Bible Study: January 31, 2024

Okay, so tonight we're going to look at, I guess we'll get through at least Nehemiah 3 and 4. But let me just kind of bring you up to kind of a refresher on what we did last week.

Last week, you remember, we went through just kind of a summary of the Book of Ezra because the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah are pretty much bound together. The Book of Ezra talks about the building of the temple. You remember it got delayed. And then as we began into the Book of Nehemiah, God calls him to go and repair the walls of the city. They've been broken down. The gates have been burned. And so to complete the rebuilding of Jerusalem as God commissioned would happen after the Jews were taken captive by Babylon. And King Cyrus, as you recall, sent them back. We went through the first two chapters of Nehemiah last time. We saw where Nehemiah was called and how he was in a position to ask the king for permission to go back and rebuild those walls. Everything in God's favor was with him, and God allowed him to go back. So we find ourselves here in chapter 3. Last week, you recall, Nehemiah did run into some challenges as he went in there, just like we run into challenges when we try to do God's work. As we try to build the things in him, we will have distractions. We will have anything that can come our way to take us off course. Nehemiah did not let that happen, just like Ezra before him. So in chapter 3, if you read through chapter 3 ahead of time, you might think this is going to be a really uninteresting chapter. There's a lot of names in it. There's a lot of talks about the repairs that went on to the various parts of the wall in Jerusalem.

And it could be one of those chapters that you just think, well, you just kind of read through quickly. But tonight we're going to read through it. Knowing that every word of the Bible is here for a reason. God has given us everything. We will know everything that God had intended us to know. There's family names in here and people's names in here that we don't know today. We might be able one day to understand who these people are and why God had them work on that part of the building of the wall. But we are going to go through this verse by verse, as we've been doing in every book of the Bible that we study. We'll be looking at the names, but we're also going to be looking at what was repaired. So I've got, as we go through this chapter 3, a screen to share with you.

That'll help you. If you don't want to look at your Bible, if you just want me to read, you'll be able to look at this picture here. It's a picture of the gates and walls of Nehemiah or Jerusalem at the time of Nehemiah. As we go through this, you will see that, as God talks about this, the priests.

Eliyahu, you know, repaired the sheep gate and the priests with him. Then we go counterclockwise around this entire wall surrounding the city of Jerusalem. You see up there in the upper north corner there that the Temple Mount, where the temple may well have been located at that time. You see all the gates that come into Jerusalem. You're going to see the things that are mentioned. The priest's houses, the broad wall, Eliasheb's house, stairs ascending from the city of David.

You'll see all those as we go through chapter 3, give you a better idea of what it is that Nehemiah and his group were repairing. Remember it told us that all those walls were broken down, all the gates were burned. So there had been people who had come in trying to destroy the city of Jerusalem, but Nehemiah is there now to repair everything.

If we just get a feel for the map there, if you go down to the bottom, the southern part there, the northern part, you see down at the very bottom it says stairs ascending from the city of David. So the city of David is, you know, what it's called in the Bible. God gave David that land, and in that area, between the water gate and the fountain gate, they say is where Hezekiah's tunnel is. That's where the Gihon spring is. Off to the east of that city is the Kidron Valley, and you'll see down there in the southern part that David.

So some of the kings were buried in that area there around the city of David. So just to give you a little bit of the geography there, if you look at the very southern border on this map, it's called the Dungate. We'll read it. It'll be called the Refuse Gate. That's where all the trash, all the extra mud was taken out of Jerusalem. That was a gate where they just got rid of everything. But right there by the Dungate is the King's Garden, and what some are thinking are the Pill Pool of Siloam. It actually does say that there is a pool right there.

So let's go through chapter three. I'll make some comments. Am I confused about something? Pardon? Oh, there's Jeremy. I'm confused about something. So it has all these people's houses, but I don't see Nehemiah's houses anymore. I mean anywhere, and it specifically says in the Bible that Nehemiah had a house. Yep, but I guess it wasn't anything because it's not mentioned in chapter three. So what they mentioned here in chapter three are just the things that they were repairing. So yeah, so that's kind of what's listed on this map here. All right. So let's go through that. I'll make a few comments along the way, and then when we're done with this, I'm going to come back and we're going to talk about those gates.

Because as we look at the names of the gates, there may be some significance in them as we go around the city again after we get through with chapter three, because God names things. God names things for a reason, so we'll talk about that a little bit. So chapter three of Nehemiah verse one says, then Eliasheb, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priests, and built the sheep gate.

You see the sheep gate right there at the top north, just at the northeast corner of Jerusalem. They say the sheep gate is where the sheep that were brought in for sacrificing came in through that gate. That gate is also mentioned. Christ mentions it in John 5 verse 2, and he talks about the sheep gate. You don't have to go there, but let me just read John 5 too, so we can kind of see the context of these gates and other parts of the Bible, as they're mentioned as well. So in John 5, verse 2, it says, there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew with us, they're having five porches.

Now, I do not see a pool there, even there, but maybe that's just not listed there because it's not listed in Nehemiah, but there's a sheep gate. There's a sheep gate there, and that is what they say, is where the, like I said, the sheep for the sacrifices were brought in, and then I guess, well, yeah, brought in for sacrifices. They consecrated the sheep gate. They hung it on its doors, and they built it as far as the Tower of the Hundred.

The Tower of the Hundred, you see that right next door to the sheep gate there. They built it as far as the Tower of the Hundred and consecrated it, and then as far as the Tower of Hananal.

Hananal means God has favored. So, Elishaev and the priests, and it's notice, it's notable that it was the priests who built that section of the wall, because as you read through Nehemiah 3, only the priests only built one other section of the wall, and we'll get to that. So, it's notable that they were building, you know, God commissioned them to build that part of the wall there, from the sheep gate all the way over to the Tower of Hananal. So, in verse 2 of chapter 3, it says, next to Eliasheb, the men of Jericho built, and next to them, Zachor, the son of Imri built. Also, the sons of Asana built the fish gate. So, you see the fish gate there, there in the north, kind of northwest corner. They say that the fish gate was where the merchants would come in. The merchants that were selling fish and other wares would come in through that gate. So, that was what that gate was used primarily for. So, they repaired, or they built the fish gate, and they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. And next to them, Marimoth, the son of Urijah, the son of Kaz, made repairs. Next to them, Meshulim, the son of Birkiah, the son of Meshebel, made repairs. And next to them, Zadok, the son of Beyana, made repairs.

