Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / Nehemiah 2:11-20 - Nehemiah Encourages the Jews to Build the Wall

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Nehemiah 2:11-20 - Nehemiah Encourages the Jews to Build the Wall · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hi, faith listeners, Welcome to the Bible Explain
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  Speaker 1: podcast on this lovely Monday morning. Well, I'm thankful that
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  Speaker 1: also to read the Bible with me. You know, it's
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  Speaker 1: a great thing to start your week out well by
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  Speaker 1: reading the Bible. So we are in the Book of
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  Speaker 1: Niamayah today. We're going to be finishing up chapter two
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  Speaker 1: and talking about Nihamiyah being very bold, courageous, and tactful
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  Speaker 1: about how he's going along with the process of rebuilding
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  Speaker 1: the walls of Jerusalem and why the walls were necessary,
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  Speaker 1: as well as some conflict that he has to deal
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  Speaker 1: with at the end of this chapter. We're gonna get
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  Speaker 1: check out all of that in the description of this episode,
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  Speaker 1: as well as everything else that I do. It's all
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  Speaker 1: listed there in the description. Let's read Niamiah chapter two
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  Speaker 1: versus eleven through twenty, and as usual, I'll be reading
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  Speaker 1: from the Web or the World English Bible, but you
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  Speaker 1: guys can read out of the version that you prefer.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, grab your cup of coffee and let's jump
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  Speaker 1: in together. So I came to Jerusalem and was there
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  Speaker 1: three days. I arose in the night, I and a
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  Speaker 1: few men with me. I didn't tell anyone what my
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  Speaker 1: God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There
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  Speaker 1: wasn't any animal with me except the animal that I
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  Speaker 1: wrote go on. I went out by night by the
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  Speaker 1: valley gate, toward the jackals well, then to the dung Gate,
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  Speaker 1: and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down,
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  Speaker 1: and its gates were consumed with fire. Then I went
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  Speaker 1: on to the spring gate and to the King's pool,
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  Speaker 1: but there was no place for the animal that was
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  Speaker 1: under me to pass. Then I went up in the
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  Speaker 1: night by the brook and inspected the wall. And I
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  Speaker 1: turned back and entered by the valley gate, and so returned.
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  Speaker 1: The rulers didn't know where I went or what I did.
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  Speaker 1: I had not as yet told it to the Jews,
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  Speaker 1: nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to
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  Speaker 1: the rulers, nor to the rest who did the work.
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  Speaker 1: Then I said to them, you see the bad situation
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  Speaker 1: that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste and its
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  Speaker 1: gates are burned with fire. Come, let's build up the
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  Speaker 1: wall of Jerusalem that we won't be disgraced. I told
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  Speaker 1: them about the hand of my God, which was good
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  Speaker 1: to me, and also about the King's words that he
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  Speaker 1: had spoken to me. They said, let's rise up and build.
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  Speaker 1: So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But
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  Speaker 1: when sand Ballot the Hornite, and Tobiah the Ammonite servant,
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  Speaker 1: and Gusham the Arabian heard it, they ridiculed us and
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  Speaker 1: despised us, and said, what is this thing that you
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  Speaker 1: are doing will you rebel against the king? Then I
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  Speaker 1: answered them and said to them, the God of heaven
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  Speaker 1: will prosper us. Therefore we his servants will arise and build.
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  Speaker 1: But you have no portion, nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 1: Last week we talked about Niemiyah talking with King art Exerxes,
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  Speaker 1: the Persian king, about him going back home to Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: to actually build the wall, and Niamiyah, who was the
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  Speaker 1: king's cup bearer, was actually in a pretty precarious situation
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  Speaker 1: with the king because even though art Exerxes generally seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be pretty favorable toward the Jewish people, he was
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  Speaker 1: still a really nasty guy, and we talked about that
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  Speaker 1: last week, how he committed murder against his brothers in
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  Speaker 1: order to become the king. So he was not a
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  Speaker 1: nice guy, and he was pretty authoritarian, but still he
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  Speaker 1: liked Niemiah and actually granted Namiyah's request, and Niamiyah, it
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  Speaker 1: sounds like, was very prepared for this conversation with art Exerxes,
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  Speaker 1: and when art Exerxes asked him, how long are you
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  Speaker 1: going to be gone? What are you going to do?
