Latest / Scripture Central / From Captivity to Covenant | Ezra; Nehemiah | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | July 27-Aug 2

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From Captivity to Covenant | Ezra; Nehemiah | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | July 27-Aug 2 · Scripture Central

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What is God putting into your heart to do?
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When God puts something into your heart, it changes you.
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We want to do the things that God is telling us to do, but
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there's obstacles. Sometimes the biggest obstacles
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we face are the mocking voices of others, and sometimes it's
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the internal discouragement that we give ourselves.
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But when God has put something into our heart, we keep on
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going. When we understand God's word,
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it changes our hearts. That's what the power of God
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looks like. How would you feel if you were
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reading Scripture and all of a sudden you found your name right
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in the verse and there was a prophecy that you were going to
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do some remarkable thing? Like maybe it said Jessica of
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Provo will become mayor of the city, giving free parking to
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everyone. I mean, it'd be amazing, right?
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Like, holy cow, I'm in the Scriptures.
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And according to the historian Josephus, something like that
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happened to Cyrus, the king of Persia.
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So before we go into this story, let's just back up and make sure
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we're familiar with the history of the ancient Near East.
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As you recall, around the year 600 BC, Babylon was threatening
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to come destroy Jerusalem. That's why Lehi and his family
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were warned of the Lord believe. But within a decade or so, the
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city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, the temple was in
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ruins, and the Jews were in exile.
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So there's several decades of Babylonian captivity.
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But in the year 539 BC, Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated
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Babylon, and the geographical region of Judea now became
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controlled by Persia. And so Josephus tells us that
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Cyrus read the book which Isaiah left behind him of his
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prophecies. For Isaiah said that God had
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spoken. My will is that Cyrus, whom I
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have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send
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back my people to their own land and build my temple.
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This was foretold by Isaiah 140 years before the temple was
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demolished. So here Josephus is referring to
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Isaiah chapter 44 verse 28 where Cyrus is mentioned by name as
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one who would help rebuild Jerusalem.
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Josephus continues, when Cyrus read this, he called for the
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most eminent Jews that were in Babylon and gave them leave to
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go back to their own country and to rebuild their city, Jerusalem
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and the temple of God. Now we don't have any
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contemporary Persian records confirming this specific story.
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It would be awesome if we had a journal entry from Cyrus saying,
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wow, I was reading when I say it today.
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It was crazy. But what we do know from other
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historical sources is that Cyrus gave his subjects religious
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liberty. The Cyrus Cylinder, which today
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is in the British Museum, says I am Cyrus, king of the world.
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I returned to many sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris,
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which have been in ruins for a long time.
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The images which used to live there in and established for
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them permanent sanctuaries. I also gathered all their former
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inhabitants and returned them to their habitations.
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So the book of Ezra is beginning right where Chronicles ends with
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Cyrus the Great giving a proclamation allowing the Jews
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to return and rebuild Jerusalem. Now think about it.
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Cyrus is not part of the House of Israel.
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He's not a member of the Lord's true church, but God still had a
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work for him to do. That reminds me of something
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President Oakes recently said. He was quoting another apostle
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saying God is using more than one people for the
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accomplishment of his great and marvelous work.
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It is too vast, too arduous for any one people.
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So just like God used Cyrus to help the Jewish people, God is
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using people today from a variety of different
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organizations, different churches to accomplish the work
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that He's trying to do. The Lord also spoke directly to
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Cyrus. We read the saith the Lord to
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his anointed to Cyrus. Remember that in Hebrew, the
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Anointed 1 means Messiah. This is the only time in
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Scripture that a foreign ruler receives this title.
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Cyrus is a lowercase M Messiah. He's setting the Jews free and
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opening the gates of Jerusalem. He points us to the capital M
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Messiah, Christ, who sets us free from sin and death and
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opens the gates to heaven. So today we'll be focusing on
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approximately 100 years of what happens after this declaration
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from Cyrus as we counted in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
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Now today we have the books of Ezra and Nehemiah AS2 separate
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books, but originally they were one telling this story.
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So let's first do a quick overview of what's happening
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because I think the plot line of these books can be a little
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confusing. In about the year 538 BC, you
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have 50,000 Jewish exiles returning to Jerusalem under the
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Jewish leaders Aruba Bell. And within a couple of years,
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they've laid the foundation of the temple.
