Speaker 1: Life Audio. Well, good morning, faithful listeners. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being here on the Bible Explain podcast with me.
Speaker 1: And for those of you who don't know, my name
Speaker 1: is Jen and I am the host of this podcast.
Speaker 1: I hope you are ready to share a delicious cup
Speaker 1: of seven weeks coffee with me as we read Neamiah
Speaker 1: chapter seven. The entire thing. But this is one of
Speaker 1: those chapters where it's mostly just names and names that
Speaker 1: I do not know how to pronounce, so I'm probably
Speaker 1: going to be skipping over a good portion of it.
Speaker 1: But anytime that I do this, I always recommend that
Speaker 1: you guys go back and read it for yourself. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's even best to have your Bible with you if
Speaker 1: you are able to if you are doing this podcast
Speaker 1: at home. I know a lot of you Faithful listeners though,
Speaker 1: like to listen to me while you're driving or working
Speaker 1: or cleaning your house or something like that, so I
Speaker 1: understand if you can't grab the Bible right here and now,
Speaker 1: but it's always good to have the Bible open and
Speaker 1: in front of you when you are reading through the Bible,
Speaker 1: because I am a human being and I do make mistakes,
Speaker 1: as you guys, know, so having the Bible open and
Speaker 1: you know, gaining from it for yourself is a very
Speaker 1: good thing. Niamiah seven is actually a very interesting chapter.
Speaker 1: Even though we here in the West we usually like
Speaker 1: to skip over chapters like this because honestly, we don't
Speaker 1: really care about family names or all of these random
Speaker 1: people because we don't know these people. And also because
Speaker 1: our culture is very different. You know, we don't really
Speaker 1: base our identity on our families here in the West.
Speaker 1: Typically we look at ourselves as individuals who can break
Speaker 1: away from our families and kind of just be whoever
Speaker 1: we want to be, and our family name doesn't matter
Speaker 1: as much. But back in Neamiah's day, family name meant everything.
Speaker 1: It was your identity. So we're going to get into
Speaker 1: all of these different people why Niamiah is writing all
Speaker 1: of this down, and I think it's going to be
Speaker 1: a lot more interesting to you guys than you expect.
Speaker 1: So let's go ahead and get into this right after
Speaker 1: a quick message from one of my sponsors, So let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and start in verses one through ten. I'll
Speaker 1: be reading pretty much everything today from the World English Bible,
Speaker 1: as I usually do, and just to let you guys
Speaker 1: know this is Nehemiah speaking. So starting in verse one,
Speaker 1: here's what it says. Now, when the wall was built,
Speaker 1: and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers,
Speaker 1: and the singers and the Levites were appointed, I put
Speaker 1: my brother Hanani and Hanna and Ayah, the governor of
Speaker 1: the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem, for he was a
Speaker 1: faithful man and feared God above many. I said to them,
Speaker 1: don't let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the
Speaker 1: sun is hot, and while they stand guard, let them
Speaker 1: shut the doors, and you bar them, and appoint watches
Speaker 1: of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone in his watch, with
Speaker 1: everyone near his house. Now the city was wide and large,
Speaker 1: but the people were few therein, and houses were not built.
Speaker 1: My God put it into my heart to gather together
Speaker 1: the nobles and the rulers and the people, that they
Speaker 1: might be listed by genealogy. I found the book of
Speaker 1: the genealogy of those who came up at the first first,
Speaker 1: and I found this written in it. These are the
Speaker 1: children of the province who went up out of the
Speaker 1: captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebekonezer,
Speaker 1: the King of Babylon, had carried away, and who returned
Speaker 1: to Jerusalem and Judah everyone to his city who came
Speaker 1: with Zerubabyl Jeshua, Niamiyah, Azaria, Ramayah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bill Shan,
Speaker 1: miss Pereth, big Vi, Nahum, and Bana, the number of
Speaker 1: the men of the people of Israel, the children of
Speaker 1: Parash two thousand, one hundred and seventy two, the children
Speaker 1: of Shefadia three hundred seventy two, the children of Ara
Speaker 1: six hundred and fifty two. And so that's where I'm
Speaker 1: going to stop for right now. So Niamiyah is finished
Speaker 1: building the walls. That is what we've been talking about
Speaker 1: for the past several weeks. But interestingly enough, even though
Speaker 1: the walls are finally built, the Book of Niamiyah is
Speaker 1: only halfway done, because building the walls was only one
Speaker 1: part of Namiyah's job. He had a big job actually
Speaker 1: ahead of him. God put a lot of things on
Speaker 1: Nehemiah's heart, not just the protection of Jerusalem with these walls, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, something I didn't mention because I didn't
Speaker 1: even think about it until a couple days ago, was
Speaker 1: that another reason why the walls needed to be built
Speaker 1: around Jerusalem was because that was where the temple was.
