Nehemiah 7: 4-73 | The People of the Kingdom of God
The wall is done!
Have you ever completed a project and when it is finished, step back, take a breathe and look over what you have just completed?
Our passage today in Nehemiah 7 serves as a bit of a breathing point as the story pivots away from the work of building the wall and we see God working to build the people of his kingdom by turning the hearts of the people back to Him.
What is a city exactly without the people?
Main Idea:
The kingdom of God is found in the of God who live for Him
Why (transformational intent of the passage)?:
To examine which kingdom we live in, represent, and serve so that we are people of His kingdom
Nehemiah 7:5: Setting the Stage
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- Nehemiah lead by the Lord to enroll the people by genealogy.
- One has already been done (Ezra 2) and Nehemiah uses it here
- Nehemiah lead by the Lord to enroll the people by genealogy.
Nehemiah 7:6-60: Who are these people?
V7 – list of leaders
V8-38 – list of the men of the people
v39-42 – list of the priests
V43 – list of the Levites
V44 – list of the singers
V45 – list of the gatekeepers
v46-56 – list of the temple servants
V57-59 – list of the king’s servants
The people need to remember now they are here as inheritors of the promises of Yahweh.
God has provided in these people all that they need for the restoration of Jerusalem.
The returning exiles are taking this return seriously and positions that have qualifications are being examined for such.
We see the people are equipped to do the work…
Now we see they are serious and bought into seeing the work through in their freely giving to support the city with their money
Nehemiah 7:4-73 – Application
The story is pivoting now away from the story of building a wall and toward showing us the people are responding to the call of God in their hearts
Christ has come into the world to deliver his people from the domain of darkness and into his kingdom (Colossians 1) and ultimately we look forward to entering into His New Jerusalem we see in Revelation 21.
Respond to Christ and his call to be people of his kingdom by:
- Come to Christ and confess Him as Lord and savior and be delivered into his kingdom as His people of faith
- How do we serve him with what he has gifted us with?
- Are we bought into the work of the kingdom?
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