions remember, well, I guess he did probably know what Nehemiah was referring to, because our excerptions had issued those degrees. Give Ezra whatever he wants to get the job done over there. So he knew what he was talking about. So he asks, what do you request? And I find this Nehemiah 2 verse 4 just a very encouraging thing for me to remember whenever you're in a situation.

Before Nehemiah answered, he says, I prayed to the God of heaven. I asked God, how do I respond? What is it that you want me to say? Give me favor in his sight or whatever your will is done, but let the words be. Let me have the words that you want given this. This is your will. This is your, this is yours, what I am doing now. And so he prayed silent prayer very quickly to do that. Same thing we can do in times of tension, times of stress, times of when we're faced with something. God, give me the bright words here. What do I do? What do you want me to say? And God will answer those prayers. And so in verse 5, God gives him the answer. I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it. Pretty straightforward. You've already given orders for Ezra to be over there, but everything is in disarray and disorder. The walls have to be built and these things need to be done. So the king answered that said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey be? Got the answer. This is God's will. You can go, but how long will you be gone? And when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time. Now, he doesn't say what the time is there. As he goes through the book of Daniel, I will see he was there for several years. Didn't take that long to build the wall, but there were other things that had to happen during that time as well. So furthermore, I said to the king, if it pleases the king, give me some letters. In those days, I need your word.

People need to know that you support what I'm doing here, and not just running off on my own doing these things. So I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that's his kind of park that he was going to have to go through, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel, which pertains to the temple. So, you know, well, I guess it's the forest here. I need one. I need one. If we're going to build this thing, I need some stuff from you. So give me a letter for Asaph that he will give me the timber that I need to build it. This is no small ask of Nehemiah, right? And so King Artaxerxes, he's going to give him what he needs because it is God's will for it to be done. Give me the timber to make the gates of the citadel, which pertains to the temple, for the city wall and for the house that I will occupy. Jerusalem was no small city, quite a bit of timber. That's a lot of material that has to be given in order for these, for the gates to be built and for the wall to be built. And the king gathered them to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. Nehemiah knew it was God. It was God who was doing this and giving, you know, giving the will for Artaxerxes to make this happen. And so, verse 9, so he sets out, I went to the governors of the region beyond the river, gave them the king's letter. And the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. Didn't just say, okay, go ahead, but even sent me some accompanying security with me to help me through, to get me safely to Jew Judah. But then we have people who now are beginning to appear who are not going, who are going to be present here through the book of Nehemiah, who are going to be distractors. We're going to be looking to people, or who are going to be people who are going to do whatever they can to stop Nehemiah from what his mission is. Just like we in our mission are going to find roadblocks that get in the way, people that might get in the way, and the Word of God, the work of God cannot progress in the way that it has. Nehemiah doesn't let it stop him. We have to just keep going and not allow these things that might stop us in God's work or in our personal lives. Just keep marching forward, just like God told Israel when they were confronted when their backs were up against the Red Sea. Stand still, pray to God, and see the salvation of God. Just keep marching forward. Don't let people or don't let things throw you off of the mission that that God has for you. So here we have Sandballot. When Sandballot, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite official, or I guess slave, I think is what I think he is. He's a servant. When Sandballot, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite official, heard of it, they were deeply distressed that a man had come to seek the well-building of the children of Israel. It's like, are you kidding? The gates have been burned down. The wall has been broken down.

Israel is a sitting target. We've gotten the people. It's completely distracted. They're now in the ways of the world. Now we have this other man coming to get the work of God completed. So they were distressed like, this really is going to happen. We think we keep outlasting these Jews, but their God, their true God keeps sending people over. The work is going to get done. The work is going to get done. So Nehemiah says in verse 11, I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. He knew better than to tell Sandballot and the people there why he was there. Some things you just kind of do, and you have to survey things yourself and not just lay out everything, but assess the situation and then make the determination of what needs to be done. That's what Nehemiah goes about doing. He says, I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do.