Speaker 1: Don't forget the people of Israel considered Jerusalem to be
Speaker 1: a very holy city. It was where God resided, and
Speaker 1: so these walls would also protect the temple from being
Speaker 1: completely destroyed. You know in other books of the Bible
Speaker 1: that we discussed whenever a foreign army goes into Jerusalem
Speaker 1: to try to capture people, what do they do First?
Speaker 1: They always go to the temple and they steal stuff
Speaker 1: out of it, like every single time, whether it's the
Speaker 1: Egyptians or the Babylonians, they always go to the temple
Speaker 1: and try to destroy it first, because firstly, there were
Speaker 1: some very beautiful things inside the temple that were worth
Speaker 1: a lot of money. But also you have to the
Speaker 1: culture back in these days, when an invading army conquered
Speaker 1: a land, they believed that they were also conquering the
Speaker 1: god of that land, and they would say, oh, my
Speaker 1: God is so much stronger than that person's God because
Speaker 1: we just conquered their land. So going into the temple
Speaker 1: and completely destroying it was like one of the first
Speaker 1: things that people would do to kind of show the people, oh,
Speaker 1: I am so much stronger than your God. Hence why
Speaker 1: Niamiah had it on his heart to build these walls
Speaker 1: around Jerusalem and around the Temple. So now these walls
Speaker 1: are complete very quickly, by the way, fifty two days.
Speaker 1: It took Nehemiah and the residence of Jerusalem to build
Speaker 1: these walls. It says he set up the doors, he
Speaker 1: assigned the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites, and
Speaker 1: he put his brother Hanani, and also this man named
Speaker 1: Hanna and Naya, who was the governor of the fortress,
Speaker 1: in charge of Jerusalem. Now we do get a little
Speaker 1: glimpse into Niamiah's family life because Hanani is mentioned twice.
Speaker 1: First in Niemiyah One, when Hanani had gone to Jerusalem
Speaker 1: initially possibly on an errand from the king of Persia.
Speaker 1: He came back and gave this report, this really bad
Speaker 1: report about Jerusalem to Niemiah, and that was what made
Speaker 1: Niamiyah actually want to go to Jerusalem in the first place. Well,
Speaker 1: apparently Hanani actually traveled with his brother Niemiyah to go
Speaker 1: back to Jerusalem, and he was an upstanding man, because
Speaker 1: Niamiyah put him in this other man Hannah and Aiah
Speaker 1: in charge of the security of Jerusalem. And it says
Speaker 1: specifically of this other guy, Hanna Andaiyah, that he was
Speaker 1: a faithful man and feared God above many. Now that's
Speaker 1: very important when you put somebody in charge of the
Speaker 1: security of a holy city. You have to fear God
Speaker 1: before you fear man, because if you fear people more
Speaker 1: than you fear God, then you're going to cave to
Speaker 1: any kind of army that comes your way, and you're
Speaker 1: going to open up those gates and allow these people
Speaker 1: to come in and potentially desecrate the Temple to God
Speaker 1: and kill a whole bunch of residents of Jerusalem. So
Speaker 1: it's important for the person to be in charge of
Speaker 1: security to fear God far more than you fear men.
