It’s good to thank the Lord. Thankful people move in the opposite direction from apathetic or anxious people. Gratitude and Joy know how to stop and smell the roses while also knowing that there will be more weeding to do to keep the roses from being choked.

Apathy and anxiety are weeds, and they both grow in the soil of living only by sight not by faith. When you look around and see all the problems, and you think it’s not worth the effort, you do nothing. Or, when you look around and see all the problems, you think there’s no time to sleep and AAAAAAA!

Thanks and joy grow in the soil of filtering what you see as you live by faith. Faith doesn’t deny good fruit, faith doesn’t deny the need to get back into the field and sow and water and weed.

This all connects with Nehemiah 12. There’s a list of men from multiple generations whom the Lord used to get the people where they’re at. They’re back in the holy city, they’re back listening to the Law, and they’re back with a wall built. It’s time to thank the Lord, then establish pure worship for sake of God’s blessing.

Standing on Shoulders (verses 1-26)

Verses 1-26 include the families of worship leaders (priests and Levites) from the initial return from Babylon to the time of Nehemiah, about two generations.

The first group came up with Zerubbabel, and we remember him from Ezra 1-2 and the original decree by Cyrus that the Jews could head home.

Verses 1-9 are priests and Levites in the first generation of returnees. Verses 10-11 are the high priests from 538 BC until Nehemiah’s day around 445. Then verses 12-25 are priests and Levites of the second generation, followed by some notes on the sources of info. It’s appropriate to remember them now as having done the work to get the city and people where they are today.

A few comments about the extra descriptions in verses 22-26. Darius the Persian is distinguished from “Darius the Mede” in Daniel. The Book of the Chronicles could be translated “the book “of day-to-day events” per Kidner) and so it isn’t the same as what we have as 1&2 Chronicles.

The group who stood opposite (verse 24) are not antagonists, but antiphonal singers, that is, back-and-forth singers. The group was to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David, the man of God, watch by watch. These are vocational minstrels, so to speak.

Man of God in verse 24 applies to David when referencing his organization of worship liturgy. He’s called “man of God” again in verse 36. Moses was the first one to get this label (Deuteronomy 33:1), and Paul picks up on it in his letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 6:11).

In the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra, the priest and scribe put both names in the same verse for the first time. Some assume that the time of these two men in Jerusalem did not overlap because they aren’t directly connected anywhere else. That assumption leads another assumption that someone else must have added one of the names to this verse later. Others assume that because Nehemiah is named first that our timeline of Ezra returning before Nehemiah must be wrong. But the order is due to their positions: governor (who organized the wall building) first and then the priest.

Standing on the Wall (verses 27-43)

“The wall was finished” according to Nehemiah 6:15. Now the dedication of the wall is described in 12:27. A lot has happened between, but that doesn’t require a long delay. Nehemiah was setting up the repopulation, and personally setting up the ceremony (see “I” in verse 31).

The only other comparable moment in Ezra-Nehemiah is the completion of the temple (Ezra 3:10-13). The thanks and joy of the people made a ruckus. There is even more of that here. There were singers, there was a procession, there were sacrifices, and joy is the theme.

• ”with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres” (verse 27)
• “two great choirs that gave thanks” (verse 31)
• “they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced” (verse 43)
• “God had made them rejoice with great joy” (verse 43)
• “the women and children also rejoiced.” (verse 43)
• “the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away” (verse 43)

They called the Levites into town (verse 27), made sure they were purified (verse 30), and then divided them into to “thanks-choirs” (verse 31). One of the choirs went south/counterclockwise, the other went north/clockwise, and met together in the temple (verse 40). They had strings ( harps and lyres v.27), percussion ( cymbals v.27), brass ( trumpets vv.35, 41), and vocals.

The who thing started because of the report: “The wall of Jerusalem is broken down” (Nehemiah 1:3). Nehemiah had walked the walls (Nehemiah 2:13-15), and now they were in a completely different condition.

Something like Psalm 147 might have gone with the dedicated joy. Or:

Walk about Zion, go around her,
number her towers,
consider well her ramparts,
go through her citadels,
that you may tell the next generation
that this is God,
our God forever and ever.
He will guide us forever.
(Psalm 48:12–14 ESV)

Standing on Blessing (verses 12:44-13:3)

The phrase On that day in verse 44 and again in 13:1, with another time indicator in 13:4, means the first few verses of chapter 13 go along with dedication day.

That’s signifiant because the partying didn’t make them passive. Gratitude got to work. There is a time to sing and a time to separate from foreigners. Joy before the Lord belongs with obedience to the Lord.

In the first section (verses 44-47), men were appointed to take care of the supplies for the ongoing service of worship. Things were set apart (verse 47) for those leading the liturgical charge.

In the second “on that day” section (13:1-3), based on the Book of Moses (in particular Deuteronomy 23:4-7), the people separated those of foreign descent, and see Balaam (see Jim’s message). As we’ve seen, this is less about race/nation and more about refusing to worship false gods, though Israel’s relationship between the magistrate and morals was even more direct than ours. This is the only place this vocabulary of the assembly of God is found in the Bible.

Our God turned the curse into a blessing! Their dedicated joy also recognized how God brought them from captivity to blessing.

Conclusion

A man of God is known by his joy in ordered worship and obedience to the Word. The assembly of God is known by their thanks to God and ordering their ways before God.

It’s easy to imagine that some of those who read the list of names could come up with a list of problems that So-and-so had (“I’ve really got a problem with Bakbukiah and Unni and their brothers…”). It’s easy to imagine someone with a bad attitude watching the thanksgiving-choirs and assuming that it was just a show (“Those cymbals were way too loud.”).

But don’t you want to be in the rejoicing ruckus? Don’t you want to sing in thanks and work from thanks? Living by faith we need not be apathetic or anxious. We don’t need to read a list of shoulders before every party, or to march choirs around the roof perimeter. But we could. We are an assembly of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who turns curse into blessing.

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Charge

The apathetic aren’t motivated to work on their apathy by faith. The anxious worry about whether they are working by faith, maybe it’s not enough or maybe it’s fleshly. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish and guard you. Look to your God who turns curse into blessing.

Benediction:

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. (2 Thessalonians 3:5 ESV)