Next to them, the Tecoites made repairs. But, and it's interesting here, the Tecoites made repairs, but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work of their lord. So, it's kind of interesting. They were kind of commissioned, and they were going to build that portion of the gate there, but their nobles, their main guys, they didn't bother. They didn't bother working. They didn't bother working. And God took note of that in there. I guess it's kind of a warning to us, or an admonition to us, you know, don't let someone else do the work we're commissioned to do. If we say we're participating in the work, participate. Participate in the work, and don't just think we can delegate it to someone else. God wants to see all of our efforts and efforts put into his work. Verse 6, Moreover, Jehoiada, the son of Piseya and Meshulim, the son of Desedeya, repaired the old gate. You see the old gate up there in green. Really nothing notable about the old gate. I looked up in many commentaries to see what happened in that gate. Why is it specifically mentioned, but must just have been an entrance into the city. Nothing really notable about that that I could find at all. So they repaired the old gate. They laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. So you can see there's the construction of the wall, but also the construction of the gate and all the detail that goes with that. Verse 7, Next to them, Melatiah, the Gibeonite, Jadun, the Maranothite, the men of Gibeon and Mzba, repaired the residence of the governor of the region beyond the river. There's the residence there. I don't see the residence there.

But it would be there because the Broadwall is coming up in a little bit here. So it's right there in that section, the residence of the governor of the region beyond the river.

Next to him, Uziel, the son of Hariah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. And next to him, Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs. And they fortified Jerusalem as far as the Broadwall.

You can see the Broadwall probably so named because it looks like about the longest straight stretch of wall that goes around Jerusalem. So a variety of people were involved in repairing that wall. Verse 9 says, Next to them, Raphaea, the son of Hariah, leader of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs. And next to them, Jadiah, the son of Harimoth, made repairs in front of his house. And next to him, Attush, the son of Ashnabdiah, made repairs. So we're coming up to Jadiah's house.

Well, that must be the houses we just talked about here. You will see the priest's houses down there right in the center, right below the temple. And those priest's houses, we'll talk about them a little bit more when we get over to the horse gate. They're tied to that horse gate in an interesting way. So they made repairs. Verse 11 says, Melchaijah, the son of Harim, and Hasub, the son of Pahath Moab, repaired another section, as well as the tower of the ovens. So you can see we're coming down to the valley gate here.

And Hinnun and the inhabitants of Zenoa repaired the valley gate. Now, we read about the valley gate last week. If you remember, when Nehemiah came from the king that sent him, he ran into some people who were in Jerusalem, but he didn't tell those people that he was there to repair the walls. He kept the reason that he was there quiet. But at night, you remember, he went around the southern part of the city to kind of survey what did the city look like? What was the wall like? And he could see it pretty well at night. And it's specifically mentioned the valley gate back in chapter two that he went up to and surveyed that whole area in there. So that was the part here, the southwestern part of the wall that he looked at as he was as he was repairing or as he was getting ready to get to work on repairing the wall.

So that's the tower of the ovens. And did we just talk about the valley gate?

Yeah. And then the inhabitants of Zenoa repaired the valley gate. They built it. They hung its doors with its bolts and bars, and they repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the refuse gate. Okay. So you can see here they are from the valley gate all the way down to the very southernmost part of the city and the wall of Jerusalem. So they did, as it says there, we have the measurement there, repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the refuse gate. Now we talked a little bit about the refuse gate. That was where they put off the old and the filed.

One of the commentaries, and I did kind of try to check this back at Second Chronicles, and I couldn't verify it, but somehow one of the commentary says that in that, by that refuse gate, is where King Manasseh, evil King Manasseh of Judah, did a lot of the child sacrificing that he was doing. So down that might have been the area that he did that in. I couldn't find a specific reference of that in the Bible where it talks about where he was killing or where he was doing those child sacrifices.

Didn't seem to match up to me, but the commentary, at least one of them, was pretty sure it happened. But do remember that in this area, evil King Manasseh, he was doing child sacrifices there, and it was because of evil King Manasseh that God said, even though he repented, that God said Jerusalem is still going to be going into captivity. So we're down at the dungate. The dungate we see down there, the king's garden that might have been in that area, the pool of what might have been, or what became the pool of Siloam.

Then it says, Melchaijah, the son of Rekab, leader of the district of Beth Hecarim, repaired the refuse gate. He built it and hung its doors with his bolts and bars. Verse 15, Shalom, the son of Kol Hosea, leader of the district of Mispa, repaired the fountain gate. So we come around here, the stairs he's sending from the city of David, the fountain gate. Remember, it was in, generally believed, and when you look at the maps of the city of David, the Hezekiah's tunnel was in this area, the spring of Gihon was in this area as well.

If you remember from our other Bible studies, the spring of Gihon was the only freshwater spring in that area. So when God had the city of David, when he gave David that area, and it's called the city of David, and the temple was built in that area, they needed a tremendous amount of water with all the sacrifices that were going on in the temple, all the blood that had to be washed away, the priests that had to do the washing, and all the people that were working in the temple, they needed an almost inexhaustible supply of water, and that spring of Gihon provided that.

It's the only area in Jerusalem, so we know that the temple was there in that area, and that water was used in all of the functions of the temple that God had them to do. As a lesson, a reminder, God provides everything we need. We just have to kind of trust him to lead us to the right place, and do the things, and he'll provide whatever we need to do, you know, to get what he wants us to do done. So we're at the fountain gate. We're at the fountain gate here in verse 15.