God is the one who let them do that. Just go out and assess. Look at what's going on. How is things going? Get to know the lay of the land, and then I will show you what needs to be done to get the work done. I arose in the night. I and a few men with me. I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do with Jerusalem, nor was there any animal with me except the one on which I rode. He was completely just there to kind of survey. He didn't come in with horns blazing, this is what I'm going to do. We're going to get all this done, and boom, boom, boom, I need to see what's going on. I went out by night through the valley gate to the serpent well and the refuse gate. When you look in the concordances to see what the valley gate are, the serpent well, and the refuse gate, not pretty places, not pretty places, not the type of things that people are going to be patrolling voluntarily, right? But Nehemiah was there to kind of scout out the land, see what was going on, what had happened here. So he went out into these places by night.

He viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and escapes which were burned with fire.

Then I went on to the fountain gate and to the king's pool. Some say that's where the pool of Siloam is, you know, that Jesus Christ was at later on in the Gospel accounts. I went on to the fountain gate and to the king's pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. I'm going out, he's looking, but what is really the destruction here? What is the building project that needs to be done? I need to assess it and know what's going on. So I went up in the night by the valley, and I viewed the wall, and I turned back and entered by the valley gate, and so returned. And the officials didn't know where I had gone or what I had done. He didn't announce, just went out by night, so that they didn't have any clue, because he didn't need. He didn't need the input. He didn't need that. He needed just God to kind of lead him into what needed to be done. Yeah, Xavier. It's amazing. You read this so many times, you've never seen it before.

And tonight, you remember Lord the priest. The whole thing, here I am, this is what I'm doing, right? Yeah, to get it all done.

Yeah, so I went up in the night by the valley, viewed the wall. I said, I think I read that. So verse 16, and the officials didn't know where I had gone or what I had done. I hadn't even yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work. They didn't even know I was there yet. I just needed to see what was going on. And I said to them, you see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach.

Okay, let's get this wall built. Let's get this job done. And I told them of the hand of my God, which had been good upon me, and also the king's words that he had spoken to me. So they said, let us rise up and build. Here we have Ziel coming back. Here's the work that we need to do. Here's what needs to be done. And they rise up and say, then let's get to work. That's what we need in the church. As we were over in the foreign lands overseas in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Milan, could see, let's just do it. Let's just do what God wants us to do. Let's get this gospel preached in all nations. And you see the same thing here. Here's what we need to do. Let's do it. And Nehemiah was there, and God was inspiring the whole thing. Let's do the work. Let us rise up and build. And they set their hands to do to this good work. But when Sanballat the Hora Knight and Tobiah, his servant, the Ammonite official, and Geshav the Arab, heard of it. Oh, you know, God is like, okay, here's the distractions. Here's how, how are we going to break their spirit? How, what are we going to do? They laughed at us, and they despised us. And they said, what is this thing that you're doing? Will you rebel against the king? So they laugh. You can't build this wall. Oh, and are you trying to set yourself against the king? Are you trying to do something against the king? All these accusations and all these things that come in that can distract anyone from doing God's will.

Anything that Satan can say, anything that Satan can do to cast doubt on the work or make, you know, make people think, well, am I or what am I not? That's what happens. And we'll see this throughout the book of Nehemiah. So I answered them, Nehemiah says in verse 20, and said to them, the God of heaven himself will prosper us, and therefore we his servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or rite or memorial in Jerusalem. So he answers them directly and sternly. This is what we're going to do. God gave us this job. It will get done, and he will be the one to see us through. We're not going to let you disturb us. We're not going to let you let, or you can laugh and do everything you want, but you have no part in this. It will be God's will.

So, you know, we see the similar approach that Nehemiah has as Ezra is. We're not going to let anything distract us. We will get the job done. So let's finish there for tonight. In Nehemiah 2, we'll take it up in chapter 3 next week. So I see a couple of hands there. Tracy, I don't know if you have another comment or if your hand is still up, but if you have a comment.

My hand is up by accident. I don't have anything to do. Okay, that's okay. And Charles, I see your hand up.

Charles, you'll have to unmute. Okay, well, anyone have any comments about anything? Any comments, questions, anything that you want to discuss? Oh, hi, Charles.