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  Speaker 1: What do you need? Niamiah was ready to answer every
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  Speaker 1: single question, and so that probably helped his case as well,
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  Speaker 1: and so art Exerxes allowed Neemiah to go to Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: and build the wall. This was something that was really
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  Speaker 1: causing a lot of shame to Jerusalem. They were once
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  Speaker 1: a great nation and now their walls were broken down.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, eighty five to possibly one hundred years has
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  Speaker 1: passed since the first Israelites returned back to the land
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  Speaker 1: after the Babylonians took over, and still the walls were
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  Speaker 1: in shambles. They were just rubble at this point, and
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  Speaker 1: Jerusalem was completely vulnerable to any attacks that any nation
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  Speaker 1: would make. There's a lot of evidence historically actually that
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  Speaker 1: the Arabs gained a lot of power during this time,
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  Speaker 1: and so they were kind of bullying Israel. But that's
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  Speaker 1: not really new news. It seems that the Arabs are
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  Speaker 1: always kind of bullying the Israe. The Israelites bully them too.
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  Speaker 1: But anyway, going back to the story here, so Niamiyah
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  Speaker 1: asks for the king's permission to go back home to Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: and he is granted that permission. In fact, the king
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  Speaker 1: actually even gives him an army to travel with because
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  Speaker 1: it was a dangerous journey, and he gave Niemiyah a
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  Speaker 1: lot of power. So Niamiah received letters from the king
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  Speaker 1: to give to all the governors that lived beyond the river.
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  Speaker 1: So going back to verse eight, it says, the King
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  Speaker 1: granted my requests because of the good hand of God
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  Speaker 1: on me. Then I came to the governors beyond the
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  Speaker 1: river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king
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  Speaker 1: had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.
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  Speaker 1: When Sanballat's the Hornite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard
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  Speaker 1: of it, it grieved them exceedingly because a man had
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  Speaker 1: come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: So these two guys who were gonna talk about quite
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  Speaker 1: a bit, actually, because they're mentioned a lot in the
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  Speaker 1: book of Nhemiah. So san Ballots the Hornite, was probably
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  Speaker 1: the governor of Samaria, and Tobiah the Ammonite servant was
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  Speaker 1: probably the governor of the Ammonites. So these two men
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  Speaker 1: did not like the Jews. So when they hear that
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  Speaker 1: there's a representative from Persia coming to check on the
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  Speaker 1: welfare of Jerusalem and the Israelites, they are not happy
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  Speaker 1: to hear this. They're like, oh man, oh man, we
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  Speaker 1: don't want those Israelites to succeed in any single way.
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  Speaker 1: We don't want them to have their temple, or their
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  Speaker 1: walls or anything else. We want them to just go.
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  Speaker 1: Now at this point in time, it's important to note
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  Speaker 1: that none of the governors knew what Neiamiyah was coming
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  Speaker 1: to do. They did not know that he had this
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  Speaker 1: on his heart to rebuild the Jerusalem walls. They kind
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  Speaker 1: of just thought that he was a representative coming to
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  Speaker 1: check on the welfare, coming to make sure that the
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  Speaker 1: Israelites were okay in the name of the Persian king.
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  Speaker 1: So they really had no clue what Neiamiah was coming
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  Speaker 1: to do. And that's made very clear here in our
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  Speaker 1: passage for today. So it says in verse eleven that
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  Speaker 1: when Niamiah came to Jerusalem, he stayed there for three days,
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  Speaker 1: so he rested up because this was a very, very
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  Speaker 1: long journey. I believe it took Ezra twelve years prior
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  Speaker 1: to this four months to make the journey from Persia. Now, granted,
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  Speaker 1: Niamiyah probably traveled much quicker because Ezra, don't forget, was
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  Speaker 1: taking like women and children and elderly people with him.