Speaker 1: So now that Neamiyah has set up the security of Israel,
Speaker 1: he says to these two men his brother Hanani and
Speaker 1: also Hanna and Ayah, which, by the way, those two
Speaker 1: men basically had the same name. Interestingly enough, Hanani was
Speaker 1: just a shortened form of Hanna and Ayah, which has
Speaker 1: made some scholars think that these two men are actually
Speaker 1: the same, but most people don't actually think that because
Speaker 1: it would make no sense for Namiah to mention his
Speaker 1: brother's name twice. That would be like my sister, you know,
Speaker 1: putting me in charge of something and like writing it
Speaker 1: down as a record and being like, I put my
Speaker 1: sister Jen and also Jennifer in charge of this one thing.
Speaker 1: Like any person reading that would be like what Like
Speaker 1: you'd assume that there's two different people, one named Jen
Speaker 1: and also one named Jennifer. So most likely Niemiah was
Speaker 1: not talking about his brother just twice. He's probably talking
Speaker 1: about two different individuals, one named Hannani and another named
Speaker 1: hann and Ayah. Just as Jen and Jennifer is a
Speaker 1: very common name, it could be that Hanani and Hanna
Speaker 1: and Ayah was a common name back in these days.
Speaker 1: But anyway, he puts Hanani and Hanna and Ayah in
Speaker 1: charge of the security of Jerusalem. Here's what he says
Speaker 1: to them, don't let the gates of Jerusalem be opened
Speaker 1: until the sun is hot, and while they stand guard,
Speaker 1: let them shut the doors and you bar them and
Speaker 1: a point watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone on
Speaker 1: his watch, with everyone near his house. So remember when
Speaker 1: Neiamiah finished building those walls, there were still a ton
Speaker 1: of threats against him. We talked about all of that
Speaker 1: in the previous chapter how many threats Niamiah had on
Speaker 1: his life because the people did not want these walls
Speaker 1: to be built. Now granted, and once the walls were
Speaker 1: actually built, the nations kind of gave up because they
Speaker 1: were like, well, we didn't when we didn't want these
Speaker 1: walls to be built, but now they're built and there's
Speaker 1: nothing we can really do about it. But still, it
Speaker 1: was wise of Nehamiyah to make sure that the gates
Speaker 1: were only opened during certain times of the day, during
Speaker 1: the sunniest part of the day, when you could really
Speaker 1: see what was going on. That was the only times
Speaker 1: the doors were allowed to be open to the city
Speaker 1: of Jerusalem. And also watches had to be put in place,
Speaker 1: so guards stationed around the city. And Neamiyah's very smart,
Speaker 1: it says, to station these men near their own homes,
Speaker 1: because if you think about it, you know, with all
Speaker 1: of these threats coming to Jerusalem from these opposing nations,
Speaker 1: if each man was stationed directly near his own home,
Speaker 1: then he would probably be far more on guard than
Speaker 1: he would if he was stationed, you know, across the
Speaker 1: city or something like that where he couldn't see his
Speaker 1: house at all. This was very smart of Nehamiyah to do.
Speaker 1: But now it says in verse four that the city
Speaker 1: was wide and large, but the people were few therein
Speaker 1: and the houses were not to build, So there are
Speaker 1: very few houses built in Jerusalem. The city was not
Speaker 1: very populated, yet it was a big city, Meamiah said.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately all the people were not living within the city.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a lot of people were living outside
Speaker 1: of the city. So now, because Jerusalem is very sparse.
Speaker 1: It says in verse five that God put it into
Speaker 1: Neemiah's heart to gather together the nobles, the rulers, the
Speaker 1: people that they might be listed by genealogy. And he
Speaker 1: found the book of the genealogy of those who came
Speaker 1: up at the first and I found this written in it.
