This program is brought to you by Israel Restoration Ministries.
What are you doing Sunday nights? Come join Friendship with God radio Bible teacher Tom Cantor of the Friendship with God Fellowship Church every Sunday night at 5:30 p.m. at The Vine at 9336 Abraham Way, Santee, California. Watch and listen live around the world to Tom Cantor Sunday evening on youtube.com by searching for Friendship with God Fellowship or by going to our homepage at friendshipwithgod.org.
That’s friendshipwithgod.org.
Welcome to Friendship with God with our Bible teacher, Tom Cantor. Today’s message and previous messages can be listened to or downloaded for free at friendshipwithgod.org.
Let’s pray. Father, help us now, Lord, to have hearts that are well tilled up and ready to receive the seed of your word. We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen. You turn to your Bible, please, now to Nehemiah chapter 11. We’re in chapter 11 of Nehemiah.
We’ve been marching chapter by chapter here, and we’re in 11 now, and it’s been a thrilling march. And we’re not going to read the whole chapter here. We’re really just going to read four verses, which are the first three verses and then verse 17.
So please follow along here, Nehemiah chapter 11, verse 1. And the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem. The rest of the people also cast lots to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine parts to dwell in other cities.
And the people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. Now these are the chief of the provinces that dwelt at Jerusalem. But in the cities of Judah dwelt everyone in his possession in their cities to wit Israel, the Priests, the Levites, the Nethanimes, and the Children of Solomon servants.
Now if you drop down to verse 17, verse 17, Mataniah, the son of Micah, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, was the principle to begin the thanksgiving and prayer. And Bakbukkiah, the second among his brethren, Abda, the son of Shamuah, the son of Galal, the son of Jaduthan. So as I mentioned, now we are here in the Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah, the Book of, where are we actually?
Nehemiah, that’s where we are. We’re in the Book of Nehemiah, that’s it. We’re now here in the Book of Nehemiah, and we’re to the point now where, in this history of Nehemiah and the history of Jerusalem here, the wall has been built around Jerusalem.
The gates of the city have been set in place, the doors are on their hinges, the gatekeepers are in their stations, the altar is set up, the sacrifices, the regular normal sacrifices continual for sin and complete devotion to God, called the Burn Offering, are all being kept up every day. This is where we are. The people have all returned.
The people have returned to God. They have come back to God with a pledge and put themselves under a curse, if they would not keep the pledge, to give up again the strange wives that they have taken from their enemies around them. There is a real spirit here in Jerusalem of exhilaration.
There’s a spirit of, we can do this. We can live for God. We can be the people that God is happy with.
It’s a wonderful new dawn. It’s a new hope in the land. And for the first time, there is really a feeling now that after 70 long years of slavery in Babylon, that finally it’s come to an end, that God has brought the people back to him, that the people feel like they have brought God back to them.
It’s great. It’s a great time. And at the center of this revival and great return of the people to their home, to the great return of the people to their God, has been one person, Nehemiah.
And Nehemiah has been like the energizer bunny. He’s just has been nonstop. He’s progressed with the people through one challenge after another.
From the moment that he arrived in Jerusalem, and he took that night walk out there and saw all the needs, his heart has been racing. It’s been Nehemiah at the helm of the ship. He’s brought the people to build the wall.
Nehemiah has been at the helm, meeting the challenge of the enemies that tried to attack and kill the people that tried to persuade him to come off the wall, to go down to a valley to meet with them. It’s been Nehemiah, Nehemiah, Nehemiah. Nehemiah’s at the helm, and he’s seen the people through this purification of the people to release themselves from the entanglement with the enemy.
It’s been Nehemiah at the helm of this ship that’s causing the people to stop this practice of this oppressive interest that was driving the people into poverty. It’s been Nehemiah that led the people with his own personal promise to God to stay clean, stay clean from marital relations with the enemy, from business entanglements, especially on the Sabbath with the enemy around them. And now at this juncture, you would think that we would think, well, Nehemiah, you’re done.