Yeah, thank you for mentioning my wife's passing and what, and they mentioned the funeral is Friday. She always made a point of greeting you when you did a Bible study on Wednesday night. So that's why I reached out to you and I figured also we met you in Ocean City and also at the feast in Pentecost. So yes, I appreciate it. I remember well. You take care, Charles. Our sympathy is with you and our prayers are with you. So okay, thank you. Hey, Andrew. I gotta unmute. I'm mute, Andrew.

What?

Yep, we can hear you now. Okay, yeah, greetings from Winnipeg. And it does get cold up here. Yes, it does get cold up there. We have the distinction of being the second coldest city in the world. Ah, yikes! Anyway, as you were going through the fasting stuff in Nehemiah 8 and the first chapter of Nehemiah, I couldn't help but think that this act of fasting, even the most ordinary things, before the right way and for our little ones and for a substance, I mean, this thing of fasting is such a great act of trust. And as we trust God, I was just thinking, he then responds, our confidence goes.

Jeff, go ahead.

Our confidence grows, and with a conviction, from the conviction comes boldness, and we start to get in a loop of ever-growing stuff, and we accomplish more.

I agree. You always see fasts, and I think we have to be more mindful of that, too, as we do things, that we need to fast and seek God's will in some of the things we do and just show Him that honor, that fasting Him and outwardly seeking His will. That's a very good point, yes.

Hey, Patrick.

Hey. I just wanted to make a quick comment. Something I noticed in Ezra and also Nehemiah is this phrase, beyond the river, comes up. Yes.

I just want to say, I kind of find it interesting, because I don't know if others are familiar with the phrase that some people say, from the river to the sea, when they talk about the destruction of Israel. I just find it interesting that even back in biblical times, they refer to Israel beyond the river. So it's something that's just even kind of going back really far. It's just always been the Jordan River has been very prominent and important. So I find that interesting. That keeps coming up. Yep. That's a good point, and it certainly is making it to the right. I mean, you hear that all the time in the news now, and it goes right back to biblical times. So very good.

Hi, Dale. Oh, hi there. Yeah. No, I just find it's a wonderful book. It just reminds me of so many connections, like to backsliding Israel, for example, and the book of Exodus, and then the perseverance of the saints in the book of Acts, and the foundation being, you know, Jesus Christ.

And even end time prophecy, of course, as well. It's just so many things that are, yeah, just some of the things that are in the book that seem to tie together so well, you know, that God's trying to teach us. Yeah, no, you're right. And as we go through this, so much of it applies to us today, too, in the work that we're doing, right? We can learn a lot of lessons. We can learn a lot of lessons from Nehemiah, and we will. And a very important one near the end of the book, right? That still is a topic of conversation at the end of Nehemiah. Right.

Yes. Hey, Reggie.

Unmute. You got, you have to unmute, Reggie.

Okay, what I was going to say, you know, when this ad was talking about the presidents that are in North Carolina, you and Justin Bangladesh, I just mentioned to you that they are in Raleigh, North Carolina. Yes. They have connections back at Burma.

Yeah, I need to. Yeah, I need, let me write that down while I'm thinking about it here, because I was going to do something with that Monday, and I never did. Well, yeah. And there there is Dan. Yeah, there's Raleigh, you said? Yeah, there's Craig Scott, Turkey and Raleigh. Okay. And that's Joyce Byah and Sanmai. Okay. Oh, that's right. Yeah, okay.

And that's me and Mar. Okay, very good. Yeah, I'm gonna, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna look at that. Very good. Thanks for the reminder on that.

Okay. Hey, Barry.

Barry, you need to unmute.