Speaker 1: And I'm not gonna lie. When I first read this,
Speaker 1: I was like, why did God put this on Neamiah's heart,
Speaker 1: especially considering the fact that Ezra wrote down the genealogy
Speaker 1: of the people, possibly only a few decades before Nehemiah
Speaker 1: wrote all of this down. So why was it necessary
Speaker 1: to have two of almost the exact same list with
Speaker 1: a few differences. Well, after doing some research, my best guess,
Speaker 1: and this is just my two cents. This is not
Speaker 1: scriptural or anything. My best guess is that Nehemiah felt
Speaker 1: that he needed to really research the data himself in
Speaker 1: order to get a good grasp of who was in
Speaker 1: the city. Don't forget that Niamiah had only just recently
Speaker 1: arrived in the city of Jerusalem. He didn't know who
Speaker 1: was there yet, and if he wanted to repopulate the city,
Speaker 1: which is what it sounds like he was aiming to do,
Speaker 1: he needed to know who was there, who was in
Speaker 1: the land, and I think that's why he researched this
Speaker 1: topic himself. Now, a lot of people like to say
Speaker 1: that Niamiyah copied Ezra's report. In Ezra Chapter two, you'll
Speaker 1: see a very similar report, But I actually don't agree
Speaker 1: with that because there are twenty nine differences between Ezra's
Speaker 1: account and Namiyah's account when you compare the two side
Speaker 1: by side, So that really doesn't sound like Neamiyah's copying
Speaker 1: Ezra if he has that many differences. There were probably
Speaker 1: a lot of places actually where the genealogies were written down,
Speaker 1: because again this was very important to the Israelite people.
Speaker 1: Family meant everything, that was your identity, so people would
Speaker 1: keep their family history and their records kind of like
Speaker 1: how you know, some families have a bible of their
Speaker 1: ancestors where each person would like write down their names
Speaker 1: in that bible. That was probably what a lot of
Speaker 1: the Jews did. They kept their heritage written down somewhere.
Speaker 1: And it's very likely that as Namiyah had this on
Speaker 1: his heart to record these families, that people were coming
Speaker 1: to him with these records being like, hey, look, this
Speaker 1: is my family history. Because he kind of goes into that. Actually,
Speaker 1: towards the end of this chapter, he mentioned some people
Speaker 1: that were not able to produce records of their family history.
Speaker 1: That's talked about in verse sixty one. It says these
Speaker 1: were those who went up from Tell Malaw Tell Hersha,
Speaker 1: cherub Aiden and Emer, but they could not show their
Speaker 1: father's houses nor their offspring whether they were of Israel.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it does sound like people were potentially bringing
Speaker 1: their records to Nehemiah so that he could write all
Speaker 1: of these things down. Now why was this so important, Well,
Speaker 1: because Niamiah needed to have a good grasp of who
Speaker 1: was in is at this point in time, who was
Speaker 1: ready to move into Jerusalem, and also who was illegitimate.
Speaker 1: Remember in the chapter we just talked about on Monday.
Speaker 1: Ezra had some run ins with false prophets and a
Speaker 1: false prophetess as well. He was well aware that there
Speaker 1: were people in Israel that were not fit for the
Speaker 1: roles that they were in. Could be that there were
Speaker 1: some priests who weren't even Israelites potentially doing the role.
Speaker 1: In fact, we're going to get into some of those
Speaker 1: people at the end of this chapter. And Niamiah, dealing
Speaker 1: with that experience all through the building of this wall,
Speaker 1: probably had it on his heart to make sure that
Speaker 1: these people in Israel were legitimate and if any of
Speaker 1: them moved into Jerusalem, they had good intentions and not
Speaker 1: potentially evil intentions trying to destroy Jerusalem or being a
Speaker 1: spy for other nations or something along those lines. So
Speaker 1: that's my guess as to why God put this on
Speaker 1: Nehemiah's heart. It was a very different motivation than what
Speaker 1: Ezra had. If you look back in the Book of
Speaker 1: Ezra when he wrote all of these lineages down, he
Speaker 1: likely did it. And again this is my two cents,
Speaker 1: because he was a scribe, because these things interested him,
Speaker 1: because he was really passionate about lineages, and also he
Speaker 1: likely wanted to give a credence to all of the
Speaker 1: people who came back to Israel to rebuild it and
Speaker 1: give them the recognition that they deserved. So two totally
Speaker 1: different motivations for writing all of these lineages down. Though
Speaker 1: the two accounts are very very similar. But there are
Speaker 1: some differences, and we'll get into some of those differences today.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to mention all twenty nine differences. If
Speaker 1: you guys are interested in that, you can certainly look
Speaker 1: that up yourself. It is easy to find just by
Speaker 1: googling it. But continuing in verse six, it says, these
Speaker 1: are the children of the province who went up out
Speaker 1: of the captivity of those who had been carried away,
Speaker 1: whom nebukin Azer, the King of Babylon, had carried away,
Speaker 1: and who returned it to Jerusalem and to Judah, everyone
Speaker 1: to his city who came with Zerubabyl Jeshua and all
Speaker 1: of these other people. So the first group of people
Speaker 1: that Neiami goes into are the leaders of Israel, the
Speaker 1: ones who are carried away by King Nebukeinezer and now
Speaker 1: have returned back into the land one hundred years prior
Speaker 1: to Niemiyah, and he mentions Parash Shafadia, Ara, pihathmoab Elam, Zatu, Zakai,
Speaker 1: Benui babei asgad Ad Dinikim, And I am going to
Speaker 1: stop right there so that I don't butcher these names
Speaker 1: even further. But yeah, these were the leaders of Israel.