Nehemiah, you’ve earned your reputation, you’ve earned your retirement. Now it’s just time for you to enjoy the fruits of your legacy and drift. Go, you’ve done it.
But no, not Nehemiah. There was some unfinished business that Nehemiah had started long ago, but he had to put it on a back burner. He had to say, I can’t do this right now.
And that was from Nehemiah, Chapter 7, Verse 4. The city, Jerusalem, the city was large and great, but the people were few therein, and the houses were not built in. Way back then in Chapter 7, Nehemiah saw the city of Jerusalem was large and great, but the people were few in the city.
And at that time, Nehemiah, he just said, okay, that’s a problem. I’m going to have to deal with later. I put on a back burner.
I got other more pressing issues to deal with. But now those pressing issues have been dealt with, and the time has come now for Nehemiah to deal with the problem of underpopulation in the city of Jerusalem. And this problem has come up to the surface because Nehemiah now looks at Jerusalem and he’s walking around it.
We can see him there. He’s walking around it. He sees this is a city with walls.
This is a city with gates. This is a city with guards. I see a city that has the jewel in it, the house of God in the middle.
But Nehemiah says, what good is a wall to a city if it’s like a ghost town? We need inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is the issue.
It’s not enough for people that are living in Jerusalem. The people have moved out to live in the countryside. They’re not in the city of Jerusalem.
The people prefer to live outside in the countryside and not in the city of Jerusalem. So Nehemiah turns to the people and he asks for them, so I need volunteers. Who will volunteer to move from the country to the city?
And Nehemiah has put out the one call. Who among you will willingly offer yourself to live in Jerusalem? And most of the people did not respond.
Most of the people did not volunteer. He didn’t have enough. There were some, a few, that stepped forward and said, Yes, I will willingly offer myself to live in Jerusalem.
And as the people saw the volunteers, they cheered, they cheered them in verse 2, and the people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem. All the people said to the volunteers, God bless you. You are a great man to volunteer to live in Jerusalem.
Mazel Tov, you are what makes Israel great. But then when Nehemiah turned to those people who are blessing the volunteers and said, how about you? How about you?
How about you? Are you willing to join them and volunteer to live in Jerusalem? They all shrunk away with no, no, not me.
I have a special circumstance. I got a special circumstance. It prevents me from leaving my countryside home and move in Jerusalem.
Please have me excused. Move on to the next person, not me. It reminds me back in the 1960s, when the Vietnam War was going on, there was a draft and I was, my draft office was in West Los Angeles, and my mother wrote a special letter and sent it to this draft office and said, please have my son Tommy excused.
He has flat feet. He can’t run. That didn’t work.
Anyway, everybody said, no, no, I got a special circumstance. They were just like the people. All people said, I got special circumstance.
No, no, no. Count me out. Just like the people that Jesus Christ described when they were invited to the wedding, and the scene was a great multitude around Christ when he said this, and someone yelled out, what provoked this description that he gave of this wedding invitation?
It was when someone yelled out, the person who goes to heaven and eats bread with you. Now, he’s a blessed person, and Christ responded with, oh, let me tell you, let me tell you about the person who is not going to be in heaven to eat bread with me. Because going to heaven, he was saying, it’s kind of like responding to a wedding invitation, like an invitation to a wedding.
And this is how Christ put it in Luke 14, 15, Luke 14, 15. And when one of them that sat at me with him heard these things, he said unto him, blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said he unto them, unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bad many, and sent his servants at supper time to say to them that we’re bidden come for all things are not ready.
And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I bought a piece of ground. I must needs go and see it.
I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I bought five oaks and of yaks, and I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I married a wife and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and showed his lord these things, and the master of the house being angry said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind. The servant said, Lord, it’s done as thou has commanded, yet there’s room.
The Lord said unto the servant, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you that none of those men which were bitten shall taste of my supper. Now, when Christ said that was nothing short of shocking about who was going to heaven, because Christ said that to go to heaven, there’s got to be response to the invitation of God, like responding to an invitation of a dinner of this man was making.
