Day 343: Nehemiah 4-7 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Family, welcome to day 343. We are continuing our trek through the book of Nehemiah. Today we are in Nehemiah chapters four, five, six, and seven, all right? Four solid chapters of the Bible, solid, solid reading. I had a blast reading these chapters and honestly, I'm inspired by Nehemiah. And no wonder why there are so many sermon series attached to Nehemiah as it relates to building projects and building programs. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but in the Christian space, it's almost like every time there is a new campus or a building that leaders are believing God for and you're trying to raise a lot of money from your church or doing a capital campaign, typically people pull out the book in Nehemiah. And I get it. It's like, hey, there's something to build and building is gonna require a lot of our energy and a lot of our resources. And so building is a part of what it means to be a believer. I think that building is just part and parcel of the DNA

of being a part of God's people. I see myself as a builder. I see a lot of Nehemiah's characteristics in me. I wanna build big people. I wanna build an awesome organization. I wanna build companies that help people. My dad was a construction worker. So I'm not necessarily someone who can construct things physically with my hands, but man, just the kind of mind to construct organizations, businesses, people, I love it. Obviously, I'm also in the middle of planting a church right now. And so it's just, it's building season. It's building people. Typically we're in a conference room, me and the team and we just got a bunch of names of like 370 people who have joined our launch team. And we're like, where do we put everybody? How do we build this so that systems work, so that policies and procedures work? I love building. And I like building things from scratch. And I'm seeing that in my son right now. He loves doing Legos. And I'm seeing that thing in him that is like, okay, this piece goes here and this goes here and this goes here. That desire to build. I just wanna encourage anybody who's listening to this right now and you're trying to build,

you're trying to build your life, you know? You're trying to build it in brick by brick based on a blueprint. And so I can identify with Nehemiah. I'm reading this in a season of my life where I'm building and I see myself as a builder and I hope you see yourself that way too. All right, our context clues to be honest are the same as yesterday, okay? So we're Nehemiah chapters four, five, six and seven. Nothing about our context has changed from yesterday. Nehemiah is finally in Jerusalem and the same way that Zerubbabel was faced with opposition. Same way that Ezra comes back in their mixed marriages, which is opposition. Nehemiah gets here, they're gonna start building and of course there's gonna be opposition. So chapter four verse one starts out with these words. When sand ballot heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly an incest, not like incest, but like incense, like lit on fire, right? Like he was angry, he was upset. He ridiculed Jews and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, okay? So sand ballot has arrived with an army, okay? He said, what are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish on a day? Can they bring the stones back to life

from those keeps of rubble burned as they are to buy the Ammonite who was at his side, said what they are building, even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones. And I know maybe we're like, well, how effective could ridicule be? But to be honest, there are millions of people who aren't doing what God's called them to do because the words or the ridicule of other people have really impacted them or really hurt them. And I just wanna say, you know, if you're gonna build whatever you're gonna build a marriage, build a family, build a company, build a life, build a church, build a ministry, if you're gonna build stuff, you can't build things and not assume You have to actually go ahead and assume there's gonna be opposition. If I'm building something, I wanna take territory. And it's funny, you know, we've got a prayer team and we try our best to kinda help people to find their prophetic gifts. And we did a pop up at the House of Blues recently, the garden, the church that we're planting. And afterwards, one of the girls who has a strong prophetic gift on our team, my name is Tatiana. And she said, as we were at the House of Blues, I could feel like there were demonic, there were idols,

there were false gods, there were demonic powers that are not happy that we're here. And she's like, I felt the presence of the Lord, but I also felt this like spiritual opposition. And I said, of course, 'cause we're building. And building means that we're taking territory, we're taking ground. Of course, there's gonna be opposition. I'm actually not thrown off guard by opposition, you know? There are all kinds of spirits that reside here in this secular venue called the House of Blues. And we are displacing them. We are taking back territory in the form of souls, but also in the form of like real estate. Like we want this land, like this space to be known, not just as a House of Blues, the concert venue, but as a House of God, yeah. Of course, we've ticked off, you know, whatever is demonic power has been set up as a prince or principality in this region is not gonna be happy that we're just here. And the enemy will bring ridicule, he'll bring accusation, he'll bring distraction, he'll do whatever he's gotta do to get you to not build what God's called you to build. But I love this, okay? Verse four, hear us, our God, for we are despised, turn their insults back on their own heads, give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins

from your sight for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders. Insults are gonna get thrown in the face of the builders, but what do we do? We pray, I love this down to verse nine, chapter four, verse nine. It says, but we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. We didn't just pray, we posted, we prayed and posted. 'Cause faith of that works is dead. And so the question is, okay, have you prepared for opposition spiritually and then have you prepared for opposition practically? Don't just pray, get a guard, post a guard up there. Let's go, but don't just post a guard, pray. And I have found in a lot of spaces, we're good at doing either or, and not always good at doing both. Hey, God actually wants us to do both of these things. All right, obviously don't give in to the opposition. And then one of the big nerdy nuggets that I really wanna share, this could be a timeless truth as well, is that the biggest threat is never gonna be sand ballot, you know what I mean? Sand ballot, who I can't remember where he's from, they give his ethnicity at some point. The opposition that we're gonna come from to Bayah the Ammonite, you know what I mean? Like, that's not your biggest threat. Your biggest threat is never external.