Speaker 1: You know, these were the guys that came back into
Speaker 1: the land one hundred years prior to all of this,
Speaker 1: and it mentions all of their families and all of
Speaker 1: the people that returned with them. So, for example, this
Speaker 1: first guy mentioned Parash two one hundred and seventy two
Speaker 1: came with this guy, so that's a lot of people
Speaker 1: that came with him. Now moving forward in verse twenty five,
Speaker 1: you're going to notice that it kind of changes to
Speaker 1: not talking about individual men but a city. It says
Speaker 1: the children of Gibeon ninety five. After that at the
Speaker 1: men of Bethlehem and beth Asthmaveth and Kiriath Jerem. You know,
Speaker 1: you're going to recognize some of these Israelite cities mentioned here,
Speaker 1: which proves that there are two ways that somebody could
Speaker 1: prove their identity as an Israelite. They could do it
Speaker 1: by their family name. So for example, I am from
Speaker 1: the family of Parash i am a second cousin or
Speaker 1: something like that. Or you could say, my family has
Speaker 1: lived in Gibeon for this amount of generations, and you
Speaker 1: would bring these records that you have to Neamiah and
Speaker 1: he'd write all of this down. So there are two
Speaker 1: separate ways that you could prove that you are in Israelite,
Speaker 1: either by a name of like one of the patriarchs
Speaker 1: of your family, or by your city name as well.
Speaker 1: And now in verse thirty nine through forty two, Niamiah
Speaker 1: switches to talking about the Levites. He says specifically of
Speaker 1: the priests, the children of Jediah the house of Jeshua
Speaker 1: nine hundred and seventy three, the children of Emer one
Speaker 1: thousand fifty two, the children of pas Sure one thousand,
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty seven, the children of Harim one
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen. So that is how many priests traveled to Israel,
Speaker 1: And the lineage of the priests was especially important, more
Speaker 1: so than any of the other tribes, because the Levites
Speaker 1: were the only ones who could be priests according to
Speaker 1: God himself. That is what it says in numbers, Where
Speaker 1: is it numbers? Chapter sixteen, Verse forty. This was to
Speaker 1: remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of
Speaker 1: Erin should come to burn incense before the Lord, or
Speaker 1: he would become like Cora and his followers. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys know the story of Cora
Speaker 1: and his followers. I won't really get into it today.
Speaker 1: But they were not good people, and they tried to
Speaker 1: usurp authority from Moses back in the wilderness, and God
Speaker 1: judged them for their rebellion. So only the Levites, specifically
Speaker 1: from the family of Arin, could be priests. Now there
Speaker 1: are other Levites not from the family of Aarin that
Speaker 1: could serve in the temple, but they could never be priests,
Speaker 1: and that is who Nehemiah discusses in verses forty three
Speaker 1: through forty five. Now these people, though they couldn't be priests,
Speaker 1: they could be other things. It says they could be singers.
