1Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem. And the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem the holy city, while nine out of tena remained in the other towns. 2And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.
3These are the chiefs of the province who lived in Jerusalem; but in the towns of Judah everyone lived on his property in their towns: Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the descendants of Solomon’s servants. 4And in Jerusalem lived certain of the sons of Judah and of the sons of Benjamin. Of the sons of Judah: Athaiah the son of Uzziah, son of Zechariah, son of Amariah, son of Shephatiah, son of Mahalalel, of the sons of Perez; 5and Maaseiah the son of Baruch, son of Col-hozeh, son of Hazaiah, son of Adaiah, son of Joiarib, son of Zechariah, son of the Shilonite. 6All the sons of Perez who lived in Jerusalem were 468 valiant men.
7And these are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu the son of Meshullam, son of Joed, son of Pedaiah, son of Kolaiah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ithiel, son of Jeshaiah, 8and his brothers, men of valor, 928.b 9Joel the son of Zichri was their overseer; and Judah the son of Hassenuah was second over the city.
10Of the priests: Jedaiah the son of Joiarib, Jachin, 11Seraiah the son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, ruler of the house of God, 12and their brothers who did the work of the house, 822; and Adaiah the son of Jeroham, son of Pelaliah, son of Amzi, son of Zechariah, son of Pashhur, son of Malchijah, 13and his brothers, heads of fathers’ houses, 242; and Amashsai, the son of Azarel, son of Ahzai, son of Meshillemoth, son of Immer, 14and their brothers, mighty men of valor, 128; their overseer was Zabdiel the son of Haggedolim.
15And of the Levites: Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, son of Azrikam, son of Hashabiah, son of Bunni; 16and Shabbethai and Jozabad, of the chiefs of the Levites, who were over the outside work of the house of God; 17and Mattaniah the son of Mica, son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, who was the leader of the praise,c who gave thanks, and Bakbukiah, the second among his brothers; and Abda the son of Shammua, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun. 18All the Levites in the holy city were 284.
19The gatekeepers, Akkub, Talmon and their brothers, who kept watch at the gates, were 172. 20And the rest of Israel, and of the priests and the Levites, were in all the towns of Judah, every one in his inheritance. 21But the temple servants lived on Ophel; and Ziha and Gishpa were over the temple servants.
22The overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi the son of Bani, son of Hashabiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Mica, of the sons of Asaph, the singers, over the work of the house of God. 23For there was a command from the king concerning them, and a fixed provision for the singers, as every day required. 24And Pethahiah the son of Meshezabel, of the sons of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king’s sided in all matters concerning the people.
25And as for the villages, with their fields, some of the people of Judah lived in Kiriath-arba and its villages, and in Dibon and its villages, and in Jekabzeel and its villages, 26and in Jeshua and in Moladah and Beth-pelet, 27in Hazar-shual, in Beersheba and its villages, 28in Ziklag, in Meconah and its villages, 29in En-rimmon, in Zorah, in Jarmuth, 30Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages, Lachish and its fields, and Azekah and its villages. So they encamped from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom. 31The people of Benjamin also lived from Geba onward, at Michmash, Aija, Bethel and its villages, 32Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah, 33Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim, 34Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat, 35Lod, and Ono, the valley of craftsmen. 36And certain divisions of the Levites in Judah were assigned to Benjamin.
Chapter 11 describes the list of those who volunteered to live in Jerusalem. Are there parallels we can draw for Christians who dwell in the New City of God?
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The great principle to remember in reading the Old Testament is that what happens to Israel on a physical level pictures what is happening to us on the spiritual level. God too is a builder. The New Testament tells us that He is building a city with inhabitants called the New Jerusalem. It is not like the old one, made of bricks and mortar, but a new city built of spiritual stones–living stones, according to the New Testament (1 Peter 2:5). It is intended to be inhabited by redeemed people. If you draw that parallel, you will begin to see some of the teaching of this passage in Nehemiah.
