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2025 Study of the Book of Nehemiah #9

DEDICATION OF THE WALL OF JERUSALEM

Nehemiah 11:1-12:47

Key Verse 12:43

1. What were the significance and challenges in finding residents for Jerusalem? In what ways did the leaders of the people set an example (11:1a)? How did the rest of the people determine who would live in Jerusalem (1b)? What might have motivated some to volunteer to live in Jerusalem (2)?
2. What can we learn from the list of people who settled in Jerusalem (3-36)? Examine the priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel and Joshua (12:1-26). Why do you think Nehemiah recorded the names of so many people?
3. Who was invited to serve in the dedication ceremony of the wall of Jerusalem (27-29)? How does the role of musicians in this event highlight the importance of music in serving God? What preparations did the priests and Levites make before the dedication ceremony (30)?
4. In what ways did Nehemiah organize the two choirs for the procession and for praising God (31-42)? How do you imagine the atmosphere and emotions of the people on that day (43)? How did the people support the priests and Levites (44-47)?
5. How might this event inspire us to worship, dedicate our work to God, and support one another in faith?

2025 Nehemiah March 23, 2025

DEDICATION OF THE WALL OF JERUSALEM

Nehemiah 11:1-12:47

Key Verse 12:43

And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.

Today’s message is about “Dedication of the Wall of Jerusalem.” The Bible has several records about dedication ceremonies. In 1 Kings chapter 8, we find King Solomon dedicating the temple in Jerusalem after its completion. In 1 Samuel chapter 1, Hannah dedicates her son Samuel, whom she received from God after her earnest prayer. Dedication means an act of setting apart or consecrating persons or things to God. Some churches have a ceremony to dedicate a newborn child. Holding a child dedication ceremony means the parents and the church promise and dedicate themselves before God to raise the child as a child of God. When we dedicate a church building, it means we set apart that building as a holy place where God’s presence dwells. It also means we fully give the building to God’s glory. In the Old Testament era, the priests, the Levites, and the Israelites were all set apart for God. In the New Testament era, all believers in Jesus Christ have been set apart or consecrated for God’s glory. As believers, we are dedicated to God, and we must live for His glory.

Today’s passage shows us how Nehemiah and the people worshiped God and rejoiced in Him at the dedication of the Wall of Jerusalem after completing it. I’d like to speak about the characteristics of this dedication.

First, they purified themselves, the gates, and the wall. Look at verse 30: “When the priests and Levites had purified themselves ceremonially, they purified the people, the gates, and the wall.” This purification marked the beginning of the dedication ceremony. The priests and Levites first purified themselves ceremonially. “Ceremonially purified” here means they made their bodies and clothes clean according to the law. It included ritual sprinkling, the sacrifice of sin offerings, and fasting. After purifying themselves, they purified the people, the gates, and the wall. This ritual purification shows us that we must purify ourselves first when we approach God.

Do you remember when the wall was completed? It was completed on the 25th day of the month of Elul, the sixth month. But they didn’t hold the dedication ceremony immediately. As we’ve learned, they spent the seventh month focusing on rebuilding their spirituality, their relationship with God. God poured spiritual revival upon them, filling them with gratitude and joy. They first prioritized restoring their relationship with God before dedicating the wall. Then, after selecting and settling people in Jerusalem, they held the dedication ceremony. This was the right action before God. They rebuilt the wall to worship God properly in Jerusalem. Without spiritual restoration, we cannot properly worship God, because God looks at our hearts. God desires our hearts to be purified first, and our relationship with Him to be reestablished. What God desires is not sacrifices but our broken and contrite hearts. Last Friday, we had the Young Adults Praise & Worship Night. Andrew Forbes delivered a message based on Psalm 51. He shared that we must come before God with a broken and contrite heart. Psalm 51:17 says, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, you, God, will not despise.” I believe this verse teaches us clearly the attitude with which we must approach God.

Right now, we are gathered before God. Sunday worship is a holy time when we come as we are, repent, and restore our relationship with God. Through Sunday worship, our souls can be revived, and we can receive new strength and joy from God. But what attitude do we have before God right now? Have we purified our bodies and hearts like the priests and Levites in today’s passage? I’m not asking if you sacrificed a lamb this morning, shedding its blood for atonement. Nor am I asking if you fasted or washed your clothes clean this morning. I’m asking whether our hearts are broken and contrite before God.