Speaker 1: Right here, they could be gatekeepers, and in general, the
Speaker 1: Levites would assist the priests in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1: But again they couldn't be priests. They couldn't even go
Speaker 1: into the Temple of God. Actually, so now in verse
Speaker 1: forty six it mentions temple servants the children of Ziha,
Speaker 1: the children of Hasufah, the children of Taboith. And something
Speaker 1: you're going to notice about all of these names, well
Speaker 1: not all of them, but a lot of them, is
Speaker 1: that these names are foreign. They are not Israelite names,
Speaker 1: which actually shows that the temple's servants were probably prisoners
Speaker 1: of war a lot of times, or they could have
Speaker 1: been slaves that were forced to serve in the temple.
Speaker 1: God actually talks about this in Ezekiel forty four, verses
Speaker 1: six through nine, and Ezekiel is a prophet prophesying during
Speaker 1: the Babylonian takeover. So here's what God says in Ezekiel
Speaker 1: forty four, starting in verse six. You shall tell the rebellious,
Speaker 1: even the house of Israel, the Lord Yahweh, says you,
Speaker 1: House of Israel. Let that be enough of all of
Speaker 1: your abominations, in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised
Speaker 1: in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary,
Speaker 1: to profane it, even my house when you offer my bread,
Speaker 1: the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant.
Speaker 1: To add to all of your abominations, you have not
Speaker 1: performed the duty of my holy things. But you have
Speaker 1: set performers of my duty in my sanctuary for yourselves.
Speaker 1: The Lord Yahweh says, no foreigner uncircumcised in heart and
Speaker 1: uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my sanctuary of any
Speaker 1: foreigners who are among the children of Israel. So God
Speaker 1: makes it very clear that these foreigners who are specifically
Speaker 1: uncircumcised in heart and in FLEs should not be entering
Speaker 1: into the sanctuary. But apparently the Israelites were allowing these
Speaker 1: foreigners and even forcing these foreigners, probably in certain circumstances,
Speaker 1: to do some of these jobs. And God was not
Speaker 1: happy with this because he says, you have not performed
Speaker 1: the duty of the holy things. Instead, you are putting
Speaker 1: these foreigners in charge of all these things that you
Speaker 1: should be in charge of, And he specifically mentions he
Speaker 1: is angry with the fact that they are uncircumcised in
Speaker 1: heart and in flesh. Okay, So that means that they
Speaker 1: were not following any of the laws of God. But
Speaker 1: the priests were still putting these people in charge of it. Now,
Speaker 1: if these foreigners would have been circumcised in both heart
Speaker 1: and in flesh, then it would have been okay for
Speaker 1: them to serve in the Temple. But because they were
Speaker 1: still foreigners, they did not adopt any of the customs
Speaker 1: of Israel, and they weren't even forced to adopt these customs. Instead,
Speaker 1: they were just put in charge of stuff. And God
Speaker 1: was not okay with this. Now. Granted, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to open up the can of worms about slavery in
Speaker 1: the Old Testament right now. I've talked about it before
Speaker 1: on the podcast, and maybe I'll try to find an
Speaker 1: episode where I discussed that and link it in the description,
Speaker 1: But for right now, just know that I don't think
Speaker 1: slavery was necessarily the greatest evil in the sight of God.
Speaker 1: There could have been some of that going on. We know,
Speaker 1: based upon other portioned scripture that slavery is not a
Speaker 1: good thing. I mean, we just talked about that. Actually
Speaker 1: in Neemiah, just a couple chapters ago, the Israelites were
Speaker 1: putting their own brothers and sisters into slavery and even
Speaker 1: selling their brothers and sisters into slavery, and Niemiah was
Speaker 1: sickened by all of this. But God is always concerned
Speaker 1: firstly about the spiritual health of an individual before their
Speaker 1: physical health. This has proven actually when Jesus, before he
Speaker 1: even healed that crippled man. You know the story when
Speaker 1: the crippled man came through the ceiling because Jesus had
Speaker 1: a big crowd in front of him, and so the
Speaker 1: crippled man's friends like broke open the ceiling to bring
Speaker 1: this man down. Well, Jesus forgave the man first, proving
Speaker 1: that spiritual health is always more important than physical health.
Speaker 1: And that is why sometimes God will allow us to
Speaker 1: suffer physically so that we can grow closer to him spiritually.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's really hard for us to understand that.