Okay, well, Barry, while you're unmuting, I see Bill Bruce, and Bill Bruce is unmuted. So, Bill, you got a question? Or? Well, something that was said a little bit ago, I just, so this is about the temple. So, are you saying there's a possibility the temple doesn't have to be built? I'm saying there is a possibility the temple does not have to be built. Yes. They could begin sacrifices without a temple being built. Yes. Okay, thank you. Okay, can you hear me now, Mr. We can hear you. Yes. Okay, that I'm glad he said that, because that was my exact question, too. And I agree that early on, like into the tribulation, that maybe those sacrifices could start without the temple, but it sure looks like when you get to Revelation 11, that the temple is there when the two witnesses are right before they're going to die. And there's many other scriptures, you know, like 2 Thessalonians 2, Malachi 3.1, Haggai 2.7, Zechariah 4, verse 9. It all seems to imply that there's going to be a temple there, and that when Christ comes back, he's going to come to his temple. Yeah, remember the spiritual temple. Remember there's a spiritual temple Christ is referring to, right? So those could be the spiritual things. And again, it may be that God intends for there to be, right? Not going to try to dictate to God what he has in mind, but, you know, it could be that Ezra 3 is there to remind us there doesn't have to be a temple built for sacrifices to be done. So if some of you are looking like it would take x-axis years to build a temple, it's not going to take x-axis years to build a temple if Israel, little Israel, over there decides to start offering sacrifices. And there's a number of other things, too, right? I don't have the latest detail, but there's these heifers, these red heifers, that are in the mix over there now that they've been waiting forever to have. And they've got a few of them that they're looking at that have been shipped from Texas that the rabbis keep monitoring to see if they actually meet the definition of what this red heifer is. So there's a number of things going on over there right now in concert, even with all the uproar and the, you know, the stance that the Arab nations appear they're going to take against Israel. You know, if it wasn't for the United States and our support of Israel, you have to wonder where would they be? Where would they be in the world? And I guess there'll probably come a time when we'll see what that is. So yeah, I mean, God knows for sure what he has in mind. I'm just making that it doesn't have to be necessarily. So okay, Marianne.

Marianne, you'll need to unmute.

Thank you, Mr. Shaney. I have a question about Nehemiah 1 verse 8 and 9, where in italics they have if you, if you, and yet. And if you take those, what I presume are added words out, it changes the meaning of that to a questionable to a command. And I'm just wondering if any, you know, if you had a thought on that. If you take the word if out, yeah. The word you doesn't appear to be in italics. It would be you are unfaithful. I will scatter you among the nations. But you return to me and keep my commandments and I'll bring you back. God says to wear my dwelling. Yes, it is. Yeah, it is a statement. Israel wasn't faithful, right, over and over and over again to God. And when they repented, you know, they returned to Him. And, you know, in the end, we know that He'll bring them back to the Promised Land. Yeah, that's a good point. You have to look at those italics and see what the meaning is. Yeah, it changes the sense a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Wellhausen. Yes, sir. Thank you. How many times the Bible hears, lately, the last year, space we read about double prophecies. And we're starting to see how history keeps repeating itself. It's just like what they did. They started the sacrifices first and built the temple.

Just like in Revelation. We can start the sacrifices first, and then the temple will be built, and it's just like we bought it before. Yeah, it'll all fall into place. It'll be. Yep.

When you look at those things, God does work in patterns, and He does give us clues, right, of what there is. Again, anything that He... It's His will, always. So, yeah. Okay, good point. Hey, Becky.

Hey, just something on the temple. I've always thought about, you know, the Israelites. They had the tent. You know, it was a movable structure. It wasn't like a stone-built temple. So, I've always thought there could even be something go up quickly like that that could be considered a temple in comparison. I had thought of that. I mean, I guess that's a possibility. Yeah, yeah, that's a good thought, too. That might be, so. The tent was, in a temple.

And that was a... It was a tabernacle, right. Tabernacle. I call it a tent, yeah.

Sherry. Hey, Sherry. Mr.... Yeah, hi. Has anybody else heard about the thing about buying the Bibles, that they're gonna start recording names of the people that are buying Bibles? They already been doing it, Sister Sherry. All they have? Yeah, it's reported that they've been collecting the data already. They've already collected it for possibly years, yeah.

Somebody asked me today, and I said, well, you know, use bookstores. They have Bibles, and they don't just sell Bibles, so you could always... And usually they give them away.

I said, you could always get one there, because somebody was concerned about it. So I said, go to the thrift store and find it. You know, because they're not going to keep the documents. There's no... I mean, that's interesting that they would be collecting the names. I guess they always could, right? Because most people put things on credit cards or whatever, but... Or if you order it online. But, you know, I'm getting more and more from the evidence. The government knows what we're doing almost every minute of the day, right? Oh, yeah. It seems like... Definitely. You know, I think it's impossible to hide. It's impossible to hide what we're doing, so I wouldn't worry about it. Well, that just shows God's protecting us. Exactly. Exactly. So... Thank you. Hey, Reggie.

