Nehemiah 7 (Part 2) Bible Study (Lists of Returned Exiles/Totals and Gifts) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Of God together as the body of Christ, as the bride of Christ, and as as this family of Christ. I hope you've come expecting great things from the Lord. I hope you've come looking forward to beholding wonderful things out of the word of God today. As we start our service, I'd like to just read one stanza in Psalm 119, that that wonderful Psalm of worship to the Lord. Praise to the Lord for giving us the Bible.

So would you please stand with me as we open our service by reading God's word together. Psalm 119 beginning at verse number 97. The psalmist begins and says, oh, how I love your law. Let me repeat that. Oh, how I love your law.

You know, some get uncomfortable when we talk about emotions and with with understandability because we've seen the abuses of emotionalism in the greater evangelical community, in the greater evangelical church where people pursue just the feelings and the emotions, and they neglect everything else that the Lord has for us. But we must always remember, as the psalmist did here, we are called to love God with all of our being, including our emotions, our hearts, our souls to the Lord. The Psalmist says, oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies for it is ever with me.

I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules for you have taught me how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. You know, you can know a lot about honey just from reading about it, from watching videos about it, or hearing other people's experiences about it.

You know that honey is sweet in your mind, but, oh, when you taste it, when you have it on your lips and in your mouth, you realize how sweet it is. May that be all of us tonight with the word of God. May we truly taste it and love it and cherish it. Sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts, I get understanding.

Therefore, I hate every false way. As we open the word of God today, it is our prayer always whenever we gather that us and you truly taste and see that the Lord is good. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this night. Oh, Lord.

We thank you for your gracious, wise, merciful hand that has brought us all to this place, to this building, to worship you. Lord, help our hearts today. May you remove all distractions from us, from a busy week, from a tiring week, Lord. As we come into this room now, may you give us supernatural clarity. May you give us supernatural focus as we wanna hear from you tonight.

Open our eyes to behold wondrous things out of your law. Teach us your way, oh Lord, that we may walk in your truth and satisfy us. Satisfy us, we pray, with more and more of you. May you receive all the glory tonight, and may your people gathered here receive your invincible, everlasting, and true joy. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Church, will you please lift your voices to the Lord? Sing to the Lord a new song tonight.

And my skills have all been torn. In the subs have all been torn. In the suffering in the storm, Lord, we thank you for gathering us again on a Friday night. And we can't think of another place we'd rather be, Lord, than to be in your house, to worship you, to be with your people, and to hear from you, Father. And we thank you again for the freedom and the joy it is to meet together.

And, lord, as we come to hear your word, we ask that these verses, that your word would come alive in our hearts, in our minds, that it would renew our minds, and it would stir our hearts to greater faith and to greater obedience. And we wanna hear from you, Lord. We just ask that you would fill us with your spirit and fill us with your joy and strength, strength. That we would leave this place, built up and equipped and, with just, greater joy to serve you all the more, to love you all the more. So we give this time to you, Lord.

We worship worship you with our whole being, and we look to you now in Jesus' name.

Amen. Take a moment, turn to somebody, greet them to this Friday night bible study before you're seated. Brothers and sisters, good evening. What a pleasure. What a joy it is to be gathered again together this night.

It's a very exciting time of the week. We get to explore the depths of the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, but before we do that, we continue our worship and our giving. And so the ushers will help us with that as always, and as always, we want to express our utmost gratitude and thanks and, joy knowing that you are partnering with ultimately the kingdom of God advancing through this ministry, though it's not only advancing through this ministry. We also love to partner with other ministries who are the name of Jesus Christ, so thank you for every contribution. Thank you for your partnership in this way.

There are different ways that you can also, give on the screens on both sides of the sanctuary here as you can notice, And while that is taking place, allow me to make a couple of announcements for unique events that are coming up in the next few weeks. We announced this last Sunday, but we have our very first woman's breakfast that will be happening here in this new building. We've been doing it for years, but not in this new home. And so, it'll be taking place on October 10 at 10AM downstairs in the Fellowship Hall, and what will make this time special is that we are doing something new. There will be a devotional.

There will be a series, from this day moving forward looking at different women in the scriptures and looking at their lives, their examples, and what the Holy Spirit would teach us through them, and so, we're looking forward to this. We're looking forward to seeing how God would use this, and so there will be food, there will be fellowship, there will be time of prayer, there will be time of breaking out into smaller groups and answering questions and ultimately praying for one another. So please come. If you're a new visitor here and you'd like to get to know the family of this church in a more informal and intimate way, this is a great opportunity to do that. And so, please do not hesitate.

I know that you will be blessed by joining. Secondly, we have our Fall Fest. We do this every year as well. This is a special time after one of our Sunday services and on this, October coming up, we have it on the eighteenth of that month, and it will be taking place again after the Lord's Day service. It will be happening outside, but, weather permitting, if not, it will be happening downstairs, and this is a chance for our children to, be able to have a special time of crafts and games and activities with their parents, and this is also an opportunity for parents to get to know other young families.

So, this is just something to let you know about so that you don't rush out of here. Spend some time with us, fellowship with us, and we'd love to see you there on October 18. Finally, we are still announcing our baptism service with no official date yet, but just wondering and inquiring of those who might be interested in getting water baptized. And so, if you have a desire to do that or you have questions about that, please email us at our website at mbchicago dot org or approach any one of the elders, and we are looking forward to giving that official, service, notice to you and that we can have our first baptism service in this sanctuary. We're so excited about those who already approached us, making that very important step of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Besides that, if you don't know, we meet here three times a week. We're here every Wednesday at 07:00 downstairs in our designated prayer room. We also have our Friday night Bible studies, as you know, every week at 07:00, and on the Lord's Day, we meet at 10:30AM where we are continuing, but also soon concluding the book of Revelation. And so, if you still wanna know a little bit about the book of Revelation, you can always join us in these next few weeks. We are at, the final part of verse or chapter 20 rather, and we are going to be looking at the last two chapters in the coming months.

And I said months intentionally because it'll take us a little bit I think. Well, with all of that said, thank you for your patience. Allow me to exhale and for us to just pray one more time. Can we do that? Lord, we thank you.