Speaker 1: You know, we kind of think that God is unloving
Speaker 1: because he cares more about spiritual health. But God understands
Speaker 1: the reality of life after death, and he also understands
Speaker 1: the reality of death after death. And so if God
Speaker 1: is far more concerned about spiritual health than he is
Speaker 1: about physical health or freedom or even sometimes our own
Speaker 1: physical lives, then that means spiritual health must be extremely
Speaker 1: important and something that we should take very seriously. The
Speaker 1: creator of the universe thinks of it as the most
Speaker 1: important thing. That's why he was able to give up
Speaker 1: his life, his physical life for us so that we
Speaker 1: can gain spiritual life. Our spiritual health is the most
Speaker 1: important thing in the eyes of God, and so for
Speaker 1: these foreigners, they didn't have any spiritual health, and they
Speaker 1: weren't being taught to anything spiritual. These priests were just
Speaker 1: forcing them to do these things so that they could
Speaker 1: take a day off or whatever. And God was sickened
Speaker 1: by this. He sickened over the fact that, you know,
Speaker 1: foreigners were performing the duties of the temple and were
Speaker 1: not gaining the spiritual health needed in order to perform
Speaker 1: these duties. Of course God cared about these foreigners that
Speaker 1: were in the temple, but God wanted their spiritual health
Speaker 1: to be fixed, and because it wasn't, that's probably one
Speaker 1: of the reasons another reason why the Babylonians came in
Speaker 1: and exiled all of the people out of Israel until
Speaker 1: a later time. But that doesn't change the fact that
Speaker 1: in the Amayah, the temple servants who came back into
Speaker 1: the land, probably of their own free will, came back
Speaker 1: because that was their ancestral home. Their ancestors had been
Speaker 1: the temple servants, so they came back into the land,
Speaker 1: and so a lot of them were foreigners, and so
Speaker 1: Neami writes all of their names down as well, because
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily wrong for a foreigner to perform the
Speaker 1: duties of the temple, but they just had to be
Speaker 1: following the laws of God. Now moving on, it says
Speaker 1: the children of Solomon's servants in verse fifty seven, the
Speaker 1: children of so Thai, the children of Sepharith, the children
Speaker 1: of Parita, and a bunch of other people as well.
Speaker 1: Now this is pretty self explanatory. These were Solomon's servants specifically,
Speaker 1: so the king's servants who also came back into the land.
Speaker 1: Some of these people could have been slaves, some of
Speaker 1: them hired, we don't really know. Then, in verses sixty
Speaker 1: one through sixty five, this talks about the people who
Speaker 1: were in the land who could not give a record
Speaker 1: of their families, and he mentions all of these people.
Speaker 1: There was also some priests in verse sixty three that
Speaker 1: could not give a record of their families. And that
Speaker 1: is kind of suspicious because the tribe of Levi was
Speaker 1: like the most important tribe for knowing your genealogy, especially
Speaker 1: if you're going to become a priest. So kind of
Speaker 1: crazy that some of these priests didn't actually have genealogical records.
Speaker 1: It says the way that Niemiah handled this was the
Speaker 1: governor told them not to eat of the most holy
Speaker 1: things until a priest stood up to minister with the
Speaker 1: urim and the thumim. So they basically left it up
Speaker 1: to God whether or not these people could be priests
Speaker 1: or not, and they were immediately taken away from the
Speaker 1: priesthood because they could not prove that they were from
Speaker 1: the line of Erin. Then in verse sixty six, it
Speaker 1: says the whole assembly together was forty two thousand, three
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty, in addition to male servants and female servants,
Speaker 1: of whom there were seven thousand, three hundred and thirty seven.
Speaker 1: So that first number there is actually exactly the same
Speaker 1: as Ezra's account forty two thousand, three hundred and sixty.
Speaker 1: Though Ezra and Niemiah got to it in different ways,
Speaker 1: and that's probably because they were taking from different sources.
Speaker 1: Now you might be like, well, that's an inconsistency in
Speaker 1: scripture that Neemiah and Ezra had two different accounts, But
Speaker 1: you have to remember something. There were multiple ways of
Speaker 1: proving which genealogy you were part of. Remember how some
Speaker 1: of these people were bringing forth records based upon the
Speaker 1: city they were born in, not necessarily their families. It
Speaker 1: could be in Nehemia's day more people brought records based
Speaker 1: upon the city that they lived in rather than their families,
Speaker 1: or it could be that some families had leave right marriages.