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But then opposition comes. And so building the temple is
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delayed. That's when God raises up
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prophets named Haggai and Zechariah.
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In about the year 520 BC, they encourage the Jews to finish the
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temple. And by 516 BC, the Second temple
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is completed. And it's dedicated with joy.
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So it's sometimes called the Second Temple.
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And that's to distinguish it from Solomon's temple.
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So psalmist said will be the First Temple.
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Second temple is the one built by Zerubbabel.
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And then we have a 60 year gap in the chronology.
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That's when the book of Esther takes place, which we'll talk
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about in our next class. So as we're reading the book of
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Ezra, though, when we flip the page from Ezra 6 to Ezra 7,
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we've jumped forward in time approximately 60 years.
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It's Ford 48 BC. The temple is now standing, but
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the people's hearts are in disrepair.
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So Ezra the scribe returns from Babylon with a mission to teach
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the and call the people to live faithfully.
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And then about 10 years later, we meet Nehemiah, who feels a
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calling from God to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem.
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So it's kind of a quick overview of the storyline of the books of
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Ezra and Nehemiah. Now, scholars love these books.
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In fact, literally dozens of books have been written about
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Ezra and Nehemiah. But for all the research that's
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been done, there's still some basic things we don't know about
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these books. For example, we're not sure who
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wrote them. It might have been Ezra, might
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have been Nehemiah, might have been another person or group of
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people who were working from their records and from other
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records. We won't be able to talk about
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every detail that scholars love to point out out with Ezra and
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Nehemiah today, but I hope to talk about 3 people and three
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key events. We'll see Zerubbabel rebuilding
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the temple, Ezra restoring the law, and Nehemiah repairing the
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walls. So like I mentioned earlier, the
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book of Ezra begins where Second Chronicles ends with a statement
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from Cyrus saying the Lord, the God of heaven has charged me to
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build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
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Let any of those among you who are of his people, may their God
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be with them, go up to Jerusalem in Judah and rebuild the House
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of the Lord. Now, you might remember that
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Chronicles ends in Hebrew in a little bit of a strange way with
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just the words and go up. And it doesn't tell us what
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we're going up to do. But here Ezra adds and makes it
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clear that we're going up to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
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So Zerubabel leads 50,000 of the Jewish people back for this
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important effort. We read in the book of Haggai
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that Zerubabel is the governor of Judah.
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And while I don't want to get too bogged down in genealogy, I
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know that's not people's favorite parts of the
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scriptures. Zerubabel's genealogy is pretty
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interesting. It's listed in Matthew chapter
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one, the first chapter of the New Testament.
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If you start going back, you see that Zerubbabel's ancestors
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include Josiah, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Solomon, David.
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These are people that we're familiar with.
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Zerubbabel is an inheritor of the throne of David.
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And then if we start moving towards us in time, we see that
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one of Zerubbabel's descendants is Jesus Christ.
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So once Zerubbabel gets back into Jerusalem, the first
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priority is worship. It's going to take some time to
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rebuild the temple. So first they start with an
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altar. We read Zerubbabel set out to
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build the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings
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on it as prescribed in the Law of Moses.
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It's an interesting pattern. Adam and Eve, when they left the
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Garden of Eden, they built an altar so that they could
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worship. Lehigh, right after leaving
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Jerusalem, built an altar. It's an interesting pattern.
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God's people, whenever they're starting over, begin with
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sacrifice and with worship. And that's exactly what Zerubbel
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did. So he starts by building the
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altar. But he didn't stop there.
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As we keep reading, in the second year after their arrival
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in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel began work on the House of the Lord,
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and within a short time they completed the foundation.
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And so when they had a special celebration for the foundation
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of the temple, there was a great joy but also another reaction.
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Take a look at Ezra chapter 3, verse 11.
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The people responded with a great shout when they praised
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the Lord because the foundation of the House of the Lord had
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been laid. But many of the priests and
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Levites and heads of family, old people who had seen the 1st
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house on its foundations wept with a loud voice when they saw
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this house. For those who had never seen a
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temple before, it was incredible.
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But for the older people who remembered what Solomon's temple
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had looked like, it was actually kind of disappointing.
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And I love Ezra chapter 3. I hope you mark it in your
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scriptures because it captures attention that we all feel in
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our lives sometimes. Maybe when God is beginning
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something new, there's hope and joy for what is to come.
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But we also sometimes might grieve at what's been lost.