Okay, so, Shallom repaired the fountain gate, he built it, covered it, hung its doors with its bolts and bars, and repaired the wall of the pool of She-Lah. Okay, that would be what's labeled there as the pool of Siloam. Repaired the wall of the pool of She-Lah by the king's garden. So you see the king's garden down there, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David. So he repaired the fountain gate in that area. Down there in that area, he repaired that whole section of wall. After him, Nehemiah, this is a different Nehemiah, the son of, well, hold on just a minute, after this Nehemiah, a different Nehemiah, the son of Asbuch, leader of half the district of Bethzur, made repairs as far as the place in front of the tombs of David.

So he was working on that as well. Now, I said that that's a different Nehemiah, and I should have looked that up more carefully. That may be the Nehemiah we're talking about. He would have participated in the work, just like all of us participate in the work there. He was supervising, but he also was working as well.

But it may be another one as well. I'll have to look that up. Anyway, he made repairs as far as the place in front of the tombs of David. We talked about that. The kings were buried on that side near the Kidron Valley to the man-made pool. Notice it says there on your map, artificial pool, and as far as the House of the Mighty. And do we see the House of the Mighty there? We don't see the House of the Mighty there, but that's okay. You get the very, you get the general idea of where he was working and repairing the wall in that area. After him, the Levites, remember the Levites, under him the Levites, under Rehom, the son of Bani, Bani made repairs.

Next to him, Hashabiah, leader of half the district of Kayla, made repairs for his district. And after him, their brethren, under Bevai, the son of Hanadad, leader of the other half of the district of Kayla, made repairs. So, kind of going up the going up the wall here. And next to him, Ezar, the son of Jeshua, the leader of Mispa, repaired another section in front of the ascent to the armory. Now, I've seen the ascent to the armory here somewhere. May have been another another um another map I was looking at, but it would be in the same area here. Yeah, the same area here of the wall. For some reason, that was not listed there.

He sent to the armory at the buttress, and then Baruch carefully repaired the other section from the buttress to the door of the house of Eliasib, the high priest. So, you can see where Eliasib's house is there on the on the west side of the city. Now, it's labeled number 28, and he repaired that wall and the things up into the house of Eliasib.

And after him, the priests, the men of the plain, made repairs. And then in verse 23, after him, Benjamin and his shoe made repairs opposite their house. You can see Benjamin and his shoe's house, number 30 there.

And then Azariah, the son of Messiah, M-A-A-S-E-I-A-H. I'm going to pronounce that Messiah, but it's not Messiah, like Jesus Christ, the son of Ananiya made repairs in his house. And so you can see Azariah's house is there, so the section of the wall as we go counterclockwise back up to the top northeast corner. Go ahead. Mr. Shaby? Yes. Yeah, the ascent to the armory is number 24.

Is it? Ah, there it is! It's on the other side of the map. Okay, very good. Okay.

Yeah, I guess they just they just kind of labeled everything everywhere. Okay, very good. Okay, kind of. We see where we are. Jeremy or Tracy, did you have your hand up?

Oh, yeah, I did. That was for the question before, but I have another one. Are we going to cover, like, the king's upper palace? I thought there was no king in Jerusalem at that time.

Let me see. Where do you see king's upper palace? On the lower middle. Yeah, yeah, I think, I actually think we do. Let me get there. It must be coming up if it's mentioned there.

Okay. Okay. There was no king there, but remember they're repairing everything that was there.

Let me look at these gates here to make sure I'm not missing something on the way.

No, okay. So we are on our way up to the course. I don't know if we've gotten to the water gate yet, even. So, moreover, the Nephonym who dwelt in Ophiel made repairs as far as the place in front of the water gate toward the east and on the projecting power. The Tekoites, we talked about the Tekoites before. Their nobles didn't want to participate in the war. They were not. The Tekoites repaired another section next to the great projecting top as far as the wall of Ophiel.

That's up there by number 34. And beyond the horse gate, the priests made repairs, each in front of his own house. So they say the horse gate is where the priests would enter into the temple area. So we have the priests then repairing their houses right there in the center, right? They were doing the repair in their houses. They were doing the repair on the horse gate. That would be where the commentaries, in any way, tell us that that's where they were entering into the temple area, or went out from the temple area with their houses being right there below the temple mount, which makes sense. So they were working on those. And then Zadok, the son of Imr, made repairs in front of his own house. And Shemaiah, the son of Shekaniah, the keeper of the east gate, made repairs.

The east gate is also called the temple gate. It appears to be like one of the main entrances into the temple area. And you can see how it's positioned that it would lead right into the temple area. The east gate is mentioned in some other areas as well. It may be, if you remember, when Christ entered into Jerusalem, and they were laying down palm branches before him and honoring him as a king, the east gate is probably where he entered into. But let me go to the book of Ezekiel, because the east gate is mentioned in Ezekiel a couple times. And it's in, the first one is in Ezekiel 10.

Ezekiel 10 and verse 9.

And there it says, I have that right, 1019, sorry, Ezekiel 10 19. Verse 18 says, The glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. And this is when the temple is there. And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. This is Ezekiel writing a vision. And when they went out, the wheels were beside them. And they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. This is the living creature I saw under the God of Israel by the river Kbar, and I knew they were cherubim. And then he describes those. So as he had a vision, he saw the cherubim go up, and there he was at the east gate. It's a significant gate, if you will. And if that was this gate that Christ entered into at the time when he was coming into Jerusalem before he was arrested and then sacrificed, being the sacrificial lamb, that would show the importance of it to God as it heads right into the temple area. In Ezekiel 43, this would be speaking of the millennial temple. In verses 1-4, Ezekiel, as God is giving him the vision of what that temple will be like, and he gives him all the instructions of the temple, how it should be built. He says, Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Kabbar, and I fell on my face. And the glory of the eternal came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east.

So a significant gate there, the east gate, as we come into it. And it was Zadok and Shamea who were the keepers of the east gate, and they were the ones who did the repairs on it.