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  Speaker 1: Potentially because he was coming with a whole group of
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  Speaker 1: Israelites that were exiled into Persia, so he would have
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  Speaker 1: been traveling a lot slower. Neamiyah, on the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: was traveling with a trained army, and it was really
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  Speaker 1: just him and probably a few other men that wanted
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  Speaker 1: to come with him, So he likely traveled this in
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  Speaker 1: significantly shorter time, but yet still probably took at least
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  Speaker 1: a couple months. I would guess for Niamiah to make
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  Speaker 1: this journey, that is a long time. That is a long,
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  Speaker 1: hard journey to make. You know, we think that going
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  Speaker 1: on an airplane overnight is difficult. Can you imagine traveling
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  Speaker 1: through the desert on camelback or horseback or whatever you're
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  Speaker 1: doing for days and days and days and days. That
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  Speaker 1: is what these people did. So yes, very difficult journey.
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  Speaker 1: And so he obviously took three days to rest and recover.
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  Speaker 1: And it says on the third day he arose in
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  Speaker 1: the night and a few men with him. In verse twelve,
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  Speaker 1: he says, I didn't tell anyone what my God put
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  Speaker 1: into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There wasn't any
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  Speaker 1: animal with me except the animal that I rode on.
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  Speaker 1: So he only had one horse with him, and that
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  Speaker 1: is it. He made sure to travel very quietly. He
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  Speaker 1: did it in the middle of the night so that
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  Speaker 1: no one, you know, everybody would be asleep and no
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  Speaker 1: one would really see him. He wasn't making a lot
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  Speaker 1: of noise. He needed to be quiet. And the reason
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  Speaker 1: being was because you know, yes, the Jewish people obviously
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  Speaker 1: lived in Jerusalem, but don't forget there is a lot
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  Speaker 1: of enemies kind of coming in at this point in
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  Speaker 1: time and trying to encroach on that line. And they
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  Speaker 1: obviously wouldn't want the walls to be built because that
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  Speaker 1: means a safer Jerusalem. Jerusalem can pick and choose who
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  Speaker 1: they want coming through those gates, and that is not
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  Speaker 1: a happy circumstance to the enemies of Jerusalem and Israel
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  Speaker 1: as a whole. So this is why Nehemiah needed to
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  Speaker 1: work very quickly and quietly to inspect the walls to
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  Speaker 1: see what is going on in Jerusalem and not give
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  Speaker 1: anything away that he might be planning to rebuild these walls,
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  Speaker 1: because this is going to take some time to get
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  Speaker 1: the materials in place, to get the people in order,
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  Speaker 1: and so if his plans are revealed before he's ready,
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  Speaker 1: then someone could come in and try to stop him
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  Speaker 1: and thwart all of those plans that Nihamiyah has in place,
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  Speaker 1: and this would make things go so much more difficult
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  Speaker 1: for him and for the Israelite people. So it says
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  Speaker 1: he went out by night by the valley gate, toward
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  Speaker 1: the jackals, well, then to the dung Gate, and I
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  Speaker 1: inspected the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and
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  Speaker 1: its gates were consumed with fire. So everything essentially was
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  Speaker 1: rubble all of these walls. Very little was left. Now
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  Speaker 1: we'll end up talking about all the different gates that
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  Speaker 1: Jerusalem had. They had quite a few, and Nehemiah mentions
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  Speaker 1: a couple right here. He mentions the valley gate and
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  Speaker 1: also the dung gate. And the reason it was called
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  Speaker 1: the poop gate, by the way, is because that's actually
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  Speaker 1: the gates that the refuse would go and it would
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  Speaker 1: be burned in this valley, okay, And that's the reason
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  Speaker 1: it was called the poop gate. But its gates were
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  Speaker 1: consumed with fire, and the rest of the walls were
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  Speaker 1: broken down, so everything made of stone was now rubble,
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  Speaker 1: and anything made of wood, like the gates, were completely
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  Speaker 1: destroyed by fire. So this was a sorry state of stuff.
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  Speaker 1: And you can see how bad things got in verse fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: because it says he went on to the spring gate
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  Speaker 1: into the King's pool, but there was no place for
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  Speaker 1: the animal that was under me to pass. So that
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  Speaker 1: is how badly everything was destroyed, that there was no
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  Speaker 1: place in that gate for him to be able to
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  Speaker 1: pass through. His animal could not get over all of
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  Speaker 1: that rubble or under it, or whatever the situation was.
