In the sermon "Strengthening Jerusalem" by Jason Dohm, the focus is on Nehemiah 11:1-19, which details the repopulation of Jerusalem. The leaders and a tenth of the people are chosen by lot to reside in the holy city, highlighting the importance of rebuilding not just the physical walls but also the spiritual and communal aspects of Jerusalem. The sermon emphasizes the historical significance of Jerusalem as God's chosen city, where the temple stood, and where the people of God committed to living God-centered lives through a written covenant. Dohm draws parallels to triage in an emergency room, prioritizing the most urgent needs, first securing the city and then addressing the spiritual renewal of its people. The sermon also highlights the themes of sacrifice and willingness, as some individuals volunteer to inhabit Jerusalem despite the risks, reflecting Christ-like sacrifice. The message concludes with an exhortation for believers to have a heart like Christ, willing to leave personal security and prosperity for the strength of God's people.

So our sermon text this morning is Nehemiah chapter 11 verses 1 through 19. Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths were to dwell in other cities, and the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. These are the heads of the province who dwelt in Jerusalem, but in the cities of Judah everyone dwelt in his own possession in their cities, Israelites, priests, Levites, Nethanim, and descendants of Solomon's servants. Also in Jerusalem dwelt some of the children of Judah and of the children of Benjamin.

The children of Judah, Athi-hiah, the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Sheffatiah, the son of Mahalalel, of the children of Perez, and Measeeh, the son of Baruch, the son of Kol Hoza, the son of Hazziah, the son of Adiah, the son of Joyarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of Sholanai, all the sons of Perez who dwelt at Jerusalem were 468 valiant men. And these are the sons of Benjamin. Salu, the son of Meshulam, the son of Joed, the son of Padaiah, the son of Koliah, the son of Measeiah, the son of Ethiel, the son of Jeshaiah, and after him, Gabai and Sallai, 928. Joel, the son of Zikri, was their overseer, and Judah, the son of Senua, was second over the city. Of the priests, Jadaiah, the son of Joirib, and Jaakin.

Saraiah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Mishulim, the son of Zadok, the son of Marrioth, the son of Ahitab was the leader of the house of God. Their brethren who did the work of the house were 822, and Adiah, the son of Joraham the son of Polaliah the son of Amsi the son of Zechariah the son of Peshur the son of Melchizedek and his brethren heads of the father's houses were 242 and Amish I the son of Azrael the son of as I the son of Meshulamoth the son of emir and their brethren mighty men of valor were 128 their overseer was Zabdiel the son of one of the great men. Also the Levites, Shemaah, the son of Hashub, the son of Asricam, The son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunai, Shabbathai, and Jozebad, of the heads of the Levites, had the oversight of the business outside of the house of God. Mataniah, the son of Micah, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, the leader who began the thanksgiving with prayer. Bakbukayah, the second among his brethren, and Abda, the son of Shamuah, the son of Galal, the son of Jejuthun.

All the Levites in the holy city were 284. Moreover, the gatekeepers, Aqab, Talman, and their brethren who kept the gates were 172." The title of the sermon this morning is Strengthening Jerusalem. I think that's what the text is fundamentally about. It's what the book is about. Is Jerusalem coming from a place of reproach and danger to being restored.

And so, particularly in this text with the repopulation of Jerusalem, we see Jerusalem going from something of weakness to something of strength as the population is greatly enlarged. Last week, the title of the sermon was Committing to God-Centered Lives. It was about the covenant that the people entered into. At the very end of the previous chapter it was said that they entered into a sure covenant and they wrote it down. So this is not a verbal covenant, It's a sure written covenant.

It's a firm commitment. So the people are together, they're bonding together, to commit themselves to live God-centered lives. So they have this corporate commitment. And the covenant begins very broad. They commit to walk in God's law.

Of course there are so many parts of God's law, so that represents the breadth of the covenant. But then they get down to some very specifics. After saying we are going to walk in this broad thing in God's law, they say that specifically this and this and this. And when you look at those things that they are specifically calling out and committing to in writing, it's things that have historically been points of unfaithfulness and rebellion and sin among the Lord's people. We've already seen it among them.

Mixed marriage, for instance, has been a problem. As recently as Ezra, which would have been 13 years before this, they were having to deal with mixed marriages, marriages to pagans outside of the faith. That's not isolated to their generation either, is it? When you look back at Israel's history, marriage outside the faith has been a problem all the way back to the beginning of the nation. And so they call out these three areas.