So moving on up, moving on up, as we go north of the east gate, Ananiah, the son of Shelemiah, the sixth son of Zalep, repaired another section, and then Meshulim made repairs in front of his dwelling. You see Meshulim's quarters there. I did not look up. I did not look up, and I should have.

Who was Meshulim? He must have been someone to have his quarters be so close, so close to the temple there. He obviously served in it just like we had the Hall of the Temple Servants and Merchants that are right next to the Temple Mount, right next to the Temple Mount as well. After him, Al-Qaeda, the goldsmiths made repair as far as the House of the Nethanim and of the merchants in front of the myth gate, which is really what's called the inspection or muster gate up there. We'll get to that in a minute. I don't know exactly what they did in that either. Couldn't find out. I don't know if I did find that one out. Let me find my notes here.

Yeah, the muster gate is where the sheep that were being brought in, they were brought in, and then they were inspected in that area as well. That's why it was called the inspection gate before they went in for the sacrifice. Between the upper room at the corner, as far as the sheep gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs. So what we've done is take a complete circle counterclockwise around the whole city of Jerusalem. You know, God has recorded for us, for some reason, the details of everyone who worked on the wall, everyone who repaired the gates, the details of what they did, and He's given us the name of all those gates. There are 10 gates. If you take the time to count them that are there around the wall of Jerusalem and the entrance into it. And as you look at those gates, there is one that I was looking at, and it was in the fountain gate. And you know, in Nehemiah 12, we'll come to the fountain gate as well. When they're celebrating, they'll have choirs, and they're going to be in that area. Notable, they're in that area where the spring of Gihan is and everything like that. But there is a passage in one of the commentaries that I found that was interesting, because it took the fountain gate and it directed to Zechariah 13. So let's go to Zechariah 13 and read it to you here. Zechariah 13. Would you mind muting everyone? Because I think there's somebody that's providing some feedback. It's a little bit tricky to hear you sometimes. Okay, gotcha. Is that better?

Yes, thank you. Okay, very good. Okay, so Zechariah 13.

And verse 1 says, So in that day, there will be a fountain open for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And so as we look at the fountain, and as you see, verses on the living wall, they were tying it directly to the Holy Spirit in this one commentary, that that fountain gate could be a picture of the Holy Spirit and there in the wall, there in the gate of Jerusalem, you know, you have a picture of what God would do in New Testament times, and that is give His Holy Spirit to people who repent. The fountains of living water, the fountain that will cleanse the sin, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that comes through that. It made me think about the gates that are here, and as I looked around them, you know, you can see various aspects of our spiritual lives in this. If you look at the sheep gate, you know, God calls us sheep. We come in, we come in through the wall, through the sheep gate to the temple. God's building a temple in us, right? We come into His presence through the sheep gate as He calls. Shepher, we hear His voice, and we come in. You know, if we look at the fish gate, you know, while in old ancient times, it was where the fish, the sellers of fish and other things would come in through that gate. We know fish plays a part in the New Testament. When Jesus Christ was calling His disciples, remember, He told Peter, Come and I will make you fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men. And perhaps, yes, perhaps, God had, you know, something in mind at that point. I do want to read, because in the prophecy of Zephaniah, the fish gate appears as well in Zephaniah. Remember, that's the fourth book from the end of the Old Testament. In Zephaniah 1, it is talking, the chapter one is talking about the great day of the Lord being near.

I'm going to begin in verse 8, but the fish gate is mentioned in verse 10, and I'll read down to verse 11. So verse 8 in Zephaniah 1, It shall be in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel. And that same day I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master's houses with violence and deceit. And there shall be on that day, says the Eternal, the sound of a mournful cry from the fish gate, a wailing from the second quarter. So he's talking, as he talks about that whole area of Jerusalem, that area that still exists today, there's going to be a mourning that comes from that area of the fish gate. The wailing from the second quarter, allowed crashing from the hills. Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down. All those who handle money are cut off. And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who are settled in complacency, who say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil. You know, so, you know, as we look at that fish gate, even in Zephaniah, you know, God draws it to the time of complacency and a time that will come up in Jerusalem, because people just thought God was delaying his coming, that he really wasn't there. He really wasn't serious about our calling. Okay, I've got Jeremy, Lisa, and Randy and Elaine. If, go ahead, Jeremy, your hand is up first. Do you have other, another comment? No, I don't. For some reason, it's still on. Do you know how to turn? Okay, Mr. Wellhausen. How do you turn it off? There should be something down at the bottom of your screen that says, lower your hand. Let me look at my screen. I've got my share screen up here, so I can't. Oh, I found it. Okay, very good. Hey, brother Rick. I've seen pictures. There's a gate that's been bricked over. One of the gates to the walls of Jerusalem. Which one is it?

That is a good question. I don't, I don't know offhand. Does someone know that?

We will look that up, because I have heard of that, but it isn't mentioned here in Nehemiah. It must be later. I wonder if... I have a question, Mr. Shaby. The question is, one of the walls, one of the gates of Jerusalem has been bricked over. Does anyone know which gate that is? Mr. Shaby, I've heard that's the east gate, because that's the gate that needs to be opened when Christ returns to Jerusalem. Excellent. Excellent. Yeah, very good. Okay, that answers one. Randy and Elaine. Hi.

How you doing, Mr. Shaby? Pretty good. How about you?

Doing good. So, back to that, uh, Moshulan's quarters. Uh-huh. He, he was the grandfather of the scribe of Shaphan during the reign of Josiah, and he was actually one of the chief Levite priests, and they even talk about down in Nehemiah 12-6, it lists all those priests during that time, and he was, he was one of the leading ones. Very good. Very good. All these, all these people, all these people are listening to the Bible for a reason. They did some good work. Very good.

Okay, Robert and Susan.

I'm sorry, Mr. Shaby. I answered the question already about the East Gate. Okay. Oh, very good. Okay. And Tracy.

