CHAPTER 1
The Book of Nehemiah is basically telling the same story as
the Book of Ezra: the return of the Jews from Babylon. However, whereas that book was from the point
of view of a priest, Nehemiah is a politician.
This begins with Nehemiah in Persian, and he hears that
Jerusalem has fallen into total disrepair.
He’s horrified and weeps to God, hoping that God will remember to have
mercy on his people once they atoned for their previous transgressions. This is pretty standard stuff, and pretty
short (11 verses).
CHAPTER 2
Nehemiah is at the table of King Xerxes. OK, this is the second or third Persian
emperor since the fall of Jerusalem, and we’re told that it’s the 20th
year of his reign, so clearly Nehemiah isn’t hurrying back too soon. Anyhow, our main character sits at Xerxes’s
table, and the emperor notices that Nehemiah is blue. Nehemiah explains the
problems at Jerusalem and the emperor gives him a blank check to fix the place
up. In ancient Greek history, Xerxes is
a bad guy. He’s the guy who invaded
Greece. But the Jews love him.
So Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem and, problem solver that he
is, immediately begins planning to rebuild the wall. Now the first act is over and we’ve found out
main event for this Biblical book – building the city wall. You also get the entry of the bad guys – the
gentiles of the land. Here they just
mock the Jews, but they’ll soon be a much bigger problem.
CHAPTER 3
This is a dull chapter that just catalogues the people who
involved in the building project.
It picks up a little at the end when we return to the
plot. The enemies mock the Jews and try
to oppose their efforts. Frankly, they
seem worried. After all, Judah had once
been the imperial power, and it doesn’t sound like they appreciate a possible
return to prominence for its people. The building of the all quickly gets
going, though, and they soon have it halfway built.
Also, and I could be wrong about this, but I believe this is
where we first encounter a brand new word in the Bible: Jew. You can’t have that word for much of the
Bible. The word Jew comes from Judah,
the main tribe of Israel and the major of the two tribes of the Kingdom of
Judah. As long as there are 12 tribes,
you can’t say Jews. As long as there was
even a divided kingdom, you can’t use that word. You could once the Assyrians took over the
northern kingdom, but by that time both Kings II and Chronicles II didn’t have
much more to go, and I don’t think either said “Jew.” It would be out of place given the trust is
the history of all the tribes, not just the one. Ezra could’ve mentioned Jews, but if so, I
missed it.
Also, much of this book is written in first person. Scholars apparently believe that this really
is the hand of Nehemiah. Duly noted.
CHAPTER 4
The wall keeps going up, with gaps in it being filled. I imagine them using old bits of newspaper
and paper mache. At any rate, now the
plot kicks it up a gear. The enemies of
the Jews progress from mockery to direct action. They decide to threaten the Jews in Jerusalem,
but the builders are tipped off.
Nehemiah has them take up arms.
From here on out, half will build and half will guard. That’ll slow up work, but then again it’ll
allow work to continue, because the enemies won’t attack when the Jews can
defend themselves. Building continues,
from sun up to sun down.
CHAPTER 5
Now we get a new wrinkle in construction – Jews exploiting
other Jews. Apparently, the moneylender
Jews are forcing the others into debt and poverty and the others don’t like it
one bit. For Nehemiah’s construction
project to work, he needs people to stay united.
Always the problem solver, Nehemiah takes action to keep
things going. He approaches the
moneylenders and chews them out. Don’t
you know you’re not supposed to charge interest to other Jews? He lays into
them and they back down entirely, agreeing to return everything and exact
nothing further from their brethren.
Crisis averted, so the building can proceed apace.
Also, we get a brief bit noting what an upright, honest governor
Nehemiah was. He didn’t ‘take any money
as food allowance, though he could’ve and previous governors had. Nehemiah is really coming off good here,
people.
CHAPTER 6
The enemies are getting desperate. The wall is nearing completion and all their
fiendish plans have come for naught. At
this point, I’m imagining the area gentiles led by Dick Dasterdly and Muttley
the Mutt.
Time for a new plan.
They say they want to meet Nehemiah to discuss things with him. Nehemiah quickly surmises that “discuss
things with him” means “murder him in cold blood” and politely declines, saying
he’s too busy in Jerusalem. They keep
trying, but he keeps declining.
Now Dick Dasterdly starts spreading rumors that the Jews are
plotting a rebellion. Nehemiah denies
it. Wow, that was an easy plot to foil.
They still have one trick up their sleeve. Dick and Muttley get a prophet to tell
Nehemiah that people are coming to kill him, so he should hide in the
Temple. Wait – the Temple? That’s sacred territory. No way he’s entering that. He sees through this plan. It’s a plan to make him look like a coward –
one willing to violate God’s orders. So
he blows it off.
And the wall is finished.
It took just 52 days. OK, I’m
impressed. With all of these stories, I
figured it was taking months or ever years.
52 days! Man, Nehemiah is one of
the best problem solvers in the Bible.
He’s the Joseph of his time. Come
to thing of it, Joseph was an administrator, too.
CHAPTER 7
Time for the big dedication of the newly walled city. But first a census. It’s a very long, dull chapter that just
lists people, but at the end we’re told there are 42,360. That’s the same number as in Ezra.
There is a key difference, though. In Ezra they came right away, whereas here the
census comes in the reign of Xerxes, not Cyrus the Great. Did they really have a completely stable
population for all that time? Color me
deeply skeptical. They had a census
taken, OK, but then the Bible writers but the numbers at two different places. It was right once, probably here, as 42,360
coming out at once are too big a group to be manageable.
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