Oh, how we are filled with joy knowing that we get to come to receive yet another feast from your word, and Lord, we want to just take a moment in your presence to in your presence to acknowledge that this is indeed your word that we have in our hands. These are your words and your servant in the book of Acts declares that these are the living oracles of God. And so, we think about how this book is alive and how it gives life, and we expect with great anticipation a fresh impartation of life through your word. But, Lord, we also know that you commissioned your disciples to not preach a word unless they were empowered from the Holy Spirit. And so in this very moment, I gladly acknowledge my need for the power of the Holy Spirit.

We all gladly confess our need for the power of the Holy Spirit to hear your word and to obey it and to rejoice over it. So Lord, we pray that your presence would permeate this place, and that we would sense your nearness. We desire for that cloud to descend upon this place as it did on the Mount Of Transfiguration, to remove every other face and voice except that of Christ. May we see him, and may we hear him, and may we be changed as a result of beholding him. Have your way in this study, Lord.

Be exalted in every truth that is unleashed, and more importantly, as it is received with great humility and delight. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. As I was meditating and studying for this Friday, I was reminded that one of the truths that excites me and encourages me about the book of Nehemiah is that although the walls have been rebuilt, although that massive undertaking was completed under the faithful leadership of this man of God, God's purposes for Nehemiah were not finished.

And we know this because the completion of the walls comes to us at the end of Nehemiah chapter six, but that's not the end of the book. We have a handful of chapters still ahead of us, and that's an indication that Nehemiah's story obviously is not done, and what we find immediately after Nehemiah's historic achievement is this man's awareness of a further need and an openness in his heart for the Lord to use him in however he pleases. And that's revealed to us in Nehemiah chapter seven, and if you can turn there with me, please, I want us to look over one verse that we explored carefully last Friday. We only looked at the first four verses of this chapter, but notice with me again what he says in verse four of Nehemiah seven. He writes, The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt.

So notice, two things happening here. One, he acknowledges the accomplishment of the walls, and he also recognizes that it is a great space, it is a wonderful thing that has been resurrected, ultimately by God's grace, but he also sees that there is an issue. Now, it could have been very easy for Nehemiah to feel very satisfied at what he was able to see happen in his lifetime. He could have dust off his hands and made his way back to Babylonia to his very comfortable life as a cup bearer, but he does not do any of that. Instead, he notices that there there is something that still needs to be done.

He glorifies God for this wonderful triumph, but he also sees that Jerusalem is underpopulated. He also recognizes that there are not enough houses built should people choose to live in the capital city. And so, there is a mindfulness in this servant that helps us understand the rest of this book, And it is a mindfulness that prepares him to receive a fresh assignment from the Lord and also an empowerment to help him fulfill it. And it is at this thought where I rejoice myself and I hope you can share in this joy in realizing that God is always ready to use us no matter what he has done through us in the past. No matter what he has done in you, no matter what he has done through you, what I see here already is that Nehemiah testimony teaches us that God is ready to always give us something fresh.

Always to give us something new. As long as this heart is beating, as long as I'm available, there is something that the Lord is ready to deposit in my life, and that is precisely what he shows us here. This is a wonderful thing for us to consider for our own walk with Christ. But Nehemiah's example also instructs us that there is there is a requirement for a readiness. A readiness and an openness for the Lord to use us, and that readiness requires a refusal to accept the idea that there is such thing as retiring in the Christian life.

It doesn't exist, while also being open for the Lord to use you and I in ways that perhaps we never thought He would, in a different manner. He had both of those things. And I wanna acknowledge you from the outset here that if you and I live out in that perpetual state of sweet availability, then we are more prepared and we are positioned to know something that Nehemiah will explain in the next verse of this text. Come with me to Nehemiah chapter seven verse five now. After saying that the city was large and wide and that there was not enough people to live in it, Nehemiah writes, then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy, and I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written in it, then God put it into my heart.

I kept reading that phrase over and over last night because the more you actually meditate on it, the more amazing the thought is. Then God put it into my heart. Do you know it's possible for God to inspire your heart? Do you know that it is totally possible for Him to lead your heart and for the Holy Spirit to nudge your heart and for Him to deposit a plan into that heart? But what it demands of us are the convictions that Nehemiah had, a hunger surely.

You know, Nehemiah never signed up for trying to get people to live in Jerusalem, but here he is ready to take that on. Do you know why? Because he was an unreserved servant of God, and the Lord saw that in his heart, and so he was able to put something in it. Just think about that. This heart that's beating in my chest as I speak can be open enough for the Lord to do something in it and change other people's hearts because of it.

But it also got me thinking, how does one know if almighty God is actually giving me something? How do I know if that vision is from heaven? How do I know it's actually something from the Lord? And I believe there are different answers, and one of them is found in this very text. If the Lord prompts us to do something, if we wanna be more confident that this is something indeed from God, especially if it requires significant time, investment, or resources, well, He will pave the way providentially.

That is exactly what is exemplified here with Nehemiah. Think about it. Nehemiah's first step in repopulating Jerusalem is to do what? Gather the clans, gather the citizens to number them. And at the same time, he admits, he confesses, he gladly tells us that he was able to find the original directory of the first wave of exiles who had left Babylon to come back to the promised land.

That's what he means here when he says, and I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at first. And as we are about to discover, what Nehemiah finds here will help him tremendously. The timing of this is not a coincidence. And you have many people who claim that the Lord is stirring them to act, to build, to innovate, to move, to invest, to lead, but there's little to no evidence of anything supporting that. There are no additional hints or clues that would encourage such a path to be taken.

There's a lack of providential support for such a pursuit. And one way that you and I can be at rest, at least a little more at rest that the stirring in our hearts is from the Lord is when opportunities begin to present themselves, and partnerships seem to emerge out of nowhere. And maybe some cases, the resources suddenly appear and you realize, I now am able to at least take the next step in this direction. Do not miss those providential hints from God. You and I have to be aware and pay attention as you prayerfully discern whether a decision is from God or not.

The same God who put it in Nehemiah's heart to get people into Jerusalem also orchestrated for him to be able to find a genealogy that would help him to that end. So look around, lean in, and realize that God is a providential God. And he doesn't lay everything out at once, but he does provide the next step. He does provide encouragement in that direction. He does show us, look, what you're sensing, lean in and look.