I just want to know where we could get this map. As soon as Zoom goes off, we won't have the map anymore. Um, well, actually, I got this one off of, um, Google. I typed in, what did I type in? Uh, map of, uh, map of Nehemiah 3. But what I will do is I will post this as an attachment. Uh, I'll have to figure out how to do that. I'll post this as an attachment in, um, you know, in the home office website there so that you, you can download it there if you want as well.

Thank you very kindly. Mr. Shaby. Yes. Down at the left-hand corner, it says Bible, cartoon, CO, UK. Yeah. Is that the site?

That, no, actually, I, well, I, I mean, no, I just went to, I just went to Google and typed in Nehemiah 3 map, hit images, and this one came up and it was the best one I, I could find. So, so you can find it there easier than, than that website. I never went to that website down there.

Okay. Hey, Tim. Uh, Mr. Shaby, I believe the Nehemiahs are two different ones. The, uh, Nehemiah the Cub Bear was the son of Hawkeye in chapter one, verse one, and then, uh, verse 16, chapter three, it's a son of, uh, Aspock. Okay. Thank you. My initial thought was they were different, but then when I read, I thought, did I look that up? And I thought, no, I didn't. So, thank you. Thank you. That clarifies that. Okay. So we, well, let me see. We talked about fish gate. Let me just talk briefly about old gate. Um, you know, we know that, we know that, um, there is wisdom among the old Bible says we, we mature, we grow old as, as we walk with God and as we understand thing, the valley gate, the valley gate, you know, yay, though I walked through the valley, the shadow of the, how was it going? Yay, though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, a low point in our life could, could represent the humility that we all need to have. The dung gate, the refuse, you know, we put out the garbage from our lives as God leads us and guides us, and we understand more about our, um, about who we are and get rid of self and more of his Holy Spirit in us. We talked about the fountain gate, the water gate. The water gate there is, you know, we're washed by the water of the word. And of course, we're baptized in water and we're cleansed by water. So if we look at Ephesians 5, uh, verse, uh, 25 and 26 of there were washed by the water of the word. And that, you know, that's that area where the Gihon spring is in there as well. The horse gate, you know, that's where, that's where the priests entered in. But horses have a, have a prominent position in the Bible as well. Uh, Jesus Christ comes on a white horse. We have four horsemen in Revelation. And so we have, we have that part of the Bible represented in the New Testament as well. And then as you move up to the, of course, the east gate we talked about a little bit and, and everything. But the inspection gate, you know, could, could picture the judgment time.

When God, well, we will be resurrected. You know, if he's pure 1st Peter 4 17 says, judgment is now on the house of God. Now when Jesus Christ returns, as we're, as we are judged, as we are judged, we enter into the sheep gate, we build the wall, we go through our lives, let God build the walls of the temples. And we learn how to stand in the gap and build the walls, he says in Ezekiel 22. And then at the end of our lives, he judges us, you know, he judges us and we are resurrected to either eternal life or condemnation. So it's just interesting when you look at that as God built the physical temple. We know today he doesn't fit dwell in physical temples made with hands, but he is dwelling us and building in that temple. So whenever we read of the temple, there's probably something we can learn about us and what God wants us to to know about what we're doing in our lives. So okay, that'll, that'll complete chapter three. But before I leave any other questions or comments on it, you guys have had some good, good questions and made some good points on it. So, so thank you for that.

Brother Shady. Yes, go ahead, Frank. All right, just a quick question. Is, is this the wall, is that the entire city of Jerusalem, you think? Yes. Okay. Yep. The old, the old city of Jerusalem, yes. Okay, Xavier. Yeah, the comment and the question you posted in regard to the dung gate. Yeah. It says it leads right down to the Valley of Hymn. Yes. And that's where, and that's where the commentary may be in the connection. That's where a lot of the child sacrifice took place.

That's the Valley of Hymn. Okay, that's how they made the connection. Very good, very good. Thanks.

Hey, Sheldon.

Hey there. I just, I wanted to just throw in a 30-second comment. You mentioned that, you know, all of these names of all these people are listed here for some reason that worked on this. And I think it's really cool that God chose to put into His Word a permanent record, His Word which will stand forever, the names of the families who came together as a community and a congregation to do a very hard job and really sacrifice to build something together as a community in 51 days to do an amazing work. And I feel like maybe one of the reasons they're listed is because God is giving them credit for the sacrifice and the work they did together as a unified group of a congregation that worked hard to get this done. And maybe it's just to say, hey, these people, they did this. And, you know, obviously God did it, but, you know, He gives them the credit too. Yeah, very good. That's a great observation, right? Well, we all work together to look how quickly the task got completed. That's an excellent observation. That may well be why God did it. They all work together to get that wall built. And they did do it in a miraculous 52 days despite the distractions that they had and the people who were against them that did not want to see that wall built. We'll get into that a little bit more in chapter four. So, hey, I see you. You're iPad 3. Yeah, Jan. Hi, Jan.

I just wanted to mention there in verse 12 that we had some lady carpenters too, daughters of Shalom that also made repairs on the wall. And I don't know if there were any others, but they were definitely mentioned right there in verse 12. Very good. I'm glad you pointed that out. I read right over that. Yes, everyone's got a part. Everyone's got a part, right? Yeah, yes. Absolutely. Excellent. Hey, Debbie. Hi, Mr. Shaby. What happened to Zerubbabel? Zerubbabel? Yeah.

Zerubbabel, he's in Zechariah. He's not in Nehemiah, right? Right, but he came originally.

He came originally to the temple. In Israel? I would have to look and see. I don't know the answer to that question, but we'll see. So, Zerubbabel, I know he's in Zechariah, but maybe maybe it's a different... maybe it's... hold on a minute.

Hi, Mr. Shaby. You'll find Zerubbabel. It's Peter here. You'll find Zerubbabel with me.

You'll find that Zerubbabel is mentioned in Haggai. Haggai, okay. Yeah, okay. Well, we'll look up to Zerubbabel and find out what happened to him. He's not mentioned in Nehemiah anywhere, at least as far as I've read. So, he must not be here right now. So, no, but Zerubbabel was ruined about 500. Okay. In Ezra 2, verse 2, Zerubbabel came with Joshua, the Christmaios, Zeriah, and several others.