Chapter 11 is the account of Nehemiah’s efforts to repopulate Jerusalem. Although the city wall had been rebuilt at this point, Nehemiah discovered that he had a problem. He had a fine, well-defended city–but without people! His solution was to draft families to move there, for a capital must be inhabited since it is the heart of the nation. As the governor, he simply issued an edict: One out of every ten people living in the suburbs must move to Jerusalem. He went through the towns and numbered the people, counting them off by tens, and then they threw a die with ten numbers on it. The man who had the same number that came up on the die was expected to move his family into Jerusalem.
If you read this carefully, it is apparent that when a man was chosen to move into Jerusalem, he was permitted to decline if he wanted to. That is because God wanted volunteers for this. So a man could be chosen but could decide against moving. Then the lot would be cast again and another name chosen. Sooner or later someone would be found who consented freely to go. According to the account, those who chose to go were commended by the people. They honored them because they volunteered to do what God called them to do.
The same principle applies in the church today. According to the New Testament, we are all called into the ministry–all of us! The ministry belongs to the saints! The minute you become a Christian, you are moved into God’s new Jerusalem. You are asked to take up labor there, to do work according to the spiritual gift God has given you. But you must also volunteer to do it. God does not force His people to do what they are asked to do. He gave us all spiritual gifts, but He does not force us to use them. Yet if you want to be respected or honored and commended at last by the Lord Himself and by all His people, then the wise thing is to volunteer to perform the realm of ministry He has opened up for you.
God calls and equips His people to serve voluntarily. Will we miss the grandeur of His calling to minister both in the Church and the world, by default?
I think the parallels we can draw would be that in general it seems like about a tenth or some small percentage of people in general do the majority of the serving at the church. I’m not sure if that was the exact reason a tenth lived in Jerusalem but that is what I suspect and thus the parallel I would make. I liked when the guest speaker we had a few weeks ago talked about everyone in the community doing their part to rebuild the wall. I would love to see the community of God take more ownership of God’s Kingdom and look to serve. That is what I would hope for God’s new city.
The parallelism I drew from chapter 11 is we are called to live in the city of God, in the new Jerusalem. It’s similar to the old time because even though we are called to do so, we always have the option to decline entering His kingdom. There are many things that stop us from entering and answering His calling for me, but I pray that God would allow me to hear and discern His calling for me.
God calls us to this New Jerusalem by individually choosing and selecting us. But we also saw that even though he specifically chose certain people, he wanted volunteers. It’s sad to see that only 1/10 volunteered to go out in obedience to live in the New Jerusalem. That’s so true now, if we relate new Jerusalem to ministry. There are so many of us the come to church, listen to the service, eat dinner after, attend occasional get-together a, attend small groups, etc., but there are a small amount that serve. The reality that “the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few” is sobering. I pray that we would walk in obedience to the ministries that God has called us to.
Some parallels between the volunteers in the past and Christians today is the willingness to step out into the unknown and be placed in uncomfortable situations for the will of God. God doesn’t want to force us to follow Him and gives us a choice (similar to how the people had a choice to refuse or move).
From brother Don
It seems to me that there are some parallels we can draw for Christians dwelling in the New City of God from those who volunteered to live in Jerusalem. First of all, “the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem,” (Neh. 11:1a). This would indicate to me that on this side of the cross, in the Church Age, those that would lead God’s people would be the first to dwell in His City. These would be those that most exemplify a Christ-like lifestyle and attitude- the building blocks of this spiritual City.
The next parallel I noticed was the small percentage of the population that actually inhabited the city. This would indicate to me the implication of a sparsely populated City of God today. Only about ten percent of the people actually inhabited Jerusalem. In regards to the kingdom of God, Jesus said, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able,” (Luke 13:24). And elsewhere He states, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” (Matt. 22:14).
The rest of Nehemiah 11 lists those that live within the city and then those outside of the city, indicating that God knows those who are His individually by name. The names of those dwelling within the City of God are written in the Book of Life. What a glorious thought that is!
Heavenly Father, thank You for calling us to inhabit Your eternal City! I pray that we would abide in You, and that we would “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling,” knowing that it is by Your grace alone that we have been saved. Bind our hearts to You, oh God, and dwell among Your people, “for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended,” (Isaiah 60:20b).