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And Ezra chapter 3 reminds us that both of those feelings can
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coexist at the same time. Now, whenever you're doing the
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work of the Lord, you can always expect opposition, and that's
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how it was for Zerubbabel. We read when the adversaries of
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Judah heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to
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the Lord, they approached Zerubabel and said, let us build
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with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been
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sacrificing to Him ever since the king of Assyria brought us
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here. Now we're going to do a quick
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pause and review our history. If we went back to Second Kings
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chapter 17, this is approximately the year 720 BC,
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so roughly 200 years before this.
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That's when Assyria scatters the 10 tribes.
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And the way that Assyria would do things is they would conquer
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a territory, take the people from that territory, move them
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to all the different spots, and then take people from all the
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different spots and move them to the territory that had been
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conquered. So that's what's happened here.
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The people that are now coming to Zerubbabel, their ancestors
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had been resettled into the land of Samaria, which was the
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capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel.
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So the question is, in the intervening 2 years, have they
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been totally faithful to the God of Israel?
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But the Israelites had already fallen into idolatry.
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Now they have people from other nations who have come in.
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Have they started to fall further away from the worship of
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the true God? We don't know for sure what
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their situation is. But what we do know is that
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Zerubbabel refused their offer. He said, you shall have no part
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with us in building a house to our God.
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So let's pause there for a second.
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Is it possible that Zerubbabel is being too protective?
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It's possible, right? Maybe he could have said yes,
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come and see, come and help. We want to introduce you to the
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missionaries. And this could have been a great
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opportunity to bring lots more people to the worship of God.
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That's possible. But is it also possible that
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there was a genuine danger that maybe if they started to mix
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together, it would weaken the people's devotion to the true
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God? It's also possible.
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But either way, there's a rift that happens, and it continues
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throughout history here. When it comes to the building of
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the temple, we read the people of the land discouraged the
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people of Judah and made them afraid to build.
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Now let's pause this story and move forward in time 500 years.
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The descendants of the people who lived in Samaria at the time
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we're talking about, they are now called Samaritans.
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So when Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the well, this is part
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of the history in that conversation.
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That's why the Samaritan woman is shocked that Jesus isn't even
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talking to her. She says, how is it that you, a
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Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?
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Jesus answers. If you knew the gift of God and
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who it is that is saying to you give me a drink, you would have
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asked him and he would have given you living water.
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The woman replied, You have no bucket and the well is deep,
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where do you get that living water?
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Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us the
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well? Jesus responded, Everyone who
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drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who
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drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.
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The conversation continues and the woman ends by testifying
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that she knows Jesus is the Messiah.
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So the book of Ezra shows us how the rift begins.
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Jesus, it shows us how it ends. But if we go back to
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Zerubbabel's time and the opposition to building the
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temple, we read the people of the land bribed officials to
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frustrate Zerubbabel's plan to build a temple.
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They also wrote a letter to the king of Persia.
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The letter said the Jews who came up from you to us have gone
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to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that
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rebellious and wicked city. Now may it be known to the king
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that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, they will
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not pay tribute, custom or toll and the royal revenue will be
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reduced. So this is obviously propaganda.
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It's not true, but it works. The king of Persia writes a
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letter saying, well, let's stop the temple building.
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We got to investigate this a little more.
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And it's interesting how history repeats itself.
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Several years ago, the church bought a beautiful piece of
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property near Preston, England, with the goal of building a
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temple near Preston. But there was opposition to the
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building of the temple. The local City Council really
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wanted that parcel of land to be for employers, for business.
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And so when the church applied for a rezoning to use it for
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religious purposes, they said absolutely not.
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We want jobs, not a temple. We will never rezone this land.
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Well, there was a local member of the church.
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His name was Peter. Peter was also the architect for
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the Preston Temple. So President Hinckley gave Peter
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the assignment. You got to work on this.
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And Peter sees all of the opposition and he writes
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President Hinckley back. He's like a President Hinckley,
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why don't you come help? President is like, Nope, sorry.
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This is all you, Peter. So there's going to be a meeting
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for local citizens to talk about the temple, and Peter supposed
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to go and be the representative for the church.
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The entire stake has a fast for him.
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How would you feel if you knew your stake was fasting for you?
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You're walking in to a group of people that really have no
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interest in what you're about to say.
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So Peter began telling a little bit of background about temples.
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And then all of a sudden, the Holy Ghost prompted him to say
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something that he was not planning to say.