I mean, he was prominent in Zerubbah. Yes, that's correct. Yes, yes.

Let me look that up, Debbie. I'm going to look that up. I'm going to see if I can trace Zerubbabel through there, since he's a figure later on, too, and we'll address that next week, okay?

Okay. Let me just make a note to myself here.

If I can just finish up my comment there, Mr. Shaby. Also, this really reminds me very much of the New Testament passage that talks about the whole body working together, everyone doing their part, every part being important, everyone contributing as one body. And it doesn't matter if you're building the water gate, the beautiful gate, or the dung gate, everybody has a part that's important. They all have to be built. Excellent point. It all has to be done, and God decides what part we do, right? So we just gladly do it to the best of our ability.

Mr. Shaby, Zeruva-Bell is in Nehemiah. It's in Nehemiah 7 verse 7. Okay, okay. I stand corrected. I'm going to look and see where Nehemiah has...

what Zeruva-Bell part was here. So we'll talk about him a little bit next week.

But I'm arcing down Nehemiah 7-7 as well, so.

Okay, I want to move into chapter 4 here before we...

What time do we have here? Actually, chapter 4 is, again, it's a pretty straightforward chapter. It's not like we have to go back and look at a lot of other verses or have to unwind a lot of verbiage in here. But it does show us, again, the challenges that Nehemiah and his men had as they were building this gate, or repairing the wall and repairing the gates.

So we can remember this and kind of see a pattern of human behavior as we watch what Sanballat and the men there, how they challenged. You remember in chapter 2, well, remember in Ezra, they first were, oh, you know, we'll help you build the wall. We'll help you build the temple. And Ezra said, no, no, no, you don't need to help us. God will provide everything that we need. They are pretty friendly to Nehemiah. As they come in and begin the wall, they kind of laugh at it like, you're not going to do anything. But Nehemiah and his men just proceed, and they go to work, and they get the work done. So in chapter 4 verse 1, let me get rid of the share here. Chapter 4 verse 1, it says, so happened when Sanballat, remember we met him in chapter 2, heard that we were rebuilding the wall. He was furious. He was furious and very indignant and mocked the Jews. So it was okay at first, like, okay, if we could kind of dissuade you, if we could dissuade you a little bit and throw you off base a little bit, that's okay. But here in chapter 3, we see all this work that's going on. It gets done pretty quickly. And Sanballat, when he sees, they didn't dissuade him. They're out there working. He gets mad. That's part of human nature. Now, now I'm ticked off that you're doing what you came to do. And we don't want this wall built. We don't want Jerusalem built back up again. Miss Keeler, do you have a comment?

You're muted if you do.

Okay, well, I'll continue here in chapter 4. First, it says, he spoke before his brethren with the army of Samaria and said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? What are they doing? What's coming back into our area here? And that may be something as the world looks and sees what's going on in Jerusalem when these things happen, and they have all these articles and instruments already prepared. What are they doing? They may do it, but if the Jews in this day and age are serious about daily sacrifices again, perhaps they will take the same lead and just go march forward and do it.

And we'll be hearing those questions. What are they going to do? Will they be offering sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish? Stones that are burned? All these gates have been turned down. You know, these are probably the people who had parked and breaking down the wall and burning the gates. And Tabbiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, whatever they build, he's kind of making fun of them, whatever they build, even if a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.

They don't know what they're doing. So even if they build a wall back, you know, we can go back in. It's probably what he's thinking, and we can destroy it all again. We don't have to worry about a wall in Jerusalem. These people aren't capable of doing things.

The same thing that people might talk about us, right? God says he doesn't call the mighty people of earth, the wise people of earth. He calls the foolish and base things, but he gives us his spirit, and he gives us what we need, the skills, the wisdom, whatever we need in order to get the job done that he wants us to. Same thing with Nehemiah. They may have looked at him and his team and thought, ah, these are people that don't know what they're doing. That wall isn't going to stand, but here they are, and just looking to God and relying on God and God blessing what they're doing, they get the job done, and it's a pretty sturdy wall.

Sturdy wall. Verse 4, Hero God, for we are despised. Nehemiah knew it. These people hate us. They may have tried to present themselves as our friends, but they don't like us at all. We are—this is an interesting prayer that Nehemiah offers here. Hero our God, for we are despised. Turn their reproach on their own heads. Give them as plunder to a land of captivity.

So, as he sees what's going on, these, you can see, he's a little irritated at what's going on with them, and he prays an interesting prayer to God. Don't cover their iniquity. Don't let their sin be blotted out from before you, for they have provoked you to anger before the builders. Look what they've done. They've been taunting us. They've been taunting us, trying to prevent what we're doing.

But in verse 6, despite everything that all the detractors were doing, so we built the wall. So we built the wall. We didn't let them dissuade us. We didn't let them scare us. We weren't afraid of what they were doing. We didn't get discouraged. We just kept doing. Kind of reminds you what Christ said in Matthew 24.

Blessed are those who he finds so doing when he comes, because there will be plenty of distractions during that time. There will be plenty of things trying to scare us and take us away from what God's will does. But just like Nehemiah and his team, what we do is we keep so doing. Whatever God has us to do, we keep doing it. And don't let their distractions and threats and anger dissuade us.

So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. Sheldon mentioned the unity that was there, and all the people had a mind to work, so they got it done. The only negative we find in all that chapter 3 are the nobles of the Toccoites, right? They didn't participate.

They were above it. But everyone else did their job, from the priests right on down to whoever those people were. And that's what God is looking for from you and me there. We are united, and we all have a mind to work. And when we do, he will bless what the work is. He'll show us what needs to be done. He knows how the walls get built. He knows how the gospel gets preached. He knows what it is we need to do.