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  Speaker 1: It was just a bad state of events. So not
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  Speaker 1: only were these gates completely destroyed with fire, but some
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  Speaker 1: of them were completely blocked off, making it really difficult
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  Speaker 1: for any person to be able to leave the city.
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  Speaker 1: So in some places the people were actually trapped in
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  Speaker 1: the city. This is very, very dangerous for any Israelite
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  Speaker 1: person living in the city. They both are completely vulnerable
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  Speaker 1: to attacks by anybody that wants to come through the
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  Speaker 1: open gates, and they don't have an easy escape as well.
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  Speaker 1: So any enemy that knew the situation of these gates
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  Speaker 1: could possibly, you know, cause the Israelites to get stuck
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  Speaker 1: in a certain area and just destroy them if they
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  Speaker 1: wanted to. And he continues on in verse fifteen. I
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  Speaker 1: went up in the night by the brook and inspected
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  Speaker 1: the wall, and I turned back and entered by the
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  Speaker 1: Valley gate, and so returned. The rulers didn't know where
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  Speaker 1: I went or what I did. I had not as
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  Speaker 1: yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests,
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  Speaker 1: or the nobles, or the rulers, or to the rest
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  Speaker 1: who did the work. So no one knew of Neamiah's
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  Speaker 1: plan other than the king himself and a few trusted
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  Speaker 1: men that Neamiah took with him right here, likely for
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  Speaker 1: security in case anybody wanted to jump him or something
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  Speaker 1: like that. He did need a few men with him
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  Speaker 1: in order to protect himself, but Niamiah was very tactful
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  Speaker 1: about how he handled this, so nobody truly knew what
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  Speaker 1: his plans were or what he was up to. So,
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  Speaker 1: after inspecting all of the gates, which, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: the reason he went I believe he went south. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: the Dung Gate was the southmost gate in Jerusalem. The
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  Speaker 1: reason he went south was because most likely all of
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  Speaker 1: the gates up north there was no point even inspecting
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  Speaker 1: them because they were in such bad shape. They probably
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  Speaker 1: weren't even like in existence anymore. Because that's what that
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  Speaker 1: would have been. Where all the people, like all the
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  Speaker 1: enemies of Israel came in was to those northern gates,
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  Speaker 1: so the southern gates were potentially more intact than the
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  Speaker 1: other gates in Jerusalem. But you can see here that
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  Speaker 1: even the southmost gates are not in good shape at all.
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  Speaker 1: There's probably very little of that wall left. So now,
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  Speaker 1: in verse seventeen, it is time for Nehemiah to tell
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  Speaker 1: all the elders what his plans are. So he says
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  Speaker 1: to them, you see the bad situation that we are in,
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  Speaker 1: how Jerusalem lies waste and its gates are burned with fire. Come,
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  Speaker 1: let's build up the wall of Jerusalem that we won't
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  Speaker 1: be disgraced. And I told them about the hand of
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  Speaker 1: my God, which was good on me, and also about
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  Speaker 1: the King's words that he had spoken to me. So
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  Speaker 1: he encourages them and he gives them a pep talk,
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  Speaker 1: and he's like, look, it is time for Jerusalem to
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  Speaker 1: no longer have this disgrace, for the people to be
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  Speaker 1: able to live in comfort here because the Israelites are
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  Speaker 1: returning home. There are plenty of Israelites in this land,
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  Speaker 1: and they should not have to feel unsafe in a
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  Speaker 1: city that is completely unguarded. So let's rebuild this wall.