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He just asked, has anybody here ever visited one of our temples?
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One hand went up a man in the back of the room, Peter, I had
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no idea what the man would say, but he Guinea felt impressed to
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call on the man. So then the man said, I've been
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to one of your temples. It was beautiful, first class.
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The landscaping was superb and the people were wonderful.
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Then turning to his neighbors, he said firmly, I support this
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proposal. The temple will be the best
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neighbor you'll ever have, Peter later recounted.
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It was as if someone had raised a baton.
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One by one, people nodded in agreement.
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Voices that had opposed the project began saying, yes, we
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will support you. The chairman, who is so
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energetically led the opposition, was the last to
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speak. He looked at me and said, Peter,
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not only will we support you, but what more can we do to help
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you think about that? The same community that had once
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said no, never now said, how can we help?
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That's what the power of God looks like now in Zerubbabel's
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day. In our day, there's opposition
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when we're doing the work of the Lord.
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Sometimes it's in something big like building a temple, and
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sometimes it takes place in our own lives with whatever things
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we are trying to build. So I just want you to take a
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moment and consider this question.
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What kinds of opposition do people face today when they're
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trying to live their faith? I was the only member of the
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church in my classroom for many years when I went to school.
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And many times I was invited to these parties.
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I felt very uncomfortable. And they just hand me this cup
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that looked like orange juice. And they're like, here you go,
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you should drink this. And I said, no, I'm not going to
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drink this. And I got really mad.
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And my friends were like, don't get mad.
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I'm just like, no, like, you know, I don't drink alcohol.
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You know that I don't do this. I immediately like called my dad
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and I said like, I need to leave.
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And their policy with my family is like, whatever happens, if
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you don't feel comfortable, call me.
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I'll pick you up no problem, no questions asked.
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Thank you. That's that's real, real
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opposition. The rest of the world or the
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community you're in maybe doesn't observe the Sabbath or
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business is open and it can just feel, I think when you're in
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that space, like no one's pressuring you to do it, but it
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can feel like everybody's doing it, like it's fine.
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A. Subtle cultural pressure.
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Yeah. Thank you.
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So we shouldn't be surprised when opposition comes into our
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lives. But when things get hard,
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remember, we worship a God who says my grace is all you need.
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My power works best in weakness. And I testify that that's true.
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When we're weak, God will strengthen us.
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And that was the case for Zerubabel.
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Eventually the Persians figured out this was just propaganda.
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They wrote back and said keep going on the rebuilding project.
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It's actually a little bit of a longer story.
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The books Haggai and Zechariah that we'll talk about in a
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future class go into a few more details about the building of
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the temple. But to make a Long story short,
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eventually the temple is built and when it is, we read the
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people of Israel celebrated the dedication of this House of God
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with rejoicing. So Ezra chapter 6 ends with the
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temple dedication in about the year 516 BC.
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And like I mentioned earlier, when we flip the page to Chapter
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7, we've skipped 60 years of history, and we get from the
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story of Zerubbabel rebuilding the temple to the story of Ezra
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restoring the law. So by the time Ezra comes back
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on the scene, the Exiles have been there for some time.
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Things are good as far as the temple goes, but maybe not quite
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as good as far as the people's spiritual devotion.
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So God called Ezra to restore this devotion to God's Word.
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And Ezra was just the right person for the job we read.
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Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do
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it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel.
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His whole heart is bound up in the Scriptures.
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He wants to read them, to study them, to live them, to teach
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them, and he was a powerful teacher.
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The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are connected, and so one of the
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best places that we can see Ezra in action is actually in
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Nehemiah chapter 8. Here we read all the people
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gathered together. They told Ezra the scribe to
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bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had given
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to Israel. Ezra the priest brought the Law
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before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear
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with understanding. He read from it facing the
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square from early morning until midday.
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So if you thought 3 hour church was too long, I don't know if
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you would have liked Ezra's approach.
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But the people loved it, and it says something to me about
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Ezra's skills and abilities, the people's desire to hear the Word
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and the power of God's Word. Now, Ezra wasn't the only person
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teaching. In fact, we read additional
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teachers also helped the people understand the law.
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They read from the book, from the law of God with
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interpretation. They gave the sense so that the
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people understood the reading. That's what good gospel people,
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teachers do. They give the sense they help
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people really understand the word because when we understand
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God's Word, it changes our hearts.