And In last week's sermon I summarized it this way. God has laid claim to the marriages of His people. God has laid claim to the calendars of His people. God has laid claim to the worship of his people. And so it was and so it is.

This week we resume where chapter 7 verse 4 left off. So in chapter 7 the wall had miraculously, literally miraculously been rebuilt and repaired in 52 days. And then just following the completion of that great work, we see this in Nehemiah chapter 7 verse 4. Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few and the houses were not rebuilt. So now they have a secure city, the walls have been rebuilt and repaired, but they don't have a populated city because of all the turmoil that the people have been living in.

Not many people have been living there. And so what we've seen in the progression of Nehemiah is a concept that I introduced, I don't know, six weeks ago in a sermon, which is triage. Triage is a term that you most often encounter in the emergency room. You go into the emergency room, chances are you're going to be shown to the triage nurse. And it's the job of the triage nurse to assess you and the reason your emergency, the reason you've come to the emergency room to see how badly you need treatment.

If you're missing an arm, you go to the front of the line. If you've broken a fingernail, you go to the back of the line, based on the urgency of the situation. And this is what Nehemiah has been doing since the very beginning of the book. He's essentially the triage nurse for Israel. And He's come and he can see the item of greatest urgency is this wall.

If we don't get this wall closed, the gaps in this wall closed up so that we are fortified against our very active enemies then nothing else is really going to matter. So that's priority one, and they jump on that with full force, and in 52 days they have accomplished that work. Once they've done that, the next thing in order is their hearts, isn't it? So we see them repenting and we see them entering into a covenant to abandon this rebellion that has been the history, the 1700 year history of the people of God up to this point and to repent before God and to say, God, as you would give us grace, we are going to walk in your law. So they started with the wall and then they dealt with their hearts, repenting in sackcloth and ashes and entering into a covenant.

And now the next order of business in bringing Jerusalem to a place of strength is bringing people to live in the city. They still have their enemies. They might have a wall, but a wall won't do you any good unless you've got a thriving population, a strong population. So that is what the people turn themselves to accomplishing in this text. So go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer.

God, I know You love Your people. You've proven it in Scripture, You've proven it in our lives. And we are Your people, those who have repented and believed the Gospel. And I pray, Lord, that You would use this text to give us a heart like Yours towards Your people. You would cause us to love Your people, to have this burning desire in our hearts for the prosperity and welfare and strength of your people.

We want your people to be a mighty people, so that your name would be known as great. Oh God, use this text in this way. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. So the first division in our text is to look at chapter 11, verses 1-3. So I'm going to read it again and then talk about it.

Follow along as I read. Nehemiah 11 verse 1. Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city. And nine tenths were to dwell in other cities.

The people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. These are the heads of the province who dwelt in Jerusalem. But in the cities of Judah, everyone dwelt in his own possession in their cities. Israelites, priests, Levites, nethanyim, and descendants of Solomon's servants. In this portion of the text we have the leaders, one out of ten, the willing.

So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it is leaders, 10, willing. The leaders, 1 out of 10, and the willing. First let's talk about the leaders. The leaders are first in verse 1. It says they dwelt at Jerusalem.

Linguistically it could mean that they were already dwelling in Jerusalem, or it could mean that they were the first to now come and dwell in Jerusalem. It seems to be more reasonable that they have been living here, but it could be either when you look at the Hebrew. In verse 3, it returns to talking about the leaders and it says, these are the heads of the province. And The reason it's saying they were the heads of the province is because this territory has historically been Judah, but now it's Judea. So understand the distinction of the territory and the naming of the territory.

God gave all twelve tribes their place. He set the boundary for the twelve tribes. Jerusalem has been a part of Judah, which was a tribe, and The tribe had territorial boundaries, but now they are part of an empire. They are not a sovereign nation in that sense. They have a king who is the king over an empire.

The region is now not called by the empire Judah, it's called Judea. It's a province of the Persian Empire and Artaxerxes is the king. And there instead of more names of tribes of Israel around them, there are other Persian provinces. To the north they have Samaria. To the west they have Ashdod, which borders the Mediterranean Sea and is named after a great Philistine city.

