Nehemiah 7:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Here we are introduced to the further reforms which Nehemiah carried out, their significance, and the lessons for us that rise from them. We learn particularly what should be the priorities for churches in the aftermath of decline, or in clambering out of spiritual decline.‘Now it came to pass when the wall was built and I had set up the doors’ – this distinguishes the chapter from what has gone before. Now the doors are mounted; the walls are approaching readiness for formal consecration, and so ‘the porters’, that is, the gatekeepers, ‘and the singers and the Levites were appointed.’ Probably these appointments were made concerning worship in the temple, but many feel that it is a bit of a wrench to take the appointments away from the building of the wall and the setting up of the doors. Some of the old writers feel that along with the gatekeepers there were singers and Levites functioning even at the gates of the city. We read nothing else about this, but it is possible. It was the holy city; it was a city of witness, the city of God, and even the very gates may have had people stationed there – a choir that sang and the Levites who functioned in some way. There would be no sacrifices there, of course, no priests, but it would have been done so that all who came in and all who left the city had a witness. However most feel that although the account is a little telescoped, the porters the gatekeepers certainly apply to the walls, but the singers and the Levites were appointed to resume the worship in the temple, which had already been in action, but not in its complete form.However, this immediately raises questions. Only thirteen years prior to this, Ezra had come with the party of people who travelled from Ahava, from Babylon, and all the forty thousand plus people of Israel who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, after Cyrus the Mede had given consent for them to do so. Where had Ezra been during the thirteen years that separated his arrival from Nehemiah’s? Ezra was a priest who came to set up and rebuild the temple; Nehemiah was more the political administrator who served Artaxerxes king of Persia, and was sent as a Jew at his own request to be the governor of Judah, to rebuild the wall and carry out further reforms. But if Ezra had been there all that time, how come worship reforms still need to be done, and how come other things like the reading of the law publicly before the people still have to be established? It does suggest – although there is no mention of this – that Ezra wasn't there all the time; that he carried out his work in Jerusalem and then returned back to Persia; that he then came back again during the course of this record. Because he suddenly turns up out of the blue in chapter 8. So many people think that Ezra had a period of absence, and worship had decayed somewhat, even in this very short time. Possibly, Hanani was Nehemiah’s younger brother, but maybe just a very close kinsman. It was Hanani who had kept Nehemiah up-to-date with the terrible state of affairs in Jerusalem, and brought him the report while he was still serving Artaxerxes king of Persia which prompted the flame in his heart and led him to seek a posting back to Jerusalem and to Judah. Hanani therefore had a long-term concern for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. He was a proven man. ‘And Hananiah’, the second name mentioned there, the ruler of the palace, ‘charge over Jerusalem.’ Now we know nothing about Hananiah, and so the basis of Nehemiah's decision is explained, ‘for he was a faithful man’, referring more to his trustworthiness than his spiritual faith, though he no doubt had that as well. His devotedness and his diligence, his concern to obey God, his concern and not to be straying from the mark, was very conspicuous. So these two men were appointed by Nehemiah because they were qualified, and they were going to have charge over Jerusalem. Nehemiah was due to go back to Susa, the capital of Persia, to have his commission as governor of Judah renewed, and to report to Artaxerxes all that he was doing and how the work was going, and so he appointed these two administrators or deputies in his place. But he doesn't go just yet; he gives them an opportunity to settle in. He took great care with appointments. Unfortunately, he couldn't reappoint the high priest who turned out to be the one who was to let him down in the future.