Do you realize that I'm making a way for this to actually take place? Now, obviously, those things need to be evaluated and prayed and we should seek counsel about them, but Nehemiah shows us just one of the ways we know that when the Lord is putting something in in our hearts, he will actually support it in providential ways. Now, Nehemiah here is very excited about this genealogy. And as you look over in the rest of chapter seven, you see a bunch of names and numbers, don't you? Well, we have to ask ourselves, why is this helpful for Nehemiah?

And I believe this registry serves two purposes in his case. Remember, he's trying to get people to live in Jerusalem, and he finds this ancient text, and he realizes, okay, the Lord is clarifying that this is what I'm supposed to do. Here's how this will assist this man of God. Number one, this genealogy will help him to know who is supposed to live in Jerusalem. Let me explain further.

Nehemiah did not just want anybody to live in Jerusalem. He understood that this place is special to the Lord. He understood that those who'd be occupying it had to be rightful members of the covenant community. He had to look for those who would fill the city who truly appreciated the divine origins of Jerusalem, the history of Jerusalem, the worship in Jerusalem, the future of Jerusalem, and the best candidates were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so with this list, he would be able to identify, he would be able to validate those in his lifetime, those in his generation who are biologically linked to the holy nation, and as a result, protecting the purity of Jerusalem.

And How relevant is that thought alone for us especially for leaders in the church of Jesus Christ? Nehemiah had a need. Nehemiah needed to fill Jerusalem, but Nehemiah did not lower the standards in order to accomplish that sort of thing. I remember having a conversation with a believer who knew a Passover, a very large congregation, And this gentleman shared with me the conversation that he had with this minister when he was in his office one day, and he was very curious to know if this pastor understood how many of his congregants, of his attendees were actually born again followers of Jesus Christ. So he asked, how many percentage wise do you think out of the thousands that come here on a weekly basis for multiple services actually know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior?

And this pastor leaned back, thought about it for a few seconds and said, maybe 20%. 20% out of thousands of people who are comfortably attending a service of the bride of Jesus Christ to worship the true and living God. Now, the issue is not that we should never welcome unbelievers into our meetings, the issue is orchestrating the service to cater to unbelievers in order to give the appearance of success or even hopefully see them come to Christ that we are using carnal means to to see it happen. Nehemiah here did not entertain anything of this the sword. He did not relax the requirements in order to get Jerusalem occupied again.

He understood that this place was holy and it needed to be inhabited by holy people. And so, he had purposed to do it the way God asked him to do it and he left the results to God. In fact, the procedure that Nehemiah is going to implement here is a foretaste of something that's going to happen near the end of all things. Did you know that? Let me show you what I mean.

Let's go to the Book of Revelation and we haven't covered this yet in our study on Sundays, but look with me here in chapter 21 as John gets a vision of the New Jerusalem. In Revelation 21 verse 10, John writes, And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. So just to know, just for us to know this in context is speaking about the new Jerusalem that will come in the eternal age, but notice what we read here in verse 27 of Revelation 21, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The most important book for your name to be in.

So what am I showing here? From Genesis to Revelation, God is the one who determines the requirements for belonging to his people. He has requirements for those who should enter into Jerusalem, the ancient city. We realize that he established requirements for entrance into the New Jerusalem, and he also has requirements for those who truly belong to the Church of Jesus Christ. And like Nehemiah, you and I do not have the liberty to bend or to change or to alter the the requirements of what it truly means to be a member of the body of Jesus Christ.

Thank God it is by grace. Thank God it is through faith, but it's a faith that changes you. It's a grace that welcomes all people regardless of the sins that you've heaped over the years, but it's a grace that changes you. And so Nehemiah here shows us a way, a way for leaders to understand, you are not in charge of what God owns. This was his city in Nehemiah seven.

This is his church in 2026. And so we go to his word and we say, okay, Lord, what does it mean to build a church? What does it mean to be a genuine community of followers of Jesus Christ? I remember that when we started this ministry many years ago, just looking across and looking online to see how different churches started and what they've built over the decades, and I'll be honest, I was overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed.

Then I thought to myself, if I just came to this book and I looked at the New Testament and saw the ingredients and saw the blueprint that God has set out for his church, what would a church look like? And that is where everything began for us and may it always remain so by his grace. So, Nehemiah would find great benefit in this genealogy because he wants to assure, hey, are you are you actually among those who belong to God? Well, it will prove it. But there's a second purpose to this genealogy and it is to encourage the people of God.

How so? Well, think about it. The historical record did more than just simply validate who actually had Jewish blood, but it also showed faithful men and women of the past who made great sacrifices to glorify God and to fill a need for his namesake. And so just imagine with me learning that you being one of the sons of Elam, for example, and Nehemiah brings his genealogy to your attention, you realize, oh, there's 1,254 of my ancestors who left Babylon to come to a desolate land in order to see the worship of God restored, in in order to bring glory to his name once once again after decades of exile? You can you can envision how that might stir somebody to say, well, okay, if I need to move out of my my town on the outskirts here to come into Jerusalem, surely, I can do it.

Let me live up to my legacy. Let me continue this wonderful demonstration of faith that began with my with my parents and grandparents and great great parents. So that's the kind of encouragement this this long list of names could provide, and I believe it worked. I believe it served that kind of a purpose. Can I prove it to you?

Go over to Nehemiah 11. Look at the first two verses. In chapter seven, we see the genealogy of those who are the first returnees, but in chapter 11 of Nehemiah, we see the actual repopulating taking place. Look at Nehemiah 11 verse one and two. Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of the 10 to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while nine out of the 10 remained in the other towns, and the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.

Highlight that last part. So they had to establish a lottery system to get people to to get to Jerusalem, but there were those who were blessed by the rest because they volunteered to go to Jerusalem. Such is the power Such is the power of knowing what our brothers and sisters, our spiritual fathers and mothers have done in the past in the name of Christ. It can stimulate you, can't it? It can move you to realize if they're able to do it, surely, I can do it in this day.