We just need to do it, and we need to come together as one in one accord and have the same mind of God. So in verse 7, verse 7, it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashetites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored, and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry. Remember? Close the gaps, stand in the gap. All those things that we read in Ezekiel 20, they were closing the gaps, and it was like nothing we have done yet, nothing we have done yet has stopped them.

So they became angry, and all of them conspired, all of them conspired to come together and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. That's what Satan does. If he can create confusion and chaos, that's what he will do.

Earlier today, I was doing something, and we were talking about the chaos that will be in the world when you look at Revelation 13, and the beast power comes up out of the sea and whatever.

Wherever there is Satan, wherever he's involved, you have tremendous chaos. I heard someone say this week, some commentator somewhere was talking about chaos and what an awful state it would be in a state of chaos. They made the comment, it would be better to be dead than the chaos that could come on this world. It wasn't a priest and it wasn't a minister, but I kind of noted that in there because without even recognizing what he's doing, he's talking about chaos. Satan, well, God is not the author of confusion. Satan is. Satan is chaos. He was looking at the situation in the world and where things were going and was able to make that comment. This is what the people, the enemies of the work of God do. They became angry. They came to attack. They came to create confusion. Nevertheless, Nehemiah says, we had all these things going on in the outside. Nevertheless, we made our prayer to God and because of them, we set a watch against them day and night. We kept our eyes open. We watched out to make sure they couldn't come in and sabotage anything that we were doing. Judah said the strength of the laborers is failing and there is so much rubbish that we're not able to build the wall. So you can see what the enemies were doing, what the detractors were doing, just doing anything they could to disrupt the work. Just throw rubbish at it. One of the workers was like, we can't even build it. We got all these things going on. They just keep throwing things at us. They're doing anything they can to stop the work. Our advert said, they will neither know nor see anything until we come into their midst. Ah, what they really want and kill them and cause the work to cease. We will do anything. We will get anything to stop that wall from being built. So it was when the Jews who dwelt near them came and they told us 10 times from whatever place you turn, they'll be upon us. The threats, no matter where you go, will be. You're not safe. You're not safe. Our eyes are on you and we will find you and we will we will do whatever it takes again to stop. Therefore, Nehemiah says, I position men behind the lower parts of the wall at the openings and I set the people according to their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. You know what? We kind of set up a watch.

God will protect. Nehemiah never doubted that God would protect them, but he did what it took to at least show that they are taking the efforts to be protected and aware of what the enemy is doing and not just going about as if they're blind to it. They still trusted in God, but they took action just like the way we lock our doors, not because we don't trust God and everything, but we take the actions that we need to take to protect ourselves.

That's what they did. I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, don't be afraid. Over and over again, we hear Christ saying, don't be afraid. Don't fear them. God told Moses when the Israelites' backs were against the Red Sea, don't be afraid. Here it is. Don't be afraid. Trust in God. He will watch over us. We'll do what we need to do. We will continue the work. We won't let it stop. We will keep going. Don't be afraid. Remember the Lord. Great and awesome. Fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. Here he is saying, protect the people that you love. It happened when our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had brought their plot to nothing. They had this evil plan, but Nehemiah put a counter plan in attack. When they learned, oh, well, we didn't scare them the way we thought we would, they actually will stand up against us. That hasn't stopped what it was going to do. When it came known to them that God brought their plot to nothing, that all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work. How long that took? Not too long because the whole wall got built in 52 days. There was a lot of people working on it, but there was a lot of work to be done. So it was from that time on that half of my servants worked at construction, while the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows, and wore armor. The leaders were behind all the house of Judah. So they were there like we were just keeping a watch. We're keeping a watch out. Hey, Reggie, go ahead. Sandy's the one. Hey, Sandy. You should make a comment. The Bible commentary brought out that in verse 9, it wasn't just me. It says we. Oh, nevertheless, we made our prayer to God. They were all working together in the harmony. When they realized they needed God, they weren't praying until. Yep, all working together, and they prayed a prayer. Yeah, very good. Okay.

Looking at hands there. So, okay.

Where are we? Verse 17. Those who built on the wall and those who carried burdens loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction and with the other held a weapon.

Let's see what they did. It was like, okay, they know that they have a defense against them, but we're going to continue to work. Maybe we can't work as fast, but we're not going to let them stop us. Their mission is to stop us, but we're going to keep working, and we'll do it with one hand, and the other hand they know we're prepared if they try to come in and stop us.

Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built, and the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles, the rulers, and the rest of the people, the work is great and extensive, and we are separated far from one another on the wall.

Whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us. So again, you have the faith that's there. Okay, we'll call everyone together. We got a problem. We got the trumpet here. God will fight for us. So we labored in the work, and half of the men held the spears from daybreak until the stars appeared. At the same time, I also said to the people, let each man and his servant stay at night in Jerusalem, that they may be our guard by night and a working party by day. The verse 23 is an interesting verse. It says, So neither I, my brethren, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, took off our clothes, except that everyone took them off for washing.

And I thought it was an interesting verse, and I looked up in the commentaries, and really couldn't find anything. But you know what it tells me? They were dedicated. They never let their guard down. Day and night, they had their mind set on what their job was. They never let their guard down so that they were aware of what was going on. And they had their weapons of warfare ready. Just like we should always have our weapons of warfare ready. Not relax. Not take our eyes off of what the danger is and realize that there is always Satan and detractors who will look to do anything to interrupt us. So that's the end of chapter four.

We've been at it for about an hour, so let me end there and open it up for any comments or anything. Hey, Dale. Yeah, hi there. It's Shavey. I was reminded that Christ said He would build His church and the gates of hell and not prevail against it. That's a very encouraging Scripture for us. And also, of course, you know, in Christ today's Father's work, 100% of the time He was totally dedicated, no matter what the obstacles and everything.

Of course, He is our example as we do the work ourselves.

Here's our example. He never kept His eyes on the goal the whole time. Yes, there he is. Yes, indeed. Hey, Debbie.