And there’s going to be a sacrifice to pay. Yes, there’s going to be time. And God said that just like those who were asked to volunteer to live in Jerusalem, there were all sorts of excuses that people said, special case, special case, I have a special case, I need to be excused from going to the supper.
Special circumstance, special circumstance, I need to be excused. I would come, but I just bought some property. Oh, the timing’s so bad.
I’d come, but the timing is so bad, I just bought a team of five oxen. I’ve got to prove them. You can’t blame me.
I would come there, but I just come here, honeymoon time, sorry. The man who made the wedding says, no way they will ever, the supper rather, no way they will ever come to my supper. And all Christ was talking about was just going to heaven.
That was the situation when Nehemiah asked for more volunteers to populate Jerusalem. Nehemiah was probably thinking that I need to have about 20,000 people living here in order for it to be sufficiently populated. And he saw nowhere near that number of volunteers.
So Nehemiah then had to resort to casting lots. Think about like a drawing straws. And we can see Nehemiah holding up his hand with his 10 straws in it.
And then, okay, let’s have 10 men up here. Now, you each grab a straw. We’ll see which one gets the one short straw.
Verse one, verse one, the rulers of the people throughout the Jerusalem, the rest of the people also cast lots to bring one of 10 to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city. Nine parts of the other cities. What that shows us is that Nehemiah only needed one in 10 people.
That’s all he needed. He only needed was one in 10 people, just to step forward and volunteer. And he would have had his number.
And he would not have to resorted to this casting lots. This means that when Nehemiah took 10 men and said, okay, now before we do this, is there one of you 10 that will volunteer, will step forward so I live in Jerusalem? He didn’t get that.
He had to resort to the lots. Why didn’t he get that? Why didn’t he get at least one in 10 person among the people of Israel to step forward and said, I volunteer, I will willingly live in Jerusalem?
Why not? What’s wrong with living in Jerusalem? What turned the people off to the invitation of living in Jerusalem that made them like the people who were invited to the supper and said, oh, I’m sorry, but I just can’t come because I got a special circumstance.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. The first problem that the people saw about living in Jerusalem was the name in verse one.
That turned people off. What was the name of Jerusalem in verse one? It was not just Jerusalem.
It was Jerusalem, the holy city. And the people says, I don’t want to live in a place called the holy city because that means that my life has got to be holy. If I live in the holy city and I’d rather live in the countryside, it’s not called the holy countryside.
For me, live in a city called the holy city means that I got to be watched more carefully. I got to be on display as having a holy life. That’s the same as people who say to me, look, I don’t mind going to church once a week, and I don’t mind calling myself born again, but I don’t want to live so close to my neighbor that they hear everything I watch on television and I don’t want to be scrutinized about the TV, the movies that I go to.
For me to live in a city called the holy city means that I’m going to be expected to live more straight life and I don’t want that. To call Jerusalem in verse 1, the holy city, just describes the key characteristic of the city of Jerusalem. That meant that it was a special person who wanted to live in the holy city, and that person had to have a deep, unsatisfied, hunger and thirst in his soul that Jesus Christ described in Matthew 5-6.
Matthew 5-6, he called those people blessed are they, which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled. And the person had to have this hunger and his thirst to live in a city where the name of God was not taken in vain.
That person had to have a deep longing to live in a place that where everything that was done was right and not wrong. And Jerusalem, as the holy city, was the right place for that person. And if a person was just content and okay with living his life in a God-rejecting world, if a person was comfortable living in a Jehovah Jesus-ignoring world, well, then Jerusalem, the holy city, was not what he would be looking for.
Because Jerusalem, the holy city, was for those who wanted to live in a city with a higher standard, from what was acceptable because Jerusalem was a special city, because Deuteronomy 12, 11, Deuteronomy 12, 11, Moses said about this city, there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. 2 Chronicles 33, 4, 2 Chronicles 33, 4, the Lord had said, in Jerusalem shall my name be forever. And that was the first reason, the first obstacle that Nehemiah ran into that he could not get enough volunteers because a stricter life of obedience to God was expected for those who wanted to live in the place called the holy city of Jerusalem.