So this was the area that the Philistines had occupied. To the south of them, there is the province of Idumea, and so on and so forth. So that's the reason why they're called the heads of the province. What was Judah is now Judea. These are the Jewish leaders in this Persian province.

Jerusalem is the capital of that province. It's where the leaders would dwell, and it's where the leaders are dwelling because it's the seat of government for this province. So that's the leaders. The leaders are here in Jerusalem and it's because it's the seat of the government that makes perfect sense. Now we have one out of ten from the rest of the people.

So not everybody who lives in Judea, Judea is a big geographical province, many miles, and Jerusalem is only one city in it, but it's the capital city. And so not everybody who lives in Judea lives in Jerusalem. And so of the rest of the people, of the people who are living in the other cities in Judea, they take one family out of ten who lives in the rest of Judea to bring to repopulate Jerusalem. Now in verse 1, Jerusalem is called the Holy City. No other city in the Bible is called the Holy City.

Holy just means separated out to be God's. So This is a city that has been separated out from all the other cities on the earth to be God's city. It is God's special city. The beginning of Jerusalem as the holy city in the Bible is with David. The Jebusites are living in this place and David comes and makes war and takes this city and he makes it his city.

It's going to be called, a portion of Jerusalem today is called the city of David. And that's the part that David had originally occupied. So Israel's greatest king, David, is really the founder of it as the holy city. In 1 Kings 11 verse 36, listen to what God says. This is 1 Kings 11 verse 36.

God says, God calls Jerusalem the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there. So it is holy in that sense. God chose it. God called it out from the other cities of the earth to be His city. And He put His name there.

My city. The holy city. And it's called the holy city in many places in the Bible. And this language used in 1 Kings 11 where God says, I chose it, I put my name on it, is in many places in the Old Testament. Finally, the temple is there.

One Temple for the worship of God and it's in Jerusalem and it makes Jerusalem a holy city because that's where So much of the worship of God is to happen. There's going to be three feasts During the course of the year on the religious calendar and all the people from Judea are going to come to the central location to the temple of God to worship God and makes Jerusalem a holy city. So it's a holy city. You would think it would be a desirable place to live, wouldn't you? Why would they have to cast lots to get one out of ten to move into Jerusalem?

You would think They would be trying to keep people out of the Holy City because of the demand to be here where God has put His name. In the city where God has chosen it out of all the other cities and put His name to dwell there, you'd think there'd be a waiting list. But not so. I want to remind you of where we've been. So let's do a little flipping in Nehemiah.

Flip back to Nehemiah chapter 1. It's been a while since we've been in Nehemiah chapter 1, so this is a refresher about how the book of Nehemiah starts. I want to read Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah came to pass in the month of Chislev in the twelfth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

They said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and its gates are burned with fire." So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of Heaven. So Nehemiah is the cupbearer of the king. He is serving in King's palace.

He is actually probably a confidant of King Artaxerxes. His brethren come from the province and he asked for a report. They said Jerusalem is in great distress and reproach. The walls are broken down, the gates are burned, the people are under pressure. Nehemiah hears this and He begins to weep because he knows that the holy city, the city that God has chosen out of all the other cities to put his name there, should be a strong city.

It should be a city that is prospering. Now look at chapter 4. In chapter 4, Nehemiah has come back and he is attempting to lead the people to rebuild the wall. Chapter 4 was where all this pressure is coming from every side because they have adversaries to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west. They are surrounded on every side by adversaries.

Here is the report that comes to them as they are trying to rebuild the wall. Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 11. Our adversaries said, They will neither know nor see anything till we come into their midst and kill them and cause the work to cease. So the adversaries are putting pressure on the Lord's people. So they are trying to undertake this great project.

And they hatch a plan to come in among the people unaware into Jerusalem to kill and wreak havoc to cause chaos in order that the work would stop. And so, Jerusalem is a target. As any capital city would be a target in wartime. And how much more so, because it's the center of worship and the God haters hate the worship of God. So to live in Jerusalem during this time, a city in great reproach and distress, is to live in a place where security is a problem.

This has been true of Jerusalem for now 200 years. Security has been a problem, a big problem, a gaping problem for 200 years. Now what does that do to economics? What do security problems do to economics? Go to a city on the west coast of Mexico, and when all the violence that's being caused by the cartels started in those cities, what happens to industry and commerce when security breaks down?