Okay, hi. So I just want to remind you, I think your wife read the series The Chronicles of the Kings, the Hezekiah series. And then there's three other books about Judah coming back to Jerusalem. It's called the Restoration Chronicles. The first book is Return to Me. Second is Keepers of the Covenant. And on this foundation, those books are excellent in putting you in that environment and how they felt. That lady did a wonderful job of writing the books. But the three books coming back from Babylon to Judah is so well worth it. Even my husband read the whole series. And of course, he's not baptized, but he really, really enjoyed it as well.

I remember when Debbie was reading that book and some other ladies. And yeah, even though it's, you know, he kind of fills in some of the blanks. It was a very good depiction or picture of how life was back then. So yeah, I remember when they were reading those.

Right. It's historical fiction that she fills in very, very good. Yeah. Okay. Reggie? Whenever it talks about Ezekiel without sacrifices, Jerry Smith did a Bible study on Ezekiel without the sacrifices being reinstituted as return of Christ.

Why would that be done that Christ is our sacrifice?

That's a question that comes up quite a bit. I don't know that we know exactly why, but there is a reason that God would have those sacrifices occur again. Maybe as he wants people to understand the price of sin, the blood that had to be offered for it, but we don't know exactly why. We'll know when Christ returns why those sacrifices would be occurring again, but we at least don't fully understand that yet. As that question has been asked, we just don't know. We just don't know what we know they will be. I'm leaving God's hands. He's got a reason, and we will understand then why it's important. Hey, Bill?

You know, I have a question for you. Here's what I'd like. I left a message on your phone a while back. Could you call me? Because this is something I wanted to discuss with you in private. Okay. You left a message for me? Yeah, about two or four days ago on your phone line. Maybe it didn't go through. Okay. Um, or no, excuse me. Okay, I might have left it on your email. I can't remember. So you don't have my phone number, right? I'm sorry? You don't have my phone number. I don't have your phone number, no. Can I give it to you right now? If you want to give it in front of all the people, yes, that's okay, and I'll give you a call. Okay, here we go. I-41-662-662-0901. Okay, I'll give you a call. I'll give you a call when the Bible study's over. Oh, okay. That'd be great. Thank you. Okay, we'll do. Hey, Susan. Hi, Mr. Shaby. Who's the author of the books that Debbie was mentioning?

Debbie, do you- Debbie, are you still on? Yes, it's Sarah Austin. Okay, thank you. No, no, no, I'm sorry. Lynn Austin. Okay. Lynn. Lynn Austin. Excellent, excellent. Okay, thank you so much. I believe I read those books and they are good. She's a good author overall. Okay, anything else, anyone? I'm looking. We should be able to cover chapters five and six next week. Shaby? Yes. Hey, Karen. I sent you a call. I'm not sure if you're still on the phone. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

Shaby? Yes. Hey, Karen. I sent you a note last week because obviously I could get on now, at least on my cell phone. You know if the other Bible studies that you ended up having the series, have they been posted or did you just give them and they're not listed? No, all the Isaiah ones are posted.

No, I know. I did all the Isaiah. I'm talking about you talked a couple weeks ago about you. You named several series of the books that you've already done before you ended up. Yes, they are all posted at ucg.org slash congregations slash home hyphen office. Okay.

If you do that, go into sermons and they're all listed there in order all the books that we've been through. I didn't know how long ago you did that so I didn't know if they were posted or not. Yes, they've been posted for at least two or three years.

You know what? I tell you, I agree with Tracy. I asked especially. I can't see the chart on my small phone. I'd love to be able to, if you end up putting that on the on the thing so that we can end up making copies. I will do that. In fact, I have your email address so I'll just I'll email you a copy of it too when we're done. That's okay. I'm talking about for the future for when you end up doing any chart maps that really would help to be able to go through that. Okay, we try to do that. I don't know what happens to them when the posts get older. That's the thing. I'll post that one. I'll post that one tonight. When I go under sermons, I believe all we get is the audio. I don't get anything as far as the video, so I don't get to see any of them. The Bible studies, we just usually post the audio. I'm talking about all about Isaiah and everything. Yes, yeah. If you get anything from Isaiah, just let me know and I can email you something. I don't want you to have to go through all that. I would have loved to have had those to be able to insert with my notes. When you end up saying that those are going to be helpful for us to be able to understand it more, I just wasn't able to get that. I wasn't able to see that at all. Thank you so much. Okay, okay. Sherri Swindle, hi. Hi, I was going on trying to get on different ways. I found a few different ways to get on the Bible study thing. You can actually even just go to the main website and type in Rick Shavey Bible Studies. Oh, okay. Comes right up. But all the Bible studies, they're all out of order. Like you've got the 60s and then you got the one, and then it goes in. You got to look around for all the ones you want. They're not all in order.

You know, so that's why I think if you go to that home office site, if you don't remember the hyphen, it's hard to find it, right? But if you go to Congress, you know, and just type in Cincinnati that you're in Cincinnati, you'll see this home office one. I think they're all in order there, if I remember correctly. I don't remember seeing it in order when I did it that way. I'll look and we'll see because they should just go right down because I was hoping they'd get it under its own tab where you just hit Bible study and there it is.

Thank you. Okay. Gail, you got a question? Comment? Oh no, sorry, with my hand up, accidentally there maybe. Oh no, well no, there was a Gail that... Oh, sorry, Gail, not Gail. Okay, I'm here. I'm here. Yes, I really enjoyed this. Okay, well, excellent. Every part of the Bible is enjoyable, so okay. Yeah, I'm from Canada. I want to take Manitoba. Okay, very good. Yeah, I'm on every week. Okay, well, it's good to be with you. Okay, thank you very much.

Hi, Gail.

Okay, why don't we go ahead and go ahead. If any of you are in Dallas, we're going to be in Dallas for Sabbath services this week and for the conference next week, so we'll see you there. The rest of you, we have a very wonderful Sabbath and we will look forward to next Wednesday. We'll be back together next Wednesday. Is that okay? Yeah, sounds great. Thank you.

Good night everyone. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. See you, Xavier. Bye bye.

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