Nehemiah

J. Betts T.

Description

Pursuing the glory of GodThe book of Nehemiah highlights the priorities God's people should pursue and the principles needed to fulfill their mission. Bridging the gap between devotional and technical commentaries, Nehemiah: A Pastoral and Exegetical Commentary is an easy to understand exposition of this often overlooked Old Testament narrative. With a mixture of historical data and practical applications, T. J. Betts emphasizes the relevance of Nehemiah's message for believers today.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Old Testament
• Judaism
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lexham Press
• Date de parution: 24 juin 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781683593942
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

A Pastoral and Exegetical Commentary
NEHEMIAH
T. J. BETTS
 
Nehemiah: A Pastoral and Exegetical Commentary
Copyright 2020 T. J. Betts
Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225
LexhamPress.com
You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books.
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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ® , © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked esv are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ® (ESV ® ), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.>
Print ISBN 9781683593935
Digital ISBN 9781683593942
Library of Congress Control Number 2020932109
Lexham Editorial: Elliot Ritzema, Justin Marr, Ronald van der Bergh
Cover Design: Lydia Dahl
CONTENTS
PREFACE
THE HEART OF A SERVANT
Nehemiah 1:1–11
WAITING FOR AN OPEN DOOR
Nehemiah 2:1–10
PREPARING TO REBUILD
Nehemiah 2:11–20
NEHEMIAH’S TEAM
Nehemiah 3:1–32
FACING OPPOSITION TO GOD’S WORK
Nehemiah 4:1–23
A GODLY LEADER’S CONCERN
Nehemiah 5:1–19
OPPOSITION BY MANIPULATION AND INTIMIDATION
Nehemiah 6:1–19
PRIORITIES IN MINISTRY
Nehemiah 7:1–73
THE CENTRALITY OF THE WORD OF GOD
Nehemiah 8:1–18
HOW TO ASK GOD FOR HELP
Nehemiah 9:1–37
THE PEOPLE’S COMMITMENT TO GOD
Nehemiah 9:38–10:39
A PLACE FOR EVERYONE TO SERVE
Nehemiah 11:1–36
DOCUMENTATION AND DEDICATION
Nehemiah 12:1–13:3
THE NECESSITY OF CORRECTION
Nehemiah 13:4–31
BIBLIOGRAPHY
tbd
INDEX
PREFACE
T he book of Nehemiah speaks of a time when God’s people were in distress and in need of spiritual leadership. It shows how God is faithful to keep his word and how he is faithful to care for his people when from their perspective the present is difficult and the future appears to be grim. The book of Nehemiah shows how God called a leader and used this leader to encourage the people to trust in God and act on that trust. The message and principles of this book are relevant today for the people of God, especially those who lead them.
The preaching, teaching, and understanding of Old Testament narrative and historical literature is a continual challenge. Many times preachers and teachers boil down the text to a number of life lessons without considering the literary, canonical, historical, or theological contexts of the message, much less its exegetical and expositional concerns. They are like extended daily devotions. On the other hand, others are adept at understanding exegetical and expositional works that do give adequate attention to these various concerns pertaining to a passage, but have difficulty translating that information into an adequate sermon that not only reflects careful exposition of the text but also communicates it in a way that is relevant to contemporary audiences by providing illustrations and applications to the text. What’s more, while evangelicals recognize the Old Testament anticipates, speaks of, and is fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ, most struggle with how it does so and therefore how Christians may benefit from its study today. What is needed for pastors, teachers, and serious Bible students are works that, through careful exegesis and exposition, help them clearly understand the message of Old Testament books, taking the books and communicating them in relevant, readable, user-friendly formats that relate to contemporary life and provide a model to use and hopefully improve on for Bible study and the ministry of proclamation to the church. Such works contain illustrations and quotes in order to provide preachers and teachers with material that will hopefully serve as a catalyst for finding ways to communicate the message. This work is neither altogether devotional (although it speaks to devotional concerns) nor altogether technical (although it addresses some technical concerns). Landing somewhere in the middle, this work is intended to help those who preach and teach the Bible along with laypeople who wish to better understand the message of Nehemiah and who would benefit from a work that bridges the gap between the two.

THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH IN ITS BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT
One may begin to understand the significance of the events in the book of Nehemiah only when one looks at God’s words to the children of Israel in Moab through his servant Moses just before the nation entered into the promised land. Moses foretells of exile and return in Deuteronomy. Moses says to the people,
All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the L ORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. Because you did not serve the L ORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the L ORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. The L ORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the L ORD your God has given you. (Deut 28:45–52 ESV )
And the L ORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the L ORD will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. (Deut 28:65–66 ESV )
All the nations will say, “Why has the L ORD done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?” Then people will say, “It is because they abandoned the covenant of the L ORD , the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. Therefore, the anger of the L ORD was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, and the L ORD uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.” (Deut 29:24–28 ESV )
And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the L ORD your God has driven you, and return to the L ORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the L ORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the L ORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the L ORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the L ORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. (Deut 30:1–5 ESV )
The first of these deportations into exile happened in the eighth century at the hands of the Assyrians when they deported the northern ten tribes of Israel to the east after their capture of Israel’s capital, Samaria, in 722 BC . After that, only Judah was left. In its last days of monarchy, Judah found itself in a precarious position, with four superpowers of that day vying for power and determining the political landscape in which Judah found itself. These nations were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Media. At the battle of Carchemish in 605 BC Babylon, along with it Median allies, handily defeated both Assyria and Egypt. Assyria ceased to exist, and Egypt retreated back home. Babylon emerged as ruler over “the whole of the land of Hatti,” the name the Babylonians called all of Syria and Palestine, including Judah. 1 Before Nebuchadnezzar went back to Babylon, he made Jehoiakim, Judah’s king, swear allegiance to Babylon. It was somewhere near that time that Daniel and his companions were taken into Babylonian captivity (Dan 1:1–2). 2 Jehoiakim remained loyal to Nebuchadnezzar for three years, but in 601 BC Jehoiakim decided to rebel. Nebuchadnezzar responded decisively and quickly with auxiliary troops from the nations nearest to Judah (2 Kgs 24:1–7). However, Nebuchadnezzar’s main objective was the subjugation of Egypt. Once again he met Pharaoh Neco in battle at Migdol on Egypt’s border. 3 Both sides suffered heavy casualties, and Nebuchadnezzar was forced to retreat back to Babylon. 4 Jehoiakim saw this as another opportunity to withhold tribute from Nebuchadnezzar and pursue friendly relations with Neco.
Nebuchadnezzar took about two years to gather his forces, but in 598 BC his army began the march west to deal with the treachery of Judah. 5 As the Babylonians started their journey, Jehoiakim died, and his eighteen-year-old son, Jehoiachin, became king of Judah. 6 After a month’s siege, Jerusalem capit