It has tremendous economic impact. And so, not only is security a problem, prosperity is a problem in Jerusalem. Because the economic impacts of not having a secure city have been present for 200 years. So now we're starting to have security. At least there's a wall that is not easily breached.

So the solution is to roll the dice, right? And if your number is up, you come into Jerusalem. The solution is to draw straws, right? So you draw the short straw, and now You have to move from your home which has been more secure, more prosperous, into Jerusalem. No.

The people of God aren't thinking about the casting of lots that way. That's how I think about the casting of lights. It's like Rolling the dice, and maybe your number comes up by chance. Or it's drawing straws, and maybe you get the short straw by chance. But the people of God think about the casting of lots very differently from that.

To the people of God, The casting of lots is not a game of chance. So you can't come to this text and read about the casting of lots and say, this is a game of chance and some people by chance come into Jerusalem. Listen to what Proverbs chapter 16 verse 33 says about casting lots. This is Proverbs 16, 33. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

Here's how the Lord's people think about the casting of lots. When you cast lots, it's every decision is from the Lord. Proverbs 16 verse 33 is affirming the sovereignty of God, that He super intends things down to the smallest thing like the casting of a lot. So the people of God are looking at the casting of lots and saying, this is the will of the Lord. When we decided that one out of ten is going to come from the surrounding city and countryside and populate Jerusalem, when the lot comes to you, it means that God has chosen you to come live in this city, to strengthen this city.

They are discerning the will of the Lord. And they are saying in the casting of lots, Lord, who would you have come dwell in this city to make it strong? What would please you? Would it please you for me and my family to be relocated from a place that has been more secure and more prosperous, but your city, your holy city, the city that bears your name, needs strength. So would it make the city stronger for me to come and live there than Count Nean?

So One tenth are being called out by God through the casting of lots to strengthen Jerusalem. Ninety percent are continuing to live in their homes, the other cities in Judah. Verse 3 says they live in their own possession. Live in their own possession. Of course, this is a word that points back to the allotment by family of the land.

So this isn't like you and I, we go, we buy a lot, and then ten years from now, or two years from now, or next week we can sell it. When you live in your possession, it's the land that God has given your family as an everlasting possession. So Jerusalem is important, and repopulating Jerusalem is important, but it's not everything. They need to strengthen Jerusalem, but they can't weaken everywhere else. So it is the holy city, it is an important city, and they do want to strengthen it, but they're not going to cripple every other city and community.

Ten percent to Jerusalem, ninety percent stay in their homes. Now finally, so we've had the leaders, we've had one out of every ten, now the willing. Look at verse 2 again. And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. There are two ways to understand this.

The first way is that it describes the one in ten. Meaning that when the lot fell to you, instead of kicking against that, you do realize that it's the will of the Lord, and so you accept it gladly, and you're satisfied in God. If that's what God wants, then that's what you want. The thing that God cares about, you care about. So one way to understand this is it's describing the 1 in 10.

They gladly accepted the casting of the lots. And when the lot came to you, you embraced it. You didn't push back against it. You recognized it was the will of the Lord. And so you willingly offered yourself.

You gladly offered yourself to the will of the Lord. The second way to understand this is that it's a separate group in addition to. So in addition to the one out of ten, there's a second group that sees the value of strengthening Jerusalem and just offers themselves to do it. I really hope it is number one. I hope it is describing the first group.

You can't tell for sure, but either way it is glorious. Either way it is glorious. Either way it is glorious. Either way you have a people who have known that security was a problem and have known that prosperity was a problem in Jerusalem, but they want the prosperity of Jerusalem. They want Jerusalem to be strong and so they willingly offer themselves.

They want the holy city to thrive and be strong and so they willingly offer themselves. Turn to Psalm 122. Psalm 122 is a Psalm of David. The superscript over this Psalm, Many of the Psalms, not all of them, many of them have a superscript which means some text even above verse 1. So it's not part of verse 1, it's really a heading on the psalm.

It's not something added by the uninspired publisher. It's actually part of Scripture. The superscript above verse 1 on Psalm 122 says, A song of ascents of David. So this is a psalm that would be sung as people are coming up the hill into Jerusalem. Jerusalem is on a mountaintop.