Your biggest threat is always internal. So what's happening in Nehemiah chapter five, we're gonna have, it says this, now the men in the wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. Some were saying we and our sons and daughters are out, are numerous in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain. Others are saying we are managing our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine. Still others were saying we have had to borrow money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards. So does financial oppression happening in the land? And I love how Nehemiah responds. Nehemiah, I'll just read it from my laptop. Nehemiah chapter five, verse six to eight, says this, I was very angry when I heard their outcry in these words, I took counsel with myself and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, you are exacting interest, each from his brother. And I held a great assembly against them and said to them, we as far as we are able have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations. Like what in the world? Dude, we're trying to end the slavery of our own people, not perpetuated, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us. They were silent and could not find a word to say. So two big things to pull out.

is never as big as the internal threat. And, you know, the Roman Empire didn't collapse because of the Visigoths of the, or, you know, the Gauls of the anybody who invaded the the Roman Empire crumbled because of a lack of internal integrity. It's it's it's never the external threat that's a problem is the internal threat. And, um, in, in, I don't want to be a prophet of doom and gloom, but if I could just give a word of like counsel, it's like the biggest threat to America is never going to be, you know, another nation or anything like that. It's going to be our lack of unity as as a people, you know, it's us like we as Americans have to unite like we as Americans have to realize no house divided against itself can stand. Like the greatest threat to America is not Russia. The greatest threat to America is not China. The greatest threat to America are Americans. In any team, it's like we don't have to make it that macro like any team. Sometimes the enemy will make sure that there's so much locker room drama that the issue is not going to be the team that you're facing on the court, but your own teammates in your own locker room. And so we immediately go from, hey, there's, you know, Tabaya and Sam ballot and all these people are exposed, you know, opposing the plan of God. But then Nehemiah is looking at his own people. And what is, what had actually happened is that the work on the wall involved so many of Jerusalem citizens in its surrounding land and habitats that normal life was being affected with so many working on the wall. There weren't as many in the fields and farms or even in everyday trading commerce. This had led to a loss of both income and food within the community. This had a devastating effect on the less well off with families using their land to secure loans and were now threatened with foreclosure and also had Persian taxes they needed to pay. Some of the poorest had even already sold their children into debt slavery. And Nehemiah is completely angry at this. Okay, they had been freed from slavery to Babylon only to be enslaved by their own people. Nehemiah demands that all foreclosures be suspended, that all interests wiped from the loans and to return what they had already taken from them. They agreed to do this under oath and Nehemiah adds a curse on them just to make sure that they do what they say. That's chapter five versus 12 to 13. And then you can just kind of see Nehemiah's integrity as the governor in a complete contrast to the nobles and other officials Nehemiah who had just been appointed governor of Judah refused to take from the people. He even refused to take the allotment of food and tax. He was legally allowed to levy not taking any that he was due for 12 years. This basically meant that during his time as governor Nehemiah paid all of his staff, all of the guards and all of the expenses and his own expenses as

governor. So just tons of integrity. What are we talking about? So the number one thing, the internal threat is always bigger than the external threat. I can't stop the fact that Satan hates me and he's going to oppose our church. But what I can do is make sure that there's there's not an aching in the camp, someone who's secretly stealing and causing the favor of God to not rest on us. Gossip, discord, division, these are axing the things that are happening right under our noses. And as leaders, we got to be a little bit more scared and vigilant about the internal threats and the external threats. Number two, we continue to see this picture throughout the Bible that caring for the poor is not some liberal idea. It's a biblical idea. And I know like we're just living in this world right now where personal integrity and morality seems to be like a conservative thing, and then like social justice and caring for the poor and protecting the orphan, the widow and the immigrant seems to be like leftist thing. And here we go. Here's the Bible again, just like jacking with all those categories because Ezra Nehemiah is supposed to be one book. And Ezra has an issue, a moral issue with the intermarriage of of Jewish people with pagans, like, hey, nah, you need to be sexually pure. So this is a sexual ethic, a conservative sexual ethic. Yep. And guess what? Nehemiah is going to say, and you need to care for the poor. So the Bible doesn't have these boxes or these categories. The equation I've kind of written down is that morality and justice is righteousness. So if you want mind, all your strength, all your soul and love your neighbors yourself. That it is both the love of God, which would make you sexually pure and the love of your neighbor, which would make you, you know, act towards them in a financial way that's not, that's not taking advantage of them or that's not, what's the word, exploitative in nature. And again, in our current world, these are just in their own different categories. But in the biblical world, this is just righteousness. This is all just righteousness, not exploiting your neighbor, treating the person who's poor, fairly, and also having control over your own sexual behaviors is all wrapped in one. These are not two different things. And it is morality plus justice that equal righteousness. Also, we've got a chiasm. So we've got chapter three, verses one to 32, the work on the walls is begun. And then chapter six, verses 15 to 19, the work on the walls is finished. So that's going to bookend our chiasm. And then if you go one layer in chapter four, verses one to 23, there's plots against the builders. And then in chapter six, verses one to 14, there's plots against Nehemiah. And then if you get into the middle, we got chapter five,