If our hearts were truly broken and contrite, we would have joyfully prepared ourselves for worship service since last night, waking up refreshed and arriving early with expectant hearts. We would have come energized and focused, ready to fully engage in Sunday worship. Yet, even as we come today, I deeply appreciate and warmly welcome the effort each of you made to be here. My point is this: if we truly want our souls revived and our relationship with God restored, our hearts must be purified and broken and contrite before God during this time of worshiping God. Do you desire to restore your relationship with God today and receive His joy and peace? Then let’s purify our hearts now and wait for God’s grace with a broken and contrite heart.

Second, they worshiped God with songs and music of thanksgiving. There was a group of people who played an especially important role at the dedication ceremony of the Jerusalem wall. Do you know who they were? They were the Levites. Look at verse 27: “At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps, and lyres.” Levites were especially brought to Jerusalem for this dedication ceremony. Verse 28 says the musicians also were brought together from regions around Jerusalem. God specially chose Levites to be fully devoted to His work. The Levites took charge of managing the temple, assisting with purification rituals, teaching the law, and leading praise and musical worship. Among the Levites, the descendants of Aaron became priests. The Levites who had significant roles in the dedication ceremony were musicians in charge of praise and musical instruments. The musicians mentioned here were also Levites. They lived near Jerusalem and served through music ministry whenever needed.

The main purpose of their music ministry here was to joyfully celebrate the dedication. Music gives us joy. Imagine Sunday worship without music. Imagine there’s no praise and worship band team. Imagine there’s no orchestra. Imagine we can’t sing hymns together to praise God. How boring would our worship become? We can worship God joyfully by singing praises. Not only that, God also delights in our praise. Psalm 147:1 says, “Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!” The apostle Paul also commands in Ephesians 5:19, “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.”

What do you think we’ll do when we go to the kingdom of heaven? Will you listen to my Sunday message? Absolutely not. I’m honestly relieved that I won’t be preaching the Sunday message there. Because we’ll be with Jesus, we can hear God’s word directly from Him. We won’t need Bible study or reflections of repentance. Because we’ll have glorious resurrected bodies, we won’t sin or repent anymore. Praise the Lord! We won’t need to preach the gospel either because everyone there believes in Jesus. So, what will we do in heaven? Some people say they’d like to play tennis every day in heaven. Others want to play joyfully with animals like puppies, rabbits, tigers, lions, and bears. Some dream of water-skiing with dolphins. Imagining these things is joyful. But Revelation 14:2-3 gives a clue about what we’ll do: we’ll sing a new song before God’s throne. When we get to heaven, we’ll all gather together to sing praises to God. We’ll sing a beautiful Hallelujah chorus. We don’t need to worry if we’re tone-deaf. Because we’ll all have glorious resurrected bodies, all tone-deaf people will be corrected and will have beautiful singing voices. We’ll all be able to sing “The Prayer” wonderfully, like Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion.

The reason God’s word is at the center of our worship is that we are still sinful and in need of transformation. While we live on this earth, God’s word is essential for us because it’s the standard for our lives and the channel through which the Holy Spirit works. During worship, we must listen to the sermon, discover our sins, and repent. But praising God during worship service is just as important as the sermon. We begin our worship with praise songs. Our Praise and Worship Band Team starts praise at 11 a.m. Preparing our hearts for worship through praise has great significance because worship service itself is praising God. However, some people misunderstand praise time as just preparation time for worship. They think it’s simply a time when people gather in the worship hall. Perhaps this happens because we don’t fully recognize the importance of praise. Praise is given to God. It’s not primarily for us but for God. Let’s remember that our worship begins with praise songs.

We also need to consider the importance of the servants who lead praise songs to God. Among us, there are many who have musical talent. We need to actively encourage them and help them develop their gifts for praise. We must help praise ministers develop a deep relationship with God and hold sound theology. Let’s give a big round of applause for our orchestra and band teams.

Third, they declared God’s glory and victory and rejoiced in Him. The way Nehemiah led the dedication of the wall was very impressive. Nehemiah had the leaders, priests, and Levites who were in charge of music go up on the wall. He divided them into two groups. The first group, led by the priest Ezra, proceeded to the right, toward the Dung Gate. They passed the Fountain Gate, went up the steps of the City of David, passed David’s palace, and arrived at the Water Gate on the east. The second group was led by Nehemiah, and they proceeded in the opposite direction. They passed the Tower of the Ovens toward the Broad Wall. They also passed the Gate of Ephraim, the Jeshanah Gate, the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, and the Tower of the Hundred, up to the Sheep Gate. They stopped at the Gate of the Guard. It seems that both groups started at the Valley Gate and eventually met at the temple.