So as you are coming up a song of ascents, as you are ascending in Jerusalem, you might be singing Psalm 122 when you are coming to one of the three feasts to worship the Lord. And David wrote this psalm about his city and about the Lord's city. I want to read the whole psalm in short, nine verses, and then I want to consider one line from this. Psalm 122, a song of the saints of David. I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord.

Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together. Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David." Now particularly Pay attention to these last four verses. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls. Prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say peace be within you. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.

David is saying because the temple is in Jerusalem, I will seek the good of Jerusalem. And what the people are doing in Nehemiah chapter 11, when they praise the people who willingly offer themselves to go live in Jerusalem, they are essentially doing what we see in the second half of verse 6 here in Psalm 22. May they prosper who love you. People have identified themselves by their actions, by going to live in Jerusalem, to strengthen Jerusalem, that they love Jerusalem, and the people who are watching this want them to prosper. May they prosper who love you Jerusalem.

So that was the leaders, 1 in 10, and the willing. The beginning of this description of the people who would now populate Jerusalem to strengthen it. In verses 4-9, We have those of Judah and Benjamin. If you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's Judah and Benjamin. These two tribes, these two families.

Now the text has turned to those who already live in Jerusalem. So the first portion was predominantly about those who did not live in Jerusalem and would now come to be a source of strength for the city. Having done that, now the author begins to speak about those who already live in the city. I believe it is to honor them. They have lived in Jerusalem through the bad years.

The good years are coming. The wall has been rebuilt, and God is clearly showing his favor and the best years are ahead. In some ways, now would be an easier time to come and relocate to Jerusalem. I believe that in the text we see those who have lived through the bad years of Jerusalem, who have forfeited much security, who have forfeited much prosperity, honored. We have those of Judah and of Benjamin.

I want to summarize the whole rest of our text. So through verse 19, by the numbers. Here are the numbers. Judah 468 people. That is what is given to us.

Judah 468. Given to us. Judah 468. Benjamin 928. The tribe of Benjamin had 928.

The priests, 1192. You've got to add up three numbers that are given to us in the text, but that's what you get for the priest. 1192. Levites, 456. Again, you have to add two groups.

I'm folding in the gatekeepers from verse 19 because they are also Levites. So you end up with 456 Levites. So you total that up and you get 3044. So now let's play with the numbers a little bit. So 3, 044 are men.

So let's marry off 75% of them. I'm just making up assumptions here, but Let's assume that 75% of them are married, and let's assume that those marriages on average result in four children per family. You can do anything you want with these assumptions. You can make it more or less in both ways. I'm just trying to say this is a way to think about how many people were really talking about here.

There are 3, 044 potential dads that are mentioned in the text. Okay so let's say 75% of them are married and that they on average have four children if they're married. That brings you to 12, 176. So if you work off those assumptions, The population of Jerusalem before this time is 12, 176. That is nothing.

During the time of Jesus, when the nation would come up to worship at the feast. You might have three million people in Jerusalem at Passover. This is what happens to the population of Jerusalem. It swells and then recedes depending on when the feasts are happening. It's kind of like when NASCAR comes to a town.

These little towns all of a sudden are overwhelmed by people who are coming to see the race. If the feasts of Jerusalem were like that, Jerusalem during the time of Jesus, when there wasn't a feast, would have about 200, 000 people in it and the population could swell to as much as 3 million people for the Passover. So now imagine a Jerusalem with 12, 000 people in it. Yes they have ridden out the hard times in Jerusalem. It makes sense that these are the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

They are the two tribes that made up the southern kingdom. So remember, the nation was divided. It was all Israel, but then there was conflict, and two tribes split off from the ten. The ten continued to be called Ephraim or Israel, and the two tribes were the southern kingdom called Judah, but made up not just of Judah, but Judah and Benjamin. Saul was of Benjamin.

The first king who lived in Jerusalem, the first king of Israel was Saul and he was from Benjamin and then came David of Judah and these two made up the southern kingdom. And Jerusalem, if you look at the tribes, Jerusalem is right on the border of Judah and Benjamin. Remember all the way back to the beginning of Ezra, when we were studying Ezra. Ezra begins with a decree from King Cyrus that the people can leave captivity in Babylon and come back to Jerusalem. And after that decree, we see this in Ezra 1 verse 5, Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose up to go and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.