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  Speaker 1: And he mentioned how God was on his side. He says,
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  Speaker 1: God's hand was on him, and so this is a
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  Speaker 1: very encouraging pep talk that he gives to all of
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  Speaker 1: these people, and so they are excited. They say, let's
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  Speaker 1: rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for
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  Speaker 1: the good work. So this is probably the first time,
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  Speaker 1: first real time anyway, that the people's hands were strengthened
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  Speaker 1: for the work. You can see how even though the
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  Speaker 1: people had been in the land now for many decades
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  Speaker 1: at this point, that they are either too complacent or
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  Speaker 1: afraid to rebuild these walls. And it's possible that they
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  Speaker 1: tried to rebuild the walls, and whatever they got accomplished,
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  Speaker 1: the neighboring nations came and just destroyed and refused to
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  Speaker 1: allow them to continue. So all of their efforts were
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  Speaker 1: proven futile until this point. So now they're excited and
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  Speaker 1: they think that there's a real possibility that they can
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  Speaker 1: do this because the Persian king is on their side. Nehemiah,
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  Speaker 1: who is close to the Persian king, is on their side,
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  Speaker 1: and they now have the materials to this. You can
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  Speaker 1: imagine how much more difficult this would have been if
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  Speaker 1: the Persian king would have said, no, I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to donate any materials to this project. You figure it
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  Speaker 1: out yourself. I mean, this would have taken way more time,
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  Speaker 1: the people would have been far more discouraged, and it
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  Speaker 1: probably honestly wouldn't have gotten done as secretively as it
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  Speaker 1: was now, and the other nations finding out about this
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  Speaker 1: would have had the upper hand in making sure that
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites did not receive the materials that they needed
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  Speaker 1: to rebuild this wall. So we see now how much
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  Speaker 1: the neighboring nations absolutely hated Jerusalem and the Israelites because
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  Speaker 1: they didn't want the Israelites in that land. They considered
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  Speaker 1: the land to be theirs. So it says in verse nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: when Sanballat's the Hornite, Tobia the Amonite servant, and Gesham
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  Speaker 1: the Arabian heard it, they ridiculed us and despised us
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  Speaker 1: and said, what is this thing that you are doing?
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  Speaker 1: Will you rebel against the king? So they finally find
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  Speaker 1: out that this building is to taking place because probably
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  Speaker 1: Nehemiah already had the materials set in place. So I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure that this took a lot of planning on Nehemiah's part,
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  Speaker 1: But specifically these three men, these three different governors hate
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  Speaker 1: this the most. And the reason they hated it was, yes,
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  Speaker 1: they hated the Jews, but also because this was bad
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  Speaker 1: for their prosperity, because they were governors in their own
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  Speaker 1: right and loyal to the Persian king and considered this
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  Speaker 1: to be a blow to their own political endeavors. So
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  Speaker 1: they come to Nehemiah and they're like, what are you doing?
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  Speaker 1: Do you think you're going to rebel against the king?
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  Speaker 1: And you might be like, well, Niemiah got like papers
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  Speaker 1: from the king that said he could build this wall.
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  Speaker 1: So why are these men saying, are you rebelling against
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  Speaker 1: the king. What these three men are doing is they're
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  Speaker 1: making fun of Israel's history, Israel's past, because Israel was
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  Speaker 1: known for constantly rebelling against kings. And I think about it,
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  Speaker 1: when Israel still had their own kings. How many times
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  Speaker 1: did they rebel against the Assyrians? How many times did
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  Speaker 1: they rebel against the Babylonians? Multiple times? So they were
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  Speaker 1: known as the city that constantly rebelled against foreign powers.