If they're able to travel with with all the limited transportation, with all the hindrances and all the persecution, surely, we can live for Christ wholeheartedly now, and we can spend a lot more time discussing that we have so much to cover, and so, hopefully, we can recognize the gift that this genealogy was to Nehemiah at this juncture of his ministry. But what about us? We can see how this would stimulate and move the people of his day, but how does it move you? How does it move me in my walk with the Lord Jesus? How does it how does it help my devotion to him?

Well, there are a few ways, but that thought becomes even more challenging when you discover that this list, this directory is virtually the same that we studied in Ezra chapter two. And we spent two full studies in Ezra chapter two if you remember. Nehemiah almost gives us a copy paste of that, but it is not identical. There are some discrepancies, and I wanna pause and explain why that's important to acknowledge because some people look at these differences and they point out, contradictions in your Bible. These are paralleling texts, no doubt, but there are clear obvious differences.

How do you explain that? And some are satisfied to say, well, they're scribal errors. This is what happens with the transmission of text. I don't land there because what you find here with Nehemiah is that he could very well be consulting a different version or copy of a document that speaks of the same event of the exiles returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. That's very possible that there wasn't just one standard edition, but multiple.

Now, it would be problematic if Nehemiah tells us that he is giving us the the same copy that Ezra used in his book, but that's not what he says. All he simply tells us is that he found the book of the genealogy of those who had come up at the first. So it's no surprise then if there are these minor differences. More importantly, it's almost identical. It's almost the very same thing.

And so then we're left to wonder, what do we do? We already again spent two Fridays on the same kind of text, so are we gonna do this again? Well, here's what we are going to do. One, we have to remember that we did not cover everything in Ezra chapter two, did we? We left out a lot, a lot, and I think that was appropriate because we might still be in Ezra chapter two if we stayed there.

And so, what I would love for us to do tonight is look at the things that we didn't observe, some of the things that we did not meditate on. Moreover, there are some differences that are worth comparing and asking ourselves, okay, what do we make of Nehemiah's version? And there is one main difference that is found at the end of the chapter that we will look at more carefully and give more attention to than any other part. And so, here we are, we're going deeper into this genealogy, and if you feel like you want a better grasp on the structure of it and how things connect, I highly encourage you to visit our study in Ezra chapter two. It's a two part study, and I believe with all my heart that you will be uplifted.

You will be blessed to know how even these kind of texts in the Word of God can build your worship. But for now, let's take a look at a few things that we haven't highlighted in the past and we'll begin here in verses six through seven. Nehemiah says that he found written in this genealogy the following, verse six, These were the people of the province who came out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon had carried into exile. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Ramayah, Nahmani, Mordecai, Bishan, Mespereth, Bigvi, Nahum, Ba'anna.

The number of the men of the people of Israel, and we'll stop there. When we looked at this in Ezra chapter two, we made many observations, but the strongest point that we drew out of this text that highlights the leaders who spearheaded the transportation of the exiles back, and to help rebuild the temple more specifically, is that God in this shows us that he preserved two things. He preserved the royal line, and he preserved the priestly line. Zerubbabel is a descendant of David and an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. You find him mentioned in the genealogy of our Messiah.

He served as the first governor of the restored nation of Israel. Jeshua, the man next to him, comes from the priestly line of Aaron. He served as the high priest of that generation. So understand how significant this is. The fact that these men are named here declares the faithfulness of God, because when you look at God not just preserving his people, not only safeguarding the articles of the temple, but even through decimation and decades of captivity, he preserved the Davidic seed.

He did not forget nor did he abandon his messianic plan. The fact that Zerubbabel appears on the scene shows us something splendid about our God. Against all odds, we see something blossoming again. And this would be something so wonderful for this people to realize because he's not only giving them a land back, he's giving them a kingdom back. A kingdom that would be realized later on, this obviously would bring forth the Lord Jesus Christ who would, check this out, unite both of these offices represented by Zerubbabel and Joshua.

These men worked together to restore the temple, but the Messiah would come and fuse these offices, and he would fulfill the prophecies of a future priestly king. Nobody has ever ever satisfied such a description apart from Christ himself. And what's so beautiful about this is that he would not only restore Israel, but that he will gather in the nations to the worship of the God of Israel. He would bring in a people from all different tribes, all different tongues, all different nations, and that hope is kept alive by the fact that Zerubbabel and Joshua are in this genealogy. The sin of the people of Israel nor the crushing power of Babylon and subsequent empires could snuff out what God had purpose and promised from the beginning.

So you should rejoice by seeing Zerubbabel and Joshua mentioned here because the deeper meaning is, oh, our King is still coming. Oh, this this priest who was sit upon the throne of David is still coming. Even after arguably the most devastating chapter in Israel's history, being removed from their promised land, to be subject to a foreign power. But I wanna highlight an important difference between this list of leaders here and Ezra's version. The main difference is that Nehemiah adds another name totaling 12, whereas Ezra only has 11.

And the one who stands out here is sixth on this short list, Nahmani. So you have every right to ask, why does Nehemiah include him and Ezra omit him? And we don't have any clear answers. It could be that Hamani appeared later and joined the exiles after the initial movements, it could be that something happened to Nehemani early on even before leaving Babylon, so as we didn't even see it necessary to include his name. But Nehemiah does, and the fact that there are a total of 12 carries a rich symbol for us and also for the original readers.

Think about it. As the people are returning to the promised land from exile, the reconstitution of the 12 tribe nation is underway. And it's represented here by these 12 leaders. And here's what that means for you and me. Israel's failure did not erase her identity.

Did it? No. After experiencing God's righteous and very painful discipline, the fact that 12 names appear at the forefront of this list hints to us that God is rebuilding what seemed to have been completely annihilated and destroyed and erased for good. In fact, look here at the last part of verse seven, the number of the men of the people of Judah. Is that what it says?

Israel. But hold on. It's primarily the people of Judah and you can add Benjamin who are removed from the Southern kingdom. That's what we're looking at here. But the Holy Spirit says Israel.

Even though the 10 northern tribes had their own exiles many years before, the fact that Israel appears again is meant to show us I am restoring what I intended from the beginning. And you and I looking at this should know a rush of hope because this speaks of the compassion of God. It's very possible for a born again follower of Jesus Christ who is undergoing God's discipline to question the status of their relationship with God. They've blundered, they have done something incredibly foolish, they have sinned so grievously, and here they are enduring chastisement and it can be sometimes so severe and so painful you think to yourself, is God finished with me? And if you don't think that that's a possible thought to run through a Christian's mind, what's the point of the beginning of Hebrews 12?