So the very beginning of people coming back from captivity, these two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, are singled out as most of who came back in this first wave. So it makes complete sense why Jerusalem would be predominantly populated by those of these two families and tribes. Judah, the family of Judah, the tribe of Judah. The inhabitants from Judah are described in verses 4-6 and there are 468 of them. And they are sons of Perez.

This is very significant. The family tree is traced to really near the roots. Judah, obviously, is the root of the tribe of Judah. And Judah has a son by Tamar. Now this never should have happened.

It was in the providence of God, but it never should have happened. It was a relationship that was a very sinful relationship between a father-in-law and a daughter-in-law. Judah being the father-in-law, Tamar being the daughter-in-law. You find this in Genesis 28. This sinful relationship resulted in the birth of twins, and Perez is one of the twins.

So this is being traced all the way up the family tree to almost to Judah, to Judah's son Peres, by a sinful relationship. Here's where this relationship ends. The relationship ends in Matthew chapter 1 and the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Judah, Perez, and so forth down to Jesus Christ. Meaning that Perez and his line go from sin and infamy, being infamous, famous for all the wrong reasons, to honor.

God does that for this family. God takes this sin, the sinful relationship, and the offspring, the child, from this sinful relationship, and He takes the sin and being famous for all the wrong reasons, and he brings it to honor. They are not honored for the sin, but the line is redeemed. The line is rescued and brought from dishonor to honor. So when you trace Perez in the Bible, you start with Genesis 28.

He is the offspring of this relationship that was sinful and rebellious and wicked. And now in Nehemiah chapter 11, the sons of this man, his offspring, are living in Jerusalem, even during the bad years, in order that there would be people there to sustain the worship of God. And then it ends in Matthew chapter 1. God reaches into this line. One of the things we should learn from this is if there's sin in the family, if there's infamy being famous for all the wrong reasons in the family, you cannot say that is the end of the story.

No way. God can reach into that and redeem that and cleanse that and bring it to a place of honor. You must look at Perez being named here as the father of this family and know that God so often is pleased to reach into a sinful mass and to claim people who are in rebellion and cleanse them and redeem them and bring them from dishonor to honor. Praise the Lord that we see that in this text. Finally for Judah, in the second half of verse 6, they are called valiant men.

There are a couple of ways to translate that if you look at the English translations. You see a couple of different translations, but valiant men is certainly as good as any. How the Lord's people need valiant men. What would have happened to Jerusalem when they were in great distress and reproach without the valiant men? May the Lord increase this tribe of valiant men among His people.

Now to Benjamin. The family of Benjamin. The tribe of Benjamin. Those who are of that tribe, who have been dwelling in Jerusalem, are described in verses 7 through 9. And there are 928 of them.

There is actually almost double from Benjamin than there were from Judah, even though you think of Judah when you think of Jerusalem. In verse 9, we are given their overseer. There is a name of a man and it is said that he is the overseer of these Benjamites. And also we are given the second over the city. So there is also a second in command.

And this is an opportunity for me to point out that there is a lot that is like this in this text. In verse 11, the section about the priests that we are coming to, We have the leader of the house of God. In verse 14, also the section on the priests. We have the overseer of the mighty men of value. In verse 16, We have two heads of the Levites.

In verse 17, we have another leader of the Levites, and then the second in command. Here, as Matthew Henry looks at this, and the structure and authority that you see across our text for today, Matthew Henry says this, For it is as necessary for a people to have good order kept up among themselves as to be fortified against the attacks of their enemies from abroad. To have good magistrates as to have good soldiers. Do you see what Matthew Henry is saying there? He's saying it is important to be able to defend yourself from your enemies.

And we see that in Nehemiah, and it's good and it's necessary. But Matthew Henry is saying, it's just as important to have good order kept among the people, to have godly leaders who will lead the people well and make sure that they are proceeding in an orderly fashion. It is as important to have good magistrates as it is to have good soldiers. If you can defend yourself but there is no order, There will be no progress in the city. I think he is right.

It is as important to have good magistrates as it is to have good soldiers. And we actually see them having both in today's text. Now the final section, verses 10-19, the last section of our text, verses 10-19, We have the priests and the Levites. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's priests and Levites. It makes total sense doesn't it that there would be a healthy population of priests and Levites in Jerusalem after all their vocations center around the temple.

The temples in Jerusalem you need lots of priests and lots of Levites in Jerusalem. First let's talk about the priests. Those priests who have been dwelling in Jerusalem are described in verses 10-14. There's 1, 192 of them. In verse 10, there's a priest named Judiah.