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  Speaker 1: So what these three men are getting at is, oh,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: if you rebuild these walls, then certainly, because of your ancestors,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: you are going to rebel against the Persian king. It
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter if the Persian king gave you permission to
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: do this or not. You guys are evil. You guys
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: always rebel, and we are going to warn the Persian
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: king that if you rebuild these walls, then you in
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: fact will rebel against the king. And Nehemiah is having
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: none of this, so he says to them, the God
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: of Heaven will prosper us. Therefore we his servants will
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: arise and build. But you have no portion, nor right,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: nor memorial in Jerusalem. So he tells them exactly how
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: it is. He's like, get out of here. We have
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: permission to build this wall. You are not going to
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: stop us. And if you try to stop us, the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: God of Heaven is on our side, and you have
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: no right to any land that the Israelites own, So
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: get lost. You know, Niemiah, we're going to find out
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: as we read more about him, he was a very
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: bold man, very bold, and he was not afraid, very
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: often to engage in confrontation. I'm sure, as most people,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: he didn't enjoy confrontation, but when a confrontation started, he
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: was going to finish that confrontation. And we see this
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: even with his response to the king when he first
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: has that conversation, he specifically said, I was afraid of
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the king, and yet he still boldly asked the king
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: for everything he needed. And because he was bold, God
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: blessed him and blessed everything that Nehemiah set out to do.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: And we're going to find out what ends up happening next,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: because this is a pretty dramatic story actually, with the
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Israelites building the world Wall and these three men constantly
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: coming and making trouble in every single way that you
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: can possibly imagine, from trying to commit murder and kill
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Niamayah to just spreading lies about the people and causing
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: other issues as well. So we're going to talk more
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: about Namiah in the next episode on Wednesday, specifically talking
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: about all the different gates of Jerusalem. And you might
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: be like, what's the big deal about the gates. I'm
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: telling you they are really interesting actually, and you're going
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: to see more about how Jerusalem was laid out as
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: we discuss each individual gate. Actually, years ago at my church,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I did a Nihamyah women's Bible study with everybody, and
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I remember thinking the exact same thing. I was like,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: what's the point of learning about these gates. It's boring
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: until I actually learned about them. Then it was a
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: very interesting study. And it really, you know, opened my
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: eyes to more things in the Bible, you know, because
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: these gates are mentioned actually quite a bit in scripture,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: and it's good to have a layout of what they are,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: where they are are in Jerusalem so that we can
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: understand other stories regarding Jerusalem even better. So we're going
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: to talk about the gates on Wednesday. Now, not done
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: with the podcast just yet. I have a few closing
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: notes for you right after this last sponsor for today.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: So the last thing I want to talk about for
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: today is why did King art Exerxes even allow these
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: walls to be built? Considering the fact that Israel had
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: such a reputation of rebelling against kings. You know, a
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: wall around Jerusalem would start to show that Jerusalem was
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: gaining power once again, was becoming independent and potentially able
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: to protect themselves. So why would art Exerxes allow this
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: wall to be built? Because you'd think that this is
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: a bad thing potentially for Persia, especially knowing Israel's history
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: of rebellion. Well, interestingly enough, there was another rebellion that
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: was taking place only about fifteen years prior to this,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and this was a very long and drawn out rebellion.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: And this was the rebellion of the Egyptians and also
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the oh what were they, the Athenians, So they were
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in a battle against Persia, and this was causing a
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: ton of conflict, a ton of problems in the Middle East,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: and so art Exerxes, because he was dealing with all
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: of that, probably considered Jerusalem to be a good buffer
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: zone because Israel was like smack dab in the middle
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: of everything. So if they could build a secure wall
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: and also maintain loyalties with the Israelites, they'd have a
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: place of protection, again, a buffer zone that would be
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: in the middle of all of that. So Niamiyah was
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: probably sent because he was a trusted Jew, and I'm
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: sure that art Exerxes did not think that Niamiyah was
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: going to betray him at any point in time or rebel,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and so if Niamiyah was sent to be like a
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: governor who oversaw all of this, then certainly he'd make
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: sure that Israel did not rebel while also building up
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: that wall and protecting that region from further conflict between
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the Persians and the Egyptians. So yeah, historically there are
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: some interesting things happening that may have also encouraged art
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Exerxes to build the wall in Jerusalem. So it's really
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: interesting how God uses other events to make sure that
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: his will is accomplished. And that's just another example of it.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: But I thought you guys would find that interesting. So anyway,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: faithful listeners, I hope you all have a fantastic and
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: wonderful rest of your Monday. Hopefully I'll see you guys
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: tomorrow as we begin to finish up the Book of Hebrews.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: We are almost done. We are in Hebrews thirteen. We
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: might finish up tomorrow or we might finish up on Thursday.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure yet, but either way, I hope to
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: see you guys there tomorrow six am or whenever you
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: choose to wake up until then, Happy listening, and God bless.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: I just want to take a second to thank the
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: team at Life Audio for their partnership with me on
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: lifeaudio dot com you will find dozens of other faith
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Bible study, parenting, and more.