And that caused people to be turned off and back away from wanting to live in Jerusalem. We all should want that. We all should want to live in Jerusalem.
If we were there, we all should have been the ones who say, me, I’ll live, move. I want to live in Jerusalem. Why?
Because 2nd Timothy 2.19, Nevertheless, the foundation of God stand is sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity. Leave it.
1st Peter 1.14, 1st Peter 1.14, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance, but as he which has called you as holy, be ye holy in all manner of living. A holy city is for holy people. Heaven is called the new Jerusalem, and it is for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and want to live a holy life and no longer continue here on earth.
Hebrews 13, 13, Hebrews 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
Because Jesus Christ said when he came, he said about himself in John 8.23, John 8.23, I am from above. I am not of this world. That was the first reason.
The second reason, it wasn’t popular to live in Jerusalem because the city of Jerusalem was the most aided city by the enemies of God. The enemies of God, they didn’t talk about and plan and attack the people in the countryside, but they talked about and planned and attacked the people who lived in Jerusalem. To live in Jerusalem was to like to have a target on your back.
Jerusalem was a city that needed to have 24-hour guarded protection against surprise attacks of the enemies. And people just weren’t willing to expose themselves. They want me to expose myself, my families to this continual danger of living in Jerusalem.
It’s true today. Jerusalem is the most dangerous city in Israel. That was like Israel came to the promised land of Canaan and they immediately were met with wars.
Wars for 40 years. We haven’t seen a war in the desert, but now there’s wars. Oh, we’re going to a place where there are giants in the land of Canaan.
Israel had to confront those giants. Israel had to fight those giants. But if Israel had decided, oh, need said, I’ll go back to the desert, I’m going to turn around, let somebody else have the promised land because the promised land is a promised land of warfare.
Instead, I’ll go back into the sinai desert. You know what? There were no giants back in sinai desert.
There were no wars that Israel had to face in the sinai desert. But as soon as Israel decided to move forward into the promised land, they faced wars and battles. The same is true for us.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 312, 1 Timothy 312, 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy 312, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That verse does not say all that will claim to be born again shall suffer persecution. That verse does not say all they that say they are Christians and go to church shall suffer persecution.
It’s not about what a person says. It’s about a decision that they make to live a godly life, walking with Jesus Christ with a life that they have decided will be separate from a life of sin. To that person, persecution is promised.
And for those who choose to live in Jerusalem, they knew they were choosing to live in a city that is a constant state of war, kind of like the country of Israel. Ever since it was formed in May 14th, 1948, it has been in a state of war. And that’s the second reason people did not want to live in Jerusalem.
By the way, that’s the reason why many Jews around the world say, I don’t want to live in a country that’s in its declared state of war. But the good news about living in Jerusalem was that even though there was a war against Jerusalem, God made a promise in Psalm 46, 4, Psalm 46, 4, There is a river, the streams were of, shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the Tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her.
She shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that right early. To live in Jerusalem was an exciting life of seeing God’s help against the enemies who attacked Jerusalem.
The second reason, this is the second reason people did not want to live in Jerusalem was because they just didn’t want to live in a battle zone. But as believers, we were born again into a battle zone. But Christ is with us.
Exodus 14, 14. Exodus 14, 14. The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.
Tom Cantor’s messages can be listened to and downloaded for free at friendshipwithgod.org. For other free resources, email us at tomcantor at friendshipwithgod.org or call us at 800-247-3051. Join our live services on YouTube by searching Friendship with God with Tom Cantor every Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
What are you doing Sunday nights? Come join Friendship with God radio Bible teacher Tom Cantor of the Friendship with God Fellowship Church every Sunday night at 5:30 p.m. at The Vine at 9336 Abraham Way, Santee, California. Watch and listen live around the world to Tom Cantor Sunday evening on youtube.com by searching for Friendship with God Fellowship or by going to our homepage at friendshipwithgod.org That’s friendshipwithgod.org This program is brought to you by Israel Restoration Ministries.