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And that's what happened to this people.
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We read, all the people wept when they heard the words of the
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law. Now, does this remind you of any
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speeches in the Book of Mormon where people hear powerful
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message from the word of God and then start crying?
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If you're not sure yet, I'll give you another hint.
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We read Ezra the Scribe stood on a wooden platform that had been
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made for the purpose of speaking to the people.
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That reminds us of King Benjamin, who had a platform
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constructed so that he could speak to his people.
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And there are more connections. We read that in Ezra's case,
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after hearing the law, the people said because of all this,
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we make a firm agreement in writing that reminds us of King
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Benjamin's people who made a covenant to follow God and keep
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his commandments. And I know what some of you are
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thinking to yourself. Wow, this is so interesting.
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I wish I could learn more about the connections between Ezra and
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King Benjamin, which granted, I've linked to a great article
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on this topic on our course website.
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But for now, I just want us to think about Ezra.
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Ezra had said his it's hard to study the law of the Lord and to
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do it and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel.
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It sounds kind of commonplace to say, but the scriptures really
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do have the answers to the problems that we face.
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Ezra's people were in some sticky situations and the
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scriptures gave them guidance. It's the same for us today.
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We all know that the right answer usually is read your
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scriptures. But can we be honest with each
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other for a moment? Let's talk what's going well
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with your Scripture study? How could it be improved?
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Have you taken the time recently to really think about your
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studies? And if you're on the track of
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Ezra, to deeply love to set your heart on God's Word.
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In 2010 through 12, my husband and I served in Copenhagen,
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Denmark, and we had Elder Bednar come to our mission and he
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filled it. All kinds of questions.
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And then he told us what he has done.
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He said, I have a virtual library of Book of Mormons and
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every time I want to look for something specific, I'll buy one
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of the inexpensive little Book of Mormons.
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And I will right in the front what I would like to learn this,
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this time I read the Book of Mormon and then that Book of
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Mormon becomes powerful in that particular subject.
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And I have tried that and I, I have probably been through 8 or
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10 Book of Mormons myself. And I would have to say that it
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opens my eyes differently to the Book of Mormon when I read it.
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I love that idea, thank you. Several years ago, I was really
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looking for some answers and I knew that by going to my
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scriptures I would find them. And so I really dedicated myself
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to a serious study of reading the scriptures.
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As I read, I've started to receive a lot of answers and
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direction. It didn't come all at once.
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It kind of just came little by little.
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And I look at where I'm at today and I'm in a place that feels
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very stuck and I'm, I feel like I'm there's something coming or
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I'm seeking for something but I'm not sure exactly what it is.
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And I probably should remind myself to go back and do what I
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was doing before. I have been reading, I am
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studying, but maybe not quite with the intent or with the
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questions that I had before that was helping me to find purpose
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and direction. Yeah, for me, I think one of the
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biggest keys for successful scripture studies to really have
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a purpose when you're studying. Sometimes if you're a full time
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missionary, there's people that you're teaching and so you have
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this big purpose in your scriptures that I'm going to go
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to the scriptures to find answers for them.
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But then I come home from my mission and it's like, oh, OK,
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well, why am I reading the scriptures?
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So whether it's, you know, picking a fresh copy of the book
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of More Money and having a specific thing that I'm looking
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for or just in my daily scripture study in my own life,
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going with the question, it can be really powerful.
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And if you're interested, on the course website, I've linked to a
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list of different study techniques.
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Sometimes I found that I can just get in a rut.
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It's not that what I'm doing is bad, but it just gets a little
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repetitive. And so to mix it up to have a
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new thing, a new topic, or a new approach to study can be really
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useful. So there's great power that
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comes when we, like Ezra, set our hearts on the word of the
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Lord. Now let's turn from Ezra
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restoring the law to Nehemiah repairing the walls.
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So we were just in Nehemiah chapter 8.
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Let's flip back to Nehemiah chapter 1, where we're first
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introduced to Nehemiah. It's about the year 450 BC
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Persia is still ruling the world, and its king is
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Artaxerxes. So Nehemiah is a cup bearer in
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Artaxerxes court. And when you hear about being a
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cupbearer, that probably doesn't sound that great.
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It's like the guy who carries around a cup.
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But in context, this was a really important position.
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Nehemiah is sort of like the royal food tester.
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He's part of the inner circle. He's not just like the King's
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waiter or something like that. So one day some visitors from
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Jerusalem come and Nehemiah talks to them and says, hey, how
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are things going? But the news isn't good.