And in verse 11, it says of Judea that he is the leader of the house of God. He is probably the high priest. It doesn't say high priest, but because it's singular, the leader of the house of God, that is probably the high priest, so it could just be a chief priest. In verse 12, we're given that 822 who do the work of the house. So there's the families of these 822 who do the work of the house.

So there's the families of these 822 who do the work of the house. One thing that strikes you when you read the Old Testament is how much work there is to be done in the temple. It takes a lot of people. And here We have a lot of people who are doing the work of the house of God. In verse 13, we have another group of priests, 242 of them, that are heads of houses.

They are heads of families, priestly families. In verse 14 we have the third group of 128 mighty men of valor. That's not how We usually think about priests. When was the last time you thought of a priest as a mighty man of valor? Like a warrior priest.

We don't think of priests exactly like that. But how the Lord's people need spiritual men who are mighty and courageous. How the Lord's people need spiritual men who are also mighty and courageous. I think of these warrior priests, these men who are named among the priests, but who are also called mighty men of valor, 128 of them. I look at this description and I say, may the Lord increase this tribe.

May the Lord add me to this tribe. Men in the room, isn't this what you want to be? Little boys in the room, isn't this what you want to be? Spiritual men, not just warriors, but spiritual men who know the Lord and know His Word, and yet it's gone beyond the intellect. It has infected you and made you courageous and mighty.

This is what we need in our lives, men and women. We need to be infected by the Scriptures. The Scriptures just wouldn't be an academic study for it, but it would be making us mighty. It would be making us courageous. All of our spiritual exercises would be having this effect in our lives.

It was having the effect in the lives of these priests. And that's a blessing. Now we have the Levites. The Levites who had been living in Jerusalem through bad times are described in verses 15-19. There are 456 of them, including the gatekeepers from verse 19.

Because the gatekeepers were Levites, the gatekeepers actually did have not just menial tasks to do, but real meaningful work in controlling access to the temple. This is very important. Not just anyone could go into any part of the temple. Access control was key. So there were men given to this at what actually doesn't seem like it but is a spiritual activity.

In verse 16 we see that two men had oversight of the business outside the house of God. So oversight, they are leading others, and the scope of their work is outside the house of God. And their names, Shabbathai and Josabat, By the way, I think that we see both of these in Ezra. Remember, Ezra comes back with a second wave from Babylon, and it's 13 years before the time of our text. And there are two Levites of these two names, Shabbathai and Jezebad, named in Ezra.

In Ezra chapter 10 verse 15, we have this exact same name, Shabbathai. He is a Levite. And he is administrating the investigations into the pagan marriages. So people were going to come at an appointed time and you were going to have your marriage examined to see whether you had engaged in a pagan marriage. Shabbathai is one of the Levites named who was administrating this process in Ezra 10 verse 15.

Jozebad is a name that appears, also a Levite, same name, same family, a Levite, in Ezra chapter 8 verse 33. Do you remember when Ezra came back? They came with treasures from Babylon. It seemed like it was hundreds of millions of dollars who took the weights of gold and translated it into the days. It was just fantastic wealth brought from Babylon.

And you remember as soon as they got to Jerusalem, there was a process where they handed over the wealth to Levites at the temple, where it was accounted for. And Jozebad was one of the names there. These are probably the same men, although they use the same names for different people, so you can't put a lot of weight on that. But I think we probably met these two men in the book of Ezra. Here's what Matthew Henry says to get to the point about having these Levites who were over the business outside of the house of God.

Here's what Matthew Henry says. The priests were chief managers of the business within the temple gates. That's where the priests work, within the temple gates. But this Levite was entrusted with the secular concerns of God's house that were subservient to its spiritual concerns. The collecting of the contributions, the providing of materials for the temple service, and the like, which it was necessary to oversee, else the inward business would have been starved and stood still." What Matthew Henry is saying is that the priests are inside the temple doing that business.

Matthew Henry is saying if you don't have someone attending to the business outside the temple, the real practical matters like collecting the temple tax, like providing the materials that are needed, then you don't have a ministry inside the temple. So Matthew Henry is saying, do you see how important people to tend to the outside business is to even the continuation of the inside business. Do you know that we see that same thing in the New Testament? In the interaction between elders and deacons. When you look at Acts chapter 6, in Acts chapter 6, the elders in Jerusalem, the apostles, are desiring to be focused like a laser beam on prayer and the ministry of the Word, but they're finding themselves pulled away by many other concerns.