Why did Nehemiah have the leaders and choirs go up on the wall and proceed around it in two groups while singing praise and giving thanks to God? It was to proclaim God’s glory and victory to the whole world. If they had the processions inside the wall, those outside would not have been able to see them. Outside the wall were enemies who had tried persistently to stop the rebuilding of the wall. After all their opposition, they were already discouraged and afraid upon seeing the wall completed. They were probably thinking about how they could attack Israel again and destroy them. But then they had to watch this grand dedication ceremony. They had to see a great number of leaders, priests, and Levites walking on the wall, playing musical instruments, singing, and praising God. When the Israelites started rebuilding the wall, the enemies mocked them, saying, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!” But now, after the wall was completed, they had to face the reality that the wall was strong enough for not just a fox, but for many people to march upon without any problem. Nehemiah declared God’s glory before everyone. He revealed God’s victory to the enemies outside the wall. How deeply moved and joyful must the Israelites have been at that moment as they experienced God’s victory!

These two procession groups eventually met at the temple and praised God together. Look at verse 43: “And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.” The Israelites offered great sacrifices to God and rejoiced greatly because of the great joy God had given them. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of their rejoicing in Jerusalem was so great it could be heard far away. God wants to give us this great joy as well. When our spirituality, our families, and our church are restored by God’s power, we will experience great joy from God. When the power of Satan that attacks us is destroyed and we experience the victory God gives us, we will rejoice greatly. When our lives bear abundant fruit in God, we will experience great joy. Do you also want to experience this great joy? If so, then persevere in faith and continue the good fight of faith. God will surely grant you the joy of victory.

Fourth, the Israelites joyfully obeyed God’s law and gave offerings to support the ministering priests and Levites. It seems that before the dedication ceremony, the Israelites were not faithfully giving offerings for the ministering priests and Levites. Probably because their lives were difficult, they didn’t have much financial margin to give offerings. But after experiencing God’s grace, they began voluntarily offering in accordance with God’s law. Before, probably they thought it was a waste to support the priests and Levites because they seemed to be doing little work. But after this dedication ceremony, they realized how much these ministers actually did. Also, after experiencing spiritual restoration through the ministry of priests and Levites, they naturally developed thankful hearts and started giving offerings willingly.

Actually, offering to God doesn’t depend on how much income we have. It depends on our hearts of gratitude toward God. One church member went to his pastor and asked him to pray for his business. He promised to faithfully give his tithe if his business succeeded. The pastor prayed, and God blessed his business to be successful. For a while, he faithfully gave his tithe. But one day, he came back to the pastor to talk about his tithing. He told the pastor he was troubled because his tithe amount had become so large. He asked if it would be okay to give less than the tithe. Then the pastor replied, “Should I then pray that your income will be reduced by half?” The member quickly responded, “Oh no, pastor! I will faithfully give the proper tithe.” In reality, giving an offering to God is not an investment to receive God’s blessings. We give offerings to God out of gratitude for the blessings He has already given us.

It’s God’s design that both full-time ministers and lay ministers serve together. God didn’t give the Levites land as their inheritance. Instead, He had them serve Him fully, with their material needs supplied by other tribes of Israel. Among our church members, there are those who wholeheartedly serve God’s ministry. They work hard in their workplaces and also serve diligently at church. They supply the financial needs for God’s ministry through their own work. In UBF, we have many excellent self-supporting missionaries. I also served as a self-supporting missionary in Venezuela. During the day, I worked hard, and at night I served God’s ministry. So, I deeply understand the hardships of self-supporting ministers.

Later, God called me to be a full-time minister. Full-time ministers have their own roles as full-time ministers. Self-supporting ministers also have their own roles as self-supporting ministers. God designed full-time ministers and self-supporting ministers to work together to build up His Church. I believe that if we humbly accept and obey God’s plan, God will amazingly bless our ministry.

Today, we learned about the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem. First, we must purify ourselves. Second, we must worship God with songs and music of thanksgiving. Third, we must proclaim God’s glory and victory and rejoice in Him. Fourth, we must serve God’s ministry by working together according to God’s plan. I pray that each of us may worship God wholeheartedly as a living sacrifice. Amen.