Speaker 1: For those of you who don't know what that is,
Speaker 1: that basically means that you take your brother's wife if
Speaker 1: she becomes a widow, and you have a child on
Speaker 1: behalf of your brother. It's kind of weird, but it
Speaker 1: was a way to protect widows back in these days,
Speaker 1: so that they weren't completely destitute. They could still have
Speaker 1: a child, they could still be part of a family.
Speaker 1: And so these children technically would have two dads, and sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, a brother wasn't available for a widow to marry,
Speaker 1: and it could be like an uncle or you know,
Speaker 1: somebody else. They could be redeemed. In fact, there's a
Speaker 1: whole story about that. The Book of Ruth talks about
Speaker 1: a woman who was redeemed after her husband had died.
Speaker 1: So you can see that they're there are different ways
Speaker 1: to reach the same conclusion. But that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: Neihamiyah is incorrect, and it also doesn't mean that Ezra
Speaker 1: is incorrect, especially if they reach the same exact number
Speaker 1: at the end of everything. So now in verses sixty
Speaker 1: eight through seventy three, it finishes talking about all the
Speaker 1: animals that the people had with them and some of
Speaker 1: the people that donated to good causes. Specifically, in verse
Speaker 1: seventy says the governor gave to the treasury one thousand
Speaker 1: dereks of gold, fifty basins, five hundred and thirty priestly garments,
Speaker 1: you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Because Niamiah
Speaker 1: also wants to write down the good things that these
Speaker 1: people had done as well, not just their lineages, but
Speaker 1: giving them the honor that they woulde for the good
Speaker 1: things that they accomplished in their lives. Essentially, so this
Speaker 1: was Niamiah seven, at least a rundown of it. I
Speaker 1: hope you guys enjoyed this episode more than you maybe
Speaker 1: thought that you would, because as Westerners, we have a
Speaker 1: tendency to just skip right over chapters like this. But
Speaker 1: these things are important, especially when you want to understand
Speaker 1: the culture and the history of what you're reading in
Speaker 1: the Bible. So, faithful listeners, right after a quick word
Speaker 1: from a sponsor, I'm going to finish up today's episode
Speaker 1: with a few closing things. Thank you Faithful listeners for
Speaker 1: making it to the end of the episode and for
Speaker 1: listening to that sponsored ad. Tomorrow, we're going to be
Speaker 1: in the Book of James as we have been for
Speaker 1: the past couple weeks, but moving into a brand new chapter.
Speaker 1: And I don't even know what the chapter's about yet.
Speaker 1: I haven't looked at it yet. So I'm excited to
Speaker 1: dive into James Chapter two with you tomorrow and discuss
Speaker 1: all of that. Actually, i'm looking it up right now
Speaker 1: to see what it's about. Yes, it's about favoritism forbidden. Well,
Speaker 1: that's going to be a good episode, So tune in
Speaker 1: tomorrow six am or whenever you choose to wake up
Speaker 1: for an episode from James Chapter two. Now, in the meantime,
Speaker 1: there's going to be some episodes that are related to
Speaker 1: this one linked in the description of this episode, So
Speaker 1: after we're done with this, make sure check out all
Speaker 1: of those things. You're going to find a lot of
Speaker 1: useful information in the description. Faithul listeners. If you liked
Speaker 1: this episode, please share it on your social media platforms.
Speaker 1: Tell people that the Bible Explain Podcasts exists and also
Speaker 1: write a nice little review. In fact, sometimes I will
Speaker 1: read reviews on the podcast and thank all of you
Speaker 1: faithful listeners personally. So if you get a chance to
Speaker 1: do that, please do so, and I may read it
Speaker 1: on the podcast or I might put it up on
Speaker 1: my website. All right, faithful listeners, have a fantastic and
Speaker 1: wonderful rest of your day. As always, happy listening and
Speaker 1: God bless. I just want to take a second to
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