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They say the survivors there in the province who escaped
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captivity are in great trouble and shame.
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The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and it's gates have been
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destroyed by fire. Nehemiah said.
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When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for
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days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
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His grief was so deep that it carried into his work when he
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stood before the king. The king noticed his sorrow and
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asked, Why is your face sad since you were not sick?
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This can only be the sadness of the heart.
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Nehemiah said, Why should my face not be sad when the city,
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the place of my ancestors graves, lies in waste and its
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gates have been destroyed by fire?
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The king said, What do you request?
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And I love Nehemiah's next words.
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He said, So I prayed to the God of heaven.
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Can you picture the scene? Nehemiah's having a conversation
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with the king, but at the same time he's having a conversation
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with the true king. Have you ever been in a crucial
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conversation and you're trying to stay focused on the
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conversation but also be praying?
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Lord, you got to help me with this.
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That's what Nehemiah is doing. He said, if it pleases the king,
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send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors graves, so that I
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may rebuild it. And the king said yes, he gave
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Nehemiah some time off and some resources.
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And so Nehemiah begins one of the great restoration projects
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of the entire Bible. Just like with Zerubbabel's
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temple, we can learn lessons from Nehemiah building the wall
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that apply to us in whatever good things we're trying to
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build in our lives. And I will highlight three
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specific lessons from Nehemiah. First, listen for what God puts
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into your heart. So when Nehemiah arrived, one of
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the first things he did was survey the walls.
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And scholars today aren't 100% certain what the walls of the
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ancient city of Jerusalem would have looked like in terms of
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their size or dimensions, but they were probably about 1 to 1
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1/2 miles in length, 20 to 30 feet in height and several feet
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in width. So to rebuild the walls, this is
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no small task. But to Nehemiah, this is more
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than just a community building project.
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Nehemiah said. I was doing what God had put
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into my heart to do for Jerusalem.
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What is God putting into your heart to do?
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It reminds me of something that we talked about back with the
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creation. We talked about the process of
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spiritual creation. We looked at this quote from
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Elder Richard G Scott. He said you need a retreat of
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peace and quiet where periodically you can ponder and
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let the Lord establish the direction in your life.
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Can you see how that phrase let the Lord establish the direction
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in your life? That's kind of like letting God
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put something into your heart. This track continues.
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Sometime soon you may benefit from taking this personal
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inventory. What are my highest priorities
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of life? How do I use my discretionary
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time? Is some of it consistently used
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for my highest priorities? Is there anything I know I
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should not be doing? If so, I will stop it now.
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I think if this had just been a random idea Nehemiah had, if it
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was just like, well it sounds like a great eagle project to
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rebuild the wall, it could have been a good thing.
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But when the opposition heats up, he might have backed away.
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In my own life, I found that if I just set some New Year's
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resolutions that seemed like good ideas, it's easy for them
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to fall by the wayside. But if it's something God has
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put into my heart, that makes all the difference.
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I remember being 27 years old. God put it into my heart to
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learn Chinese. And at first I was like, why
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would I want to learn Chinese? I already speak English, I speak
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Spanish, I'm doing great, but because God really put that into
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my heart, I put it into action. And even though it was hard, I
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learned Chinese and that led to so many wonderful doors opening
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up for my family and for me. When God puts something into
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your heart, it changes you. Now part of acting on what God
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is putting into your heart though will be getting rid of
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the rubbish. We read Nehemiah and the people
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how to mind to work. I love that phrase and hopefully
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that's us, right? We have a mind to work.
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We want to do the things that God is telling us to do, but
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there's obstacles. The people said there is much
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rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall.
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Before they could continue with the work, they had to get rid of
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the rubbish. In their world there was all
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this debris from when the walls have been destroyed that they
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had to clear out before they could rebuild.
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Think about what this means in our life.
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What is the rubbish that we have?
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Could be possessions, things that are good, but they're just
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consuming our time and storing them and repairing them.
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It's just too much. Or they could be activities,
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digital or otherwise. A recent survey of 752 Christian
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leaders found that 75% of them said that the busyness of their
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lives frequently interferes with the development of their
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relationship with God. Could the same thing be
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happening for us? Could the rubbish we face be
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temptations to be distracted by stuff that really is so trivial?
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Or even temptations to do things that are certainly wrong?