Oh, your mic.

Anyway, during Harry's time, didn't he have a lot to do with the things that Romans did against the temple whenever he was a poker writer in Israel or Judah?

Do you mean as far as destroying the temple? Or... No, as far as redecorating it and things, in other words. Yeah, well, he made it better, right, to remember history, right? I mean, that's why they called it Harry's temple, because he kind of participated with it and made it better than it was. So... Okay. Yep.

From what I understand, I've actually read into it, and apparently Harry's temple was actually a third temple, not the second, because he actually destroyed the second temple and then rebuilt it into Harry's temple. That's an interesting thought. Now that you say that, I think you're right. I think I... Yeah, I'll have to look at that more, but yeah, there is something to that. So, yeah. I don't know if it's completely destroyed. That's... Oh yeah, well, we'll look at that. So, okay. Did I see another hand go up here? I thought I saw yellow. Allie, did you have something you wanted to say?

Okay. Okay, well, anything else anyone? Bob? Bob? No. Okay. Well, all set. Okay. Well, very good. I'm gonna fit... Bill, did you... Bill Bruce, did you add another comment or...? I had something. Okay.

I saw a bishop on YouTube the other day, and maybe it's been a long time, telling the Shapiro guy that Jews don't have to go through Christ to go to heaven.

Shapiro, Jews don't have to go through Christ to go to heaven. Okay, so he is like totally wrong, then. So, I mean, not to go to heaven even right. I mean, there is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ, so yeah. What else he said was, is that all you have to do is follow your conscience, because Jesus is your conscience. That's a Catholic bishop said this. I listened to it. Wow, Catholics, yeah. Catholics have a lot of explaining to do these days. We could, yeah, we could... yeah, we could... we should have a debate with Catholics and talk about some things with them, so yeah. Then you got that guy that's preaching the rapture. Have you seen him on TV?

I haven't seen him. What's his name? Oh, God, I can't remember it, but they're advertising it, and he's got a large congregation there, and he's preaching the rapture, and it's going to be strange that people are just going to vanish. That's not David Jeremiah, is it by any chance?

It may be. That sounds... you may have seen it, too. Yeah, yeah, he preaches about that a lot.

Yeah, he's a pretty popular guy, too, I understand. I guess a lot of people listen to him. We're gonna, you know, we may have to do something on the rapture to counter some of that, so...

I know, Bill, if you had another question, or Tracy, if you had another question.

I do have trouble understanding how to work this to turn my microphone back up, but could I be added to the mailing list? I didn't get a message about this, so I found it a little hard to get into tonight. Okay, if you send me your email address, I'll add you to the email list, and then you'll get an email on Tuesday with the link. Okay, thank you. Okay, okay. Yes. Is the link gonna change?

The link will be the same for the next several weeks, so the link you have tonight will work, at least for the next couple months. How do I get on the email list?

Uh-uh, just send me an email, and I'll add you to the email list.

The link changes like once every three months. They make me switch it out, and whatever, but yeah, the link you have now is good for a few months here, so...

Okay, I see another light here. Is there someone else who had something they wanted to say?

Okay. Tracy or Brandon? Brandon? No, I can't fix that. I can't put the hand down, because I can't see my controllers. That's all. Okay, okay. That's fine. Brandon, did you want to say something? Oh, yes. I just wanted to say that it was very good to see all of you. I'm glad that everything went well over there, and I'm glad that you all are back, and it's just wonderful to be in the company of brethren. Very good. Good to have you with us every week, Brandon. Tell everyone in Jacksonville High and the rest of you on Jacksonville and Orlando, too.

I sure will. Okay, so I guess we probably should. We're a little past 830, so we went a little long tonight, but it was a good, good, good conversation, good questions and everything. So I'm going to sign off. If any of you are in Northwest Indiana, we're going to be in Merrillville, Indiana, for services this week. So we'll look forward to seeing you there. Happens to be the congregation I grew up in, so kind of looking forward to being up there, the Sabbath. But if we don't see you, the Sabbath, everyone have a good Sabbath, and we will look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday night. Okay. Bye bye. Okay. Thank you. See you. Take care. Bye bye. Bye.