Revelation 17-22/Nehemiah/Malachi

Nehemiah
Nehemiah continues the story of Ezra. It relates, primarily in first person, the commission and work of Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem focusing on the walls and gates. So where the Temple is the focus of rebuilding in Ezra, in Nehemiah it is the rest of the city.

1-2: Nehemiah hears news from those who have returned and weeps that there are no walls around the city. As a highly placed official in change of wine, he has the ear of the king. He prays to God for his blessing and asks the king to return to build the walls of the city, the "graveyard of my ancestors" - a rather non-threatening phrase. He is commissioned, travels to the city, and surreptitiously examines the walls. Later he gets support for rebuilding, though, like Ezra, there is opposition and the threat to stir up trouble with their Persian officials.

3: A list of who rebuilt what. This is a summary, and the time frame for all this building isn't mentioned.

4-6: Obstacles arise as the building goes on. Sanballat and Tobiah are leaders from Samaria, the former capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. Recall there was a fierce rivalry between the north and the south. The people rebuilding the walls were people of Judah, the southern kingdom.

At first there is mocking, but once the wall is about half its height, there is a plot to attack the workers. Nehemiah responds by arming the workers and setting a guard. This gets things going again.

Chapter 5 introduces economic problems. The high rate of taxes and famine cause poorer people to go into debt, using their land and children as collateral. As times get tough because of famine, they lose their land and their descendants. There trouble keeps them from working on the wall as well as they could. Nehemiah introduces economic reforms, starting with himself, and proclaims a kind of jubilee year in which lost land and wealth is returned and debts forgiven. Nehemiah points out that he, as the governor, is entitled to a food tax that he does not take.

Chapter 6 covers plots to kill and dishonor Nehemiah. He is first invited to meet with the Samarians, first in a friendly way, and then in an extorting way (I've heard bad things, and will report them to the emperor, we should talk together). Shemaiah, who was under house-arrest, tells him to hide in the temple, a place that only a priest was supposed to enter. Such an act might lead people to think Nehemiah was making a power grab or was just being presumptive. Nehemiah doesn't fall for it.

The walls are done in 52 days, a sign of the zeal and dedication of the workers and Nehemiah, regardless of the hardships and obstacles that they encountered.

7: Guards are posted and instructions for when to open and the gates. Walls were an important part of a city at that time. Without things like standing armies or police, cities without walls could more easily be raided. Walls added to the security of a city, and was one of the reasons neighboring leaders probably didn't want them built.

After this there is a recounting of the people who had returned and other things of note.

8-13: The celebration of the reconstruction. With the reconstruction of temple and city completed, there is a big party that lasts for weeks. There were four big parts.

1. Torah is reread (ch. 8) and the people respond "Amen, Amen." Then an interpretation is given. Then the people eat, they have a feast. Now I hope the pattern of hearing the Word, with interpretation, followed by a meal sounds familiar, because it is the same shape of our liturgy.

2. Then, in 8.13-18 there is the "Festival of Booths" when the people sojourn in the wilderness is recalled as the people live in temporary housing.

3. 9-10 captures the confession of the people and preparation for renewing of the covenant, then the long communal prayer that re-tells their story, of God's faithfulness and their own unfaithfulness. Then the people agree to renew their covenant faithfulness, both the leaders of the people, their names are given, and the people as a whole recommit themselves.

4. 11 concerns the repopulation of the land. 1/10 stay in Jerusalem, 9/10's move to other towns. Who goes where is determined by lot. And the first part of 12 reviews the priestly genealogy. Remember, one