verses one to 19, Nehemiah is a leader full of righteousness and integrity. And I think we all want to be the kind of leader who's like Nehemiah. What good is it if we can have the charisma to rally people to build a wall, but then don't have the character to actually, like, forego our own finances and not exact taxes from people. That's just character. So Nehemiah has the kind of charisma that can get a bunch of people, get like rallied around a project, but then just the personal character to make financial sacrifices personally so that the project can go forward. He's not trying to get rich off of the Simon of God in his life. Man, that's commendable. That is insanely, insanely commendable. All right, family, the weight is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy if you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective. If you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. In the plot against Nehemiah, there's this verse in Nehemiah chapter six verse three, they want him to they've trying to meet him out at a field because really they they want to kill him. So verse two, it actually says, Sam ballot and Gesham sent me this message, come let us meet together in one of the villages on the plane of Oh, no. And you know, Nehemiah's response is Oh, no, ha, get it on the planes of Oh, no, in his response is Oh, no, anyway, whatever you'll get it tomorrow. But they were scheming to harm me. So I sent messages to them with the reply, I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Watch the work stop while I leave it to go down to you. Four times they sent me the same message and each time I gave them the same answer. I love that answer. I'm busy doing what God called me to do. So many times people ask me, Hey, have you heard about such and such? No, I'm busy doing what God told me to do. Hey, have you heard about? No, I'm busy doing what God told me to do. So much drama in life can be just avoided by you just being like, No, I'm busy doing what God told me to do. I'm about my father's business. David just been doing the work that he'd been called to do,

which is being out fighting a military battle. He wouldn't have been tempted by Bathsheba baiting. So a lot of it is just, why aren't you just doing what you're called to do? Like, just focus on what God called you to do and be someone of singular focus. This is what God called me to. Fantastic. And so Nehemiah avoids, you know, a murderous plot just by sticking to the Plan. Don't get distracted. Just do what God told you to do. And you know what? It is the assignment that will actually keep you safe from all kinds of evil plots against you. I bet there's so many things that I don't even manage to get into because I'm just focused. Just focus on what God called me to do. - So that's my last morning, nigga. All right, leads really good into a timeless truth. There's two things that I want to highlight. Number one, I actually only got time to do one, so we'll do one, is that the workers, they build and defend simultaneously. And that's a timeless truth for you and I, isn't it? That we're gonna have to build and defend simultaneously. We've gotta have the work ethic to build what God wants us to build, but then the courage or the fight to know when to use a sword. And leadership, here's what I've realized, is that tools, you can fight with a tool and you could try to build with a weapon, but you really wanna fight with weapons and build with tuples. And what I've seen a lot of times in ministry is leaders don't know what requires a hammer

and what requires a sword. And so there's some people who it's like, "Man, you really need to build that guy on your team up." When they set up building that person up, you whip out the sword. You start fighting with someone who you should be building. And you need to know the sword is for enemies and the hammer or the tools are to build. And I've seen a lot of pastors, especially, do a lot of damage to a lot of people on the team because your tongue can either be a tool that you use to build people up or it can be a weapon that you use to cut people down. And wise leaders know when to use a hammer and when to use a sword. And I as a leader have had to get better and better and better at using the sword on people who need the sword, but using the hammer on people who need the hammer because my tongue has the power to be both. And I have to be the kind of leader who knows how to defend but also the kind of leader who knows how to build and not to conflate the two or confuse the two because they can easily, easily, easily, easily get confused with each other. And that's not just true in 444 BC with Nehemiah. That's true for you and I today as leaders. Tomorrow, we got Nehemiah chapters eight, nine and 10. We're gonna be diving in a day three, 44 on the podcast. I'm super, super excited. I'll be here same time, same place.

I love you, I'm proud of you. Till tomorrow, peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.