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I love what Craig Greschel said. Why would I resist a temptation
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in the future if I have the power to eliminate it today?
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Just get rid of the rubbish. It makes it so much easier to
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resist temptation now. Remember that Nehemiah wasn't
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just getting rid of the rubbish as part of the spring cleaning
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project or something like that. He was getting rid of the
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rubbish so that he could do what God put into his heart.
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It's not just about doing less, it's doing less so that we can
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do what God is calling us to do. President Ukdorf taught, like
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Nehemiah, we have a great work to do.
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It is my fervent prayer that in spite of distractions, wherever
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they may come from, we will not lose focus on what matters most.
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So take a moment to reflect in your life, What's the rubbish?
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How could you, like Nehemiah, get rid of the rubbish?
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Now the third lesson I want to highlight from Nehemiah is to
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beware of the fourth time. In addition to the rubbish, the
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Jews faced direct opposition to their rebuilding of the wall,
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just like they did with the rebuilding of the Temple.
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We read now when Sam Blatt, you can probably just tell from his
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name, Sam Blatt might not be the the greatest character.
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When Sam Blatt had heard we were building the wall, he was angry
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and greatly enraged, and he mocked the Jews.
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He said in the presence of his associates and of the army of
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Samaria. What are these feeble Jews
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doing? Will they restore it by
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themselves? Will they offer sacrifice?
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His friend Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said
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that's stone. While they're building, any fox
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going up on it could break it down.
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Can you hear the mockery, the disdain, and their voice for
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what Nehemiah is trying to accomplish?
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Sometimes the biggest obstacles we face are the mocking voices
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of others, and sometimes it's the internal discouragement that
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we give ourselves. But when God has put something
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into our heart, we keep on going.
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And that's what Nehemiah did. We read Sandblatt and Geshem
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sent to me saying, come, let us meet together in one of the
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villages in the plain of Oh no. Now if someone asks you to meet
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them in a place called Oh no, I'm recommending, don't go.
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It's bad news. And Nehemiah tells us that it
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was. He said, But they intended to do
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me harm, Nehemiah said. So I sent messengers to them,
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saying, I am doing a great work, I cannot come down.
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Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?
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Can you see how because it was deep in Nehemiah's heart, he
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can't be distracted from other things?
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Now notice the next verse. They sent unto me four times in
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this way, and I answered them in the same manner.
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So there's a pattern of resisting temptation not once,
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not twice, but even to the fourth time.
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And there's an interesting cross reference here to a Book of
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Mormon story that you might remember.
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There was a guy named Lehontai, and he had split off with many
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other Lamanites because they didn't want to fight the
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Nephites. But in Malachiah, who was in
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charge of another group of Lamanites, came to Lehontai to
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try to persuade him to fight. So Lehontai is up in a mountain,
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and Malachi asks him once, twice, three times.
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Come down, come down, come down. Leonte always says no, but then
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on the fourth time, a Malachi comes up almost to where
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Lehontai is and says just come down a little.
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This time Lehontai does come down, and shortly thereafter
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he's assassinated. The difference between Nehemiah
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and Lehontai is what they did on the fourth time.
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All of us can resist temptation once, twice, maybe three times.
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But metaphorically speaking, what will you and I do on the
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4th time? Did you know that when it comes
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to the fourth time, Jesus Christ himself sets the example four
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times on the cross, Four different groups of people
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mocked him and told him to come down.
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The people walking by mocked Come down from the cross.
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The soldiers jeered. If you are the King of the Jews,
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save yourself. The thief beside him said,
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Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us, the chief
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priests and elders sneered. Let him come down and we will
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believe. Four times the mocking came, but
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Jesus stayed, not on a wall, but on the cross, and he stayed to
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draw us to him. He stayed so that we would have
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the power, His power to resist the mocking and temptation.
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Even on the fourth time. Today we've seen Zerubbabel,
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Ezra, and Nehemiah. They all felt opposition in the
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work they were doing, but they pressed forward in God's
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strength. Nehemiah's wall was completed in
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just 52 days, and you can actually still see remnants of
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Nehemiah's wall in Jerusalem today.
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Yes, we will feel opposition like Saruba, Bell, Ezra, and
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Nehemiah did, but when we feel the pressure to come down, we
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can echo Nehemiah's prayer. God strengthen my hands, and the
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greater Nehemiah who never came down will help us finish the
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work that He has put into our hearts.