When the author is trying to comfort some believers who were undergoing such kind of discipline and the Lord is reminding them, he is treating you as sons. Be patient. He wants you to share in his holiness. Be patient. Just because he is bruising you doesn't mean he's trying to destroy you.

And I think you have an Old Testament picture of that here. After everything Israel did to dishonor God's name and smear their testimony, Israel was still Israel before God. So this is what we see from the very beginning, from the leaders of this genealogy who led this first segment of returnees and refugees from exile. But now we come to the next section. After mentioning the leaders, the next group can actually be identified into two subgroups, and those subgroups are recorded according to their families, recorded according to their families, and those identified by their towns and villages.

And the way you can distinguish them is by looking at these two phrases. Some of them are known as the sons of and others are known as the men of. So, if they're the sons of, you know that this is primarily speaking about a clan or a family. If they're the men of, then you know that it's speaking about a city or a town whom these people represent. And when we looked at this part in Ezra chapter two, we focused on one family, and we looked at one town.

If you can remember which family and which town we studied, I may have a prize for you. I probably don't, actually. Does anybody remember which family we looked at in the same list from Ezra chapter two? It's the first one on the list in verse eight. The sons of Parash.

We took our time to look at them, and if you wanna know more about them, just revisit Ezra chapter two. What about the town? Which town did we look at? Out of all the names of the regions and the areas that we read? Any idea?

Okay, no prize tonight. Anathoth. We'll read about it here in a moment. Why did we spend time there? Because that was the hometown of which prophet?

Does anybody know? Jeremiah the prophet. There is much for us to glean from that as well. But here's what we're going to do tonight. We're not gonna look at one of each, instead, I want us to just look at one group that we didn't select last time, but let's begin by reading this.

Let's begin by reading this list starting in the second part of verse seven all the way down through verse 38. Pay attention now, this is God's word. The number of the men of the people of Israel, the sons of Parash, 2,172, the sons of Shephathiah, 372, the sons of Ara, 652, the sons of Pahath Moab, namely the sons of Jeshua and Joab, 2,818, the sons of Elam, 1,254, the sons of Zattu, 845, the sons of Zakkai, 760, the sons of Binuai, 648, the sons of Biba'i, 628, the sons of Azgad, 2,322, the sons of Adonikim, 667, the sons of Bigvai, 2,067, the sons of Aden, 655, the sons of Ater, namely of Hezekiah, 98, the sons of Hashim, 328, the sons of Bizai, 324, the sons of Hariph, a 112, the sons of Gibeon, 95, the men of Bethlehem and Netophah, a 188, the men of Anathoth, a 128, the men of Beth Hazmepeth, 42, the men of Kiriath Jearim, Kephira and Birath, 743. The men of Ramah and Geba, 621. The men of Michmash, a 122.

The men of Bethel and Ai, a 123. The men of the other Nebo, 52. The sons of the other Elam, 1,254, the sons of Harim, 320, the sons of Jericho, 345, the sons of Lot, Hadid, and Ono, 721, the sons of Sena, 3,930. Any of those names sound familiar to you? Any of these names recognizable to you?

Well, there should be a few of them. Think about Bethlehem. Did you pay attention to that? The prophets would say that this is the birthplace of the Messiah. As we mentioned earlier, Anathoth, the hometown of who again?

Jeremiah the prophet. What about Kiriath Jearim? What's the significance of that place? It appears in the stories of first and second Samuel, it is where the Ark of the Covenant was protected for twenty years. Significant place.

What about Bethel? Bethel, this place associated with the patriarch Jacob. And so these are some notable places. But out of all these places and out of all these households, the largest number number of people identified under a single name is where? Does anybody know?

Anybody pay attention? Who has the most number of people under one banner leave Babylon to come to Jerusalem? I'll give you a hint, it's near the end. Somebody said it. It's actually the last verse we read.

Look at verse 38, the sons of San'a 3,930. Who are the sons of San'a? The only other place in Hebrew where they are mentioned, again, yes, Ezra too, but within the book of Nehemiah is back in chapter three as they are credited for helping rebuild the Fish Gate. That's all we know about this group which I think makes it all the more special. Because one of the greatest demonstrations of faithfulness and selflessness And this historical record stems from obscurity.

It emerges from an unknown family. Oh, we know these other names. There's prominence attached to them. There's fame associated with them. Sena'ah.

What would the Lord show us by making this observation? Many things. Let me give you one. It's a beautiful thing when obedience comes from unexpected places and unknown people, isn't it? The sons of San'a teach us that sometimes the most impactful contributions to God's work come from servants, ministers, intercessors, and even local churches that nobody else knows about.

And it also reminds us that we don't have to have notoriety or have the right connections or have some kind of pedigree to do something impactful for the kingdom of God. The most people that came under one name are the sons of Sena'ah. Not known by men, not even known much by us, known by God. And I want that to encourage you in an age where everybody wants to be known, People despise a quiet life. People associate being known with being effective.

You could be known for stupid things. You know that. Right? Faint does not automatically mean fruitfulness. The sons of San, they just appear as a flash in the pan, but God inscribes them in his word.

And God numbered every single one of the descendants of this group. And more than that, they stand out from the rest. I said this so many times before but it's a thought that can never escape me. It always does something to me when I meditate on it. I believe that when we stand before the Bema Seat of Christ, the judgment seat of Christ, we're going to be shocked to see who God is going to reward the most.

I'm sure we're gonna have our own versions of the sons of Sena'a thinking, I have never heard of your name. Even with the Internet, even with all the stuff that connects the world together, who are you? And yet from the place of obscurity and from hiddenness, I'm sure will be the strongest perfume of piety and the greatest testimonies of power. I'm convinced that the greatest men and women of God, no one knows about, virtually no one knows about. Let's continue, shall we?

This new section primarily focuses on several groups. They're all different and they're all neatly organized here for our reading, but they have something in common. They each share some responsibility connected to the temple. You have the priests as we're going to read, you have the Levites, you have the temple servants, you have the sons of Solomon's servants, you have the gatekeepers, and so, what we're about to look at in this in this new part has to deal with those who are connected somehow to the place of worship. And when we study this in Ezra two, we looked at these groups individually.

