Week 45, November 2–8: Nehemiah; Galatians

• Sun      Nov 2   Neh. 1–3
• Mon     Nov 3   Neh. 4–6
• Tue      Nov 4   Neh. 7–8
• Wed     Nov 5   Neh. 9–10
• Thu      Nov 6   Neh. 11–13
• Fri        Nov 7   Gal. 1–3
• Sat       Nov 8   Gal. 4–6         

Ezra and Nehemiah were originally joined together as one book. Only later, sometime in the Middle Ages, were they separated. Together Ezra-Nehemiah records the latest events of the OT from a chronological standpoint. It tells the story of the first groups of Judahite, or Jewish, exiles who go back to the land of Judah and begin a rebuilding project there. Ezra and Nehemiah are two of the key figures who lead this project, one as a priest and the other as a governor of sorts. Much of the story is told from their perspective, but it is about the whole community working on the project together. As they carry on the work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and building a new temple where Solomon’s temple had been, they face opposition from various leaders from among the people of the land around them.

This book has some unique characteristics among other books of the Bible, including the first-person perspective of the writer. Nehemiah especially expresses his own thoughts and feelings as he narrates the events. The perspective shifts back and forth between Nehemiah’s first-person account and the narrator’s third-person account, which invites us as readers to compare the two viewpoints. At times Nehemiah can sound a bit self-aggrandizing, and the narrator seems to want to downplay that perspective. Regardless of what we make of this interplay between the first and third-person perspectives, the overall focus is on the life of the entire community of returned exiles rather than on one or two individuals.

One theme to notice as we read through Ezra-Nehemiah is that this return from exile is portrayed with hints of a second exodus. When Israel had left Egypt, as we read in Exodus, they plundered the Egyptians, taking their vessels of silver and gold (Exod. 3:21-22; 11:2; 12:35-36). In a similar way, when the Judahites return to the land of Judah after Cyrus’s edict, they take with them vessels of silver and gold, which they use later to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:4, 6, 9-11; 2:69; 7:16-18; 8:25-34; Neh 7:70-71).

This motif of God delivering and blessing his people is reflected in an exodus motif that appears all throughout Scripture. And here it ties together the experience of Israel in slavery in Egypt with their experience of exile in Babylon, as it also links the exodus with the return from exile. Together these repeated motifs foster a sense of hope for another, final “exodus” to come in which God’s people will finally be delivered from their ultimate enemy and brought safely into the peaceful experience of rest in God’s presence.

As the temple is being rebuilt, it is also helpful to remember the eventual fate of this temple, which is often referred to as the second temple, the first being the one Solomon built centuries earlier. In the coming centuries after Ezra and Nehemiah’s time, the second temple would be abandoned and desecrated as different empires come and go. Then the king known as Herod the Great would build it into the ornate structure it was in the first century. This is the temple of Jesus’ time.

Not long after Jesus, however, the temple would be destroyed by Rome, just as Jesus predicted when he said, “There will not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (Luke 21:6) Going back to the tabernacle God instructed Moses to build in the wilderness, the history of the Lord dwelling with his people in a man-made structure is a complicated story. The presence of the transcendent God dwelling with his people was never fully possible with the tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple in Jerusalem, whether it was Solomon’s temple or the temple Zerubbabel built that Ezra helped furnish and Herod expanded upon later. None of this lasted.

But when Jesus came, the very presence of God came and dwelt among us (John 1:14). And when he ascended to the Father after his death and resurrection, he sent his Spirit to establish his church as the dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:11–22). One day he will recreate a new heavens and new earth where he will dwell with us and us with him forever. In the new creation there will be no temple, for we will experience Almighty God’s unmediated presence fully through Christ the Lamb (Rev. 21:22).

Ezra-Nehemiah ends with a somewhat strange (and troubling) final episode. Nehemiah carries out a flourish of zealous acts, culminating in his cursing, beating, and hair-pulling confrontation with some of the Jews who had married foreign women (Neh. 13:23–30). The themes of zealous law keeping and preservation of Jewish nationalistic identity have come up throughout Ezra-Nehemiah (Ezra 9:1–6; 10; 10:1–44; Neh. 9:2). It appears we are meant to see Ezra and Nehemiah’s devotion to the Lord and his law as somewhat commendable (Ezra 7:6, 9–10; Neh. 2:8). However, it seems we are meant to see some problems with their approach too.

At the very least, these books point ahead to something that will be better than the situation in Jerusalem in the time of these returned exiles. Just as the temple they are building is a sad replica of Solomon’s temple and anticipates a future, better dwelling of God with his people, so also the efforts to abide strictly by the law—even to the point of forcing husbands to divorce foreign wives (and God hates divorce, Mal. 2:16; Mark 10:9)—is an imperfect attempt at godly zeal. As readers, it makes us look ahead to the new covenant and the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham that all the families of the earth will be blessed through him and an offspring who would come from him (Gen. 12:1–2). Galatians, which is the book we happen to be reading next, has a lot to say about the gospel for all, both Jew and Gentile.

Our reading this week turns from Ezra-Nehemiah to Galatians. This epistle of the apostle Paul is a corrective letter to a group of churches who are in danger of losing sight of the true gospel. Paul uses some of the harshest language in all the NT to rebuke them for turning to “a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” (Gal. 1:6–7) We walked through Galatians in a sermon series a couple years ago, and reading it again now gives us another chance to heed its warning. We must reject anything that adds to or changes the gospel of God’s gracious salvation through the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus. In doing this, we seek to live out the true gospel by bearing fruit that can only be produced by God’s own Spirit.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)