And so they appoint men, spiritual men, men full of wisdom and faith to handle these other concerns that are important concerns but that are taking them away from prayer in the ministry of the Word. So you see a similar functioning in the New Testament. Finally in verse 17 there's a man named Mataniah. And Mataniah, the author traces up his family tree to Asaph. Asaph wrote 12 of the 150 Psalms.

He was actually the chief musician during the time of David. Asaph. It said, the leader who began, in our text today, the leader who began the thanksgiving with prayer. Mataniah or Asaph, you can't tell which, is the leader who began the thanksgiving with prayer. We see Mataniah again, or at least we see the same name again.

You can't guarantee it's the same person. In Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 8 where it says, Mataniah who led the thanksgiving Psalms. So I think that is the right connection. The point I wanted to make from Matanaya and his forefather, hundreds of years earlier, Asaph, is that Matanaya is a man who is standing in a stream. Matanaya is the man who is a product of faithful men who have gone before him.

Matanaya is a product of Asaph and his legacy. And so are we. So are all the godly. All the godly are standing on the shoulders of other people who God has raised up to be faithful in generations past. We should be so thankful.

We shouldn't think that we are the first generation that ever lived on planet earth. We shouldn't think that we are the first generation that God was ever merciful to, faithful to, ever raised up to worship Him. No, God does this in every generation. We are standing on the shoulders of so many who have gone before us. We are standing in a stream of the faithful, and we should be able to look back and benefit from all the things they blessed us with as a result of their faithfulness.

Like, Mataniah could look back and see the legacy of Asaph, this writer of the Psalms. Two applications. One, examine yourself and ask yourself this question. Am I on the list for the heavenly Jerusalem? Anytime you come to a text on physical Jerusalem, you have to understand and recognize that the physical Jerusalem is a picture of the heavenly Jerusalem.

That really is the holy city. It's God's city. It's a picture of heaven and the assembling together of all the people who have known the Lord through all the centuries. Am I on that list? It has a list.

Just like we're reading names. There's a list of names for that too. It's called the Lamb's Book of Life. The Lamb's Book of Life is filled with the names of all who God has shown their sin and has crushed them. He has crushed them with a sense of the weight of their sin.

They never saw it, but He made them see it. And it caused them to flee to Christ for refuge, because Christ is the only way to get free from that. Christ is the only way to get free from that. Christ is the only way to escape the punishment of that, because Jesus Christ has stood in the place of sinners. He went to the cross to lay down His life that those who repented and believed could be free, could come into his kingdom, could be in the Lamb's book of life, in the New Jerusalem.

Secondly, consider how Our text relates to Philippians chapter 2. Turn to Philippians chapter 2. We'll end here. I haven't quoted this one for a while. This one got quoted so much during Matthew and also 1 and 2 Peter.

We haven't been to Philippians 2 for a while. I think Philippians 2 is a good summary of Nehemiah 11 and what we see with people willingly coming to live in Jerusalem to strengthen it. Philippians 2 verses 5-8. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." The people in Nehemiah 11 who are setting aside their personal security, who are setting aside their personal prosperity, making sacrifices in both of those categories, in order to come and live in a dangerous city so that the holy city would be strengthened, are being Christ-like.

This is way before Christ. But Christ is the example of this. Christ is the one who is the perfect example of one who leaves safety and prosperity. Does it get any more safe and prosperous than being a member of the Trinity in heaven? No, it does not.

Jesus left heaven for the strength of Jerusalem, for the strength of His people, for the building up, the purchasing and building up of His people. So here's the question for us. Do we have that heart? In Philippians 2, Paul is exhorting us to have that heart. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus who left heaven to lay down his life.

That's the heart of Jesus. Have the same mind as Jesus who had a willingness to leave security and prosperity so that Jerusalem would be strengthened. May we be a people like that. Let's pray. God, I do thank You for this text.

I do thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ who left heaven to lay down his life and purchase people, sinners, make them right with you. Now God give us the same heart and mind as our Lord Jesus and help us to love your people and help us to spend and be spent so that Jerusalem would be strengthened. In Jesus' name, Amen.