We won't have time to do that. Instead, again, we're going to read this section and I want us to look at something that is unique that we didn't see last time. It was there in Ezra too, but we just we had to glance over it to focus on other matters. So let's begin now from verse 39 to verse 65. I know that sounds like a lot of verses, but the verses are short.

Let's begin here in verse 39. The priests, the sons of Jadiah, namely the house of Joshua, 973, The sons of Immer, 1,052. The sons of Pasha, 1,247. The sons of Harim, 1,017. The Levites, the sons of Jeshua, namely of Kadmiel.

The sons of Hodeva, 74. The singers, the sons of Asaph, a 148. The gatekeepers, the sons of Shalom, sons of Atar, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatitah, the sons of Shobai, a 138. The temple servants, the sons of Zeha, the sons of Hassufah, the sons of Tabath, the sons of Keros, the sons of Sia, the sons of Peden, the sons of Libanna, the sons of Hagibah, the sons of Shammai, the sons of Hanan, the sons of Gedel, the sons of Gahor, the sons of Rehaya, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Nakoda, the sons of Gazam, the sons of Uzzah, the sons of Pesiah, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nephusi, the sons of Nefushiesim, the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Hakufah, the sons of Harhur, the sons of Basleth, the sons of Mahida, the sons of Harsha, the sons of Barcos, the sons of Sisera, the sons of Tema, the sons of Niziah, the sons of Hatifah, the sons of Solomon's servants, the sons of Sothai, the sons of Sorephath, the sons of Perida, the sons of Jahala, the sons of Darkin, the sons of Gedal, the sons of Shephathiah, the sons of Hathil, the sons of Pokharathah, Hazibaim, the sons of Amen.

All the temple servants and the sons of Solomon's servants were 392. Now, pay attention to verse 61 to the rest of this part. The following were those who came up from Tel Mila, Telharsha, Kerub, Adan, and Immer, but they could not prove their father's houses nor their descent, whether they belonged to Israel. The sons of Dahlia, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Necoda, 642. Also of the priests, the sons of Hobiah, the sons of Hakoz, the sons of Berzai, who had taken a wife of the daughters of Barzalai, the Gilealite, who was called by their name.

These sought the registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but it was not found there, so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food until a priest with Urim and Thummim should arise. A lot of names. But there's one group where there's a parenthetical statement attached to it, and that's what I want us to focus on. Did you notice it?

Look again here at verse 63. Also of the priests, the son of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakoz, the sons of Beersalai who had taken a wife of the daughters of Beersalai the Gileadite and was called by their name. Why is the Holy Spirit pausing here to explain why the sons of Beersalai were not legitimate, at least for the time being, to be recruited as priests and to serve in the Second Temple? Well, there's a lesson here that God clearly wants us to know. There's instruction here for our own lives.

So for the student of the Old Testament, when you read verse 63, there should be a red flag that appears in your mind. Why? Because we're we're speaking about the disqualification of some of the priest who had returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, and they're called the sons of Beersalai. And who's this Beersalai? Well, whoever he is, we're told in the same verse that he is a Gileadite.

Why is that problematic? Let me give you another question. Which tribe are the Gileadites associated with? Perhaps another potential prize for the one who can answer it? If you want the answer, I can't just tell you, I have to show you.

So you have to turn to the book of Numbers with me because I want you to see the evidence for yourself. Very briefly, look at one verse in Numbers 26, and I'll wait for you to arrive there. Numbers 26 verse 29. Here's what we read and the answer will be right there at the beginning of the verse. The sons of who?

Manasseh, son of Manasseh, of Machir, the clan of the Machirites, and Machir was the father of Gilead, of Gilead, the clan of the Gileadites. So do you see what we read in Nehemiah seven sixty three is an issue? Because you read there, of the priests, the sons of Beersielai, he's a Gileadite, but the Gileadites are not part of the Levites, the exclusive tribe that is to produce the priesthood. So what do you have the sons of Bezalai doing in a section about priests when they are actually from the tribe of Manasseh? Well, the answer is given in the same verse back in Nehemiah seven sixty three.

Evidently, one of the ancestors of the sons of Bezalai married into the family of Bezalai. He took one of his daughters as his own wife, but he didn't just take one of the daughters to be his wife. For whatever reason, he also took Bezalai's name. Now, that's strange. And not only is it strange, it's the reason why things got complicated centuries later.

That this priestly family are more known now for the association with Beersilah the Gileadite, so when it came to actually tracing their genealogy, it was extremely murky, and it was very difficult. So there was there was no way at least at face value to say, you are indeed from the house of Aaron. We're looking back and we realize, no, your descendants supposedly are Bezalai. And the exclamation here is that it was a choice made by one priest who's unknown to us, we don't know his name, we don't know any information about him apart from the fact that he wanted this name for himself and he wanted his household to be identified with Bezalai instead of Aaron. This is baffling to me.

It's baffling to me because there is no obligation whatsoever under the law for somebody to do such a thing. So we're left to wonder why. Do we have any indication in the Word of God that would suggest the motivation for this unknown priest to make such a decision that would cost his descendants as we see here in Nehemiah seven. And I believe the strongest clue we have is when we look at the summary of Bezalai's biography, and that's where we need to turn to now in second Samuel. Second Samuel chapter 19.

What do we have going on here? This is after David was dethroned by his son, Absalom, was chased out of Jerusalem into the wilderness, and it was a true test to see who was actually loyal to David and who was pretending all along. Well, a man appears on the scene who helps David while he is in exile, and we read about him here in summary, second Samuel 19 beginning in verse 31. Now, Beersalai, the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim and he went on with the king to the Jordan to escort him over the Jordan. Barazilai was a very aged man, 80 years old.

He had provided the king with food while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man. So now we know a little bit more about this individual. He was godly, he was loyal, and he was courageous. He was willing to actually side with David, though Absalom could have had him killed in just a matter of a few days. And so, the Bible placed a very admirable light on this man, and more than that, King David loved him as well.

You read later on the same text, David longs for this man to return with him to Jerusalem. He said, I will take care of you, and he responds, if I can paraphrase with this, I'm too old. There's no point. And he finds another way for one of his own to actually be blessed by David, and David welcomes that idea as you read. But doesn't seem like David was the only one who admired Barzalai.

It seemed like there was a watching priest who took interest in one of this man's daughters. And so, not only did he marry one of his daughters, he chose to identify himself with him and he longed for his descendants to also be identified with him. And talk about respect. Talk about loving your father-in-law. And some would say that Bezalelai's wealth may have played a role in this, that this priest wanted some part on this inheritance and it could be that Bezalai didn't have any sons so it would go to his daughters and the priest understood that.

We don't know for sure. However, one thing is clear, whoever this priest was, he made a serious mistake in identifying himself and choosing to have his legacy associated with this man instead of simply valuing and embracing his identity as a member of the priesthood. There's nothing wrong with Bezalai. He is a righteous individual in the scriptures. However, by doing this, this priest showed that he did not value his calling.

He did not see the treasure it was to actually serve as a priest the way God intended him to serve. And he stepped outside of his lane in order to pursue something else and his descendants paid for it. Here's a lesson. Do not waste your time trying to be someone God did not create you to be. God called you to a specific purpose.

God fashioned you uniquely. God gifted you with a certain amount of gifts and a certain effectiveness with that gift or gifts. He's giving you a particular grace to walk in and ability to work with, recognize it, cherish it, nurture it, and stay there. If God's given you an ability to be very successful in the arena of business, don't covet full time ministry unless God calls you to full time ministry. If God has summoned you to full time ministry, don't look over and yearn for the positions or the prosperity or the potential that other areas may offer, other people you may know are enjoying.

If God hasn't given you the grace for it, you're going to fail, and it's going to hurt you and hurt others. Stay where God has called you. Fulfill your ministry. It's easy for any of us to feel dissatisfied from time to time about what we are doing or what we might be known for with our short lives. And that temptation is very real and it could be frequent.

But listen, be careful. If you allow that dissatisfaction to overtake you, it has the ability to cause you to abandon the place that God has designated for you. And once that happens, you step outside of his blessing. This man shows us that. God has determined a specific path for you to walk faithfully in, And if you don't honor that and protect that, it's very possible to walk away from it and know only lesser than what God has intended for you.

This is what we learn about one name out of many names associated with the temple. Let's look at one final thing tonight. The last part of this genealogy deals with the assets, deals with the contributions of these exiles when they came back to Jerusalem. Let's read from verse 66 down to verse 73. The whole assembly together was 42,360, besides their male and female servants of whom there were 7,337, and they had 245 singers male and female.

Their horses were 736, their mules, 245, their camels, 435, and their donkeys, 6,720. Now some of the heads of father's houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 derricks of gold, 50 basins, 30 priests garments, and 500 of silver. And some of the heads of father's houses gave into the treasury of the work 20,000 dirks of gold and 2,200 minas of silver, and what the rest of the people gave was 20,000 dirks of gold, 2,000 minas of silver, and 67 priests garments. So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel lived in their towns, and when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.

This is where you will find the biggest difference between Nehemiah's version of this genealogy and Ezra's, and I'm speaking more than just some of the discrepancies and the numbers here. Nehemiah gives us more information and detail about the generosity of these exiles than Ezra does. Now, when we study this in Ezra chapter two, the main takeaway was how each of these different groups gave according to their own ability. That that is actually explicitly stated back in Ezra two. And and it provided a wonderful comfort for all of us, I hope, that God looks at what you give from what you do have, not from what you don't have.

And we can make that same application here. Look for example, in verse 71, how some of the heads of father's houses gave just a little bit more than in verse 72 what the rest of the people gave, if you do the numbers. And the heads of the father's houses in terms of numbers are are far less than the rest of the people, obviously, but they were able to give more because they had more. And so the Lord does look at our resources, he looks at he looks at our abilities, he looks at our schedule, and he wants us to consider, am I able to give more than others? And if I can't, then I'm gonna give what I can give and God will honor that just as much.

The Lord is a very, very compassionate God. Giving of ourselves, giving even of our finances doesn't look the same as the next person and that's okay. It's between you and the Lord. But there's something else that we can draw from this passage. Notice notice here that this is not found in Ezra, by the way.

In the middle of verse 70, the governor is underscored. Who is the governor at this time of the first exiles returning to Jerusalem? Zerubbabel. So we're speaking about Zerubbabel here, and it says here that the governor gave to the treasury. For whatever reason, Ezra doesn't discuss this, but Nehemiah does, and it teaches us something about leadership yet again.

Leaders need to be examples in every way in their holiness, in their love, in their sacrifice, even in their giving. If they expect others to act, they have to act first. And I believe that the mention of the governor here would actually move the leaders of Nehemiah's time not only to keep them in check, remember we talked about the nobles and the officials who are abusing the people for their money and for personal profit, but actually to encourage the people, namely the leaders to live in Jerusalem also. Again, it makes me wonder if the mention of the governor here as Nehemiah brings this genealogy to the attention of his own generation, did something to the hearts of some of those leaders and saying, okay, if if Zerubbabel did that, and if Nehemiah also showed us such a wonderful example of what it means to be a servant leader, what is it, Nehemiah? What do you ask of us?

Well, we need some people to live in Jerusalem, sign me up. Saying, how do you come to that conclusion? Go back to Nehemiah 11 again, and look here at verse one once more. Nehemiah 11 verse one, Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem, full stop. Before Nehemiah mentions anybody else living in Jerusalem, who does he highlight first?

The leaders. People are drawn and attracted to positions of leadership. You have no idea what you're signing up for if you don't understand this, that it calls for boldness, courage, and a willingness to take the first step when nobody else does. Leadership is not about people coming up to you patting you in the back telling you how great you are. Leadership is about you setting a righteous trend when necessary, and standing firm when nobody else has the wisdom or the willingness to do it.

And so, he brings to their minds the governor of the treasury, or governor giving to the treasury rather. But here's the thing, there's also a very realistic insight with all of this. Come back to Nehemiah seven. The governor, who's essentially the top position at this time, there was no king again. After the exile.

The governor would be the representative for the people. Just because, leader or non leader, just because you and I are willing to make radical steps of obedience for Christ does not mean that you're gonna inspire everybody. You would hope so. That would be our prayer. It would be crazy not to desire that.

What what would it say if anybody, let's say, in this kind of context, to not want every single person sitting in those chairs live wholeheartedly for Christ? It would be unthinkable. At the same time here, notice that even though the governor made a massive sacrifice on his part, It didn't move everybody. How do I know that? Look at verse 70 again.

Now some, some of the heads of the father's houses gave to the work, not all, some. The governor, he gave. In fact, the Holy Spirit tells us what he gave. The co leaders and those who are in his inner circle, that all of them follow in that direction? No.

Some of them did. This man gave without hesitation. Others were more hesitant. And that's just the reality of obedience. We would hope that our obedience inspires others and sometimes it does and we praise God when it does, but it doesn't always guarantee it.

And what this text shows us is God is still worthy of obedience whether people follow or not. And if you serve in any capacity where you are discipling or influencing, and that could be true if you're a father or a mother, and your prayer and your ache is that all of them would join you in serving the Lord, all of them would join you in heaven. What if they don't? I love how some of the heads of father's houses gave to the work comes before learning that the governor gave to the treasury. If there's an intentional order there, then I learned something else about Zerubbabel.

He didn't allow the reluctance of some of the other leaders keep him back from giving to the Lord. And I believe that's a wonderful way of ending this genealogy as Nehemiah has prepared now to make the appeal for people to make the sacrifice to live in Jerusalem. Which group are you gonna be a part of? The ones who are remembered, forgiving themselves over to the plan and will of God? Or the ones who are not mentioned at all?

You gotta remember, these are the people who left Babylon to go to Jerusalem. They were named. They were remembered. Think about all the people who stayed back in Babylon. We don't know who they are.

Yes, there are a few that we know in our bibles like Daniel and others, but that's a different that's a whole different mission. Many stayed back because they were comfortable in Babylon, they were prospering in Babylon. They didn't want to they didn't wanna make any kind of pivot, any kind of change. They're forgotten. And the call here is not to be remembered by man, is to realize that God has many books.

We're gonna learn that this Sunday. God has many books and He writes in them and they concern us. And I wanna be like one of the sons of Sanaa. Doesn't matter who celebrates me, doesn't matter who curses me, do whatever you want. I want to give God the pleasure and the delight of obedience even if it is hidden because he's worthy of that.

Let's pray. Lord, we choose to pause and digest a lot that was said tonight. But father, we acknowledge the beauty and the brilliance of your authorship. Lord, there is not one part of your word that is wasted. There's not one area that is not worthy to excavate and to explore and to dig and to mine and you have shown us that yet again.

In this chapter of the book of Nehemiah, we are moved to our core as we recognize just how glorious you are in your word. And Lord, we pray that this would not just tickle our minds as we perhaps have seen things that we never even thought was possible to identify and to draw from, more importantly, move our spirits. And help us see that you are speaking to us on a personal level even with this list of names. So, Lord, we we choose to sit here and to think and to meditate and more importantly to respond to you and ask you to help us live and let it these insights that you may be pleased with our lives. We honor you tonight and we choose to sing your praises as we've been washed afresh by your word.

We bless your holy name. In Jesus name we pray, amen. As always, if you need to just remain in your position and bask in the wonder of God's word, please do that. If you wanna stand because you can't wait to just proclaim his his name and song, join us in that as well. But let's just make this a time of engagement with God, the God who gave us this chapter and intended to speak to us through it.

Bid.

There are sometimes when I study the word of God at home that it so energizes me that I have to step away from the book and go do something else because some of the things that you you learn from it almost make you hyper and you don't even know what to do with that revelation and you almost have to just walk it off or talk to somebody about it. Studying this book every single day for the last fifteen years has humbled me for many reasons and one of those reasons is because I realize and I recognize that it is inexhaustible. This is no ordinary book. God's breath, God's life, God's mind, God's heart is on these pages. It was David who said if he wrote Psalm 119 verse 96, I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commitment is exceedingly broad.

You're reading the Bible wrong if you feel like you've arrived. You're not studying right, you're not meditating right, you feel like I got it. No, you didn't. And and this is the wonder of God's word, anybody can pick it up. I know people who could not even read, pick up this Bible, get a dictionary, and get saved by reading the gospel of John or by reading Ephesians.

So it's it's so inviting in that way and yet it's so heavy with glory that the greatest minds are confounded and the greatest scholars cannot write enough commentaries or articles about it. I feel like 10 lifetimes would not be enough to even scratch the surface of this book. And the ontology, the nature of this book should be enough for us to engage with it on a daily basis. I remember when I first got saved, all I knew about this book is that it was God's book, that's it. I don't know, I didn't even know where books were organized, so when the preacher would say turn to this book I'd be doing this, and there'd be people around me saying it's actually over there and they would help me, that's where I started.

But all I knew is that it was God's book and so I would come to Leviticus. Here we go, Leviticus. I don't get it. I don't know how this applies, but it's God's word. I'm going to read it.

And just looking at book by book with that faith, that lens has opened my eyes to things that I can never unsee. I hope that you're stirred tonight to not skip over one part of your bible And if you don't get it, that's intentional. That's meant to bring you to your knees and say, God help me understand. Please help me understand. It's the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search them out.

God takes glory in hiding his truth to some degree because it's so precious like treasure. It demands sacrifice and hunger for it to be uncovered. That's how precious it is. And Lord, we ask you that you would remind us again just how rich we are because we have this at our disposal. And, Lord, we pray that you would use every study on Fridays and every service on Sundays and even every verse that is quoted or read on Wednesday nights while we pray to keep us chained to this book and for us to genuinely see it as your book for us and to know your heart and to know your fellowship through it.

Stir us as we go back to our own homes. May we wake up with a new appetite for it, and may we grow and grow and grow by your grace until we see the face of the one who gave us this book. We love you and we honor you this night. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We made it through Nehemiah seven.

Next week by God's grace will be in Nehemiah eight. You don't wanna miss it, it's one of the most exciting chapters in the entire book. Have a wonderful weekend in Jesus' name. We'll see you this Sunday. God bless you.