Eskimo's Icy Wisdoms

Nehemiah Chapter 11

Hello again my friends, I pray you had a good week since last we met.

The next chapter of Nehemiah at first glance doesn’t seem that important. I mean, talking about guys getting sent to Jerusalem, how many Levites there are… Boring stuff right?

You sir or madam, couldn’t be more mistaken. Nothing in the Bible is just there to bore you. It’s there for a reason.

[quote=Nehemiah 11:1]

1Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns. [/quote]

Did you see that? The first sentence: “All the leaders”. Why is this significant? They just rebuilt the wall; of course the leaders want to be there it has got to be one of the safest places to put leadership right? I won’t argue this is right or wrong, it’s the fact that the leadership of all the tribes was in a single place again. They moved to Jerusalem, together, forming a unit of leadership again. This would allow the Tribes to work together in a much more cohesive manner. It would help with working, protecting, farming… The list goes on and on. By having the leadership in one place you get some Proverbs 1:5 stuff happening.

[quote=Proverbs 1:5]

5let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance

[/quote]

Now you got all these leaders in the same place, but what about people? Having only the leaders in the city doesn’t make much sense, you need people to run a city!

So that’s exactly what happens next, by moving ten percent of all the towns to the main city, (OK 1 in 10)  they insured that a good cross reference of the people were represented. This also let all the tribes lay claim to Jerusalem again. Not any one tribe held the power, not any one tribe had the ability to do so easily either. It created a balance within the city.

Now it’s important to note the number of Levites; why you may ask. Well let me see if I can explain. I have to be honest, I’m not 100% up on Levites, and however I did find the following article that explains pretty well what they did.

[quote=IDS.org]

Levites

Levites. Descendants of Levi. The work of ministering in the sanctuary was assigned to this tribe. The Levites are sometimes spoken of as distinct from the priests (1 Kgs. 8:4; Ezra 2:70; John 1:19); sometimes as though all Levites were also priests, “the priests, the Levites” (Deut. 18:1; Josh. 3:3). The work of the Levites was to assist the priests (Num. 3:5–10; 18:1–7). They acted as musicians (1 Chr. 6:16, 31; 15:16; Neh. 11:17, 22); slaughtered the sacrifices (2 Chr. 29:34; 35:11; Ezra 6:20); and generally assisted in the temple (Neh. 11:16, 19). The Levites were themselves offered as a wave-offering on behalf of the children of Israel (Num. 8:11–15); they thus became God’s peculiar property, given to him in place of the firstborn (Num. 8:16). They were not consecrated, but cleansed for their office (Num. 8:7–16). They had no inheritance in Canaan (Num. 18:23–24); but they had the tithe (18:21), 48 cities (35:6), and a claim on the alms of the people at feast times (Deut. 12:18–19; 14:27, 29).

[/quote]

As you can see, Nehemiah set in motion items that put Israel back together. It brought the leadership back together to form a strong, unified Israel. It brought back people to be set aside for the temple. It brought the tribes together again.

Pretty amazing stuff, there is no way this all happened without God moving through Nehemiah.

I pray God moves through you this week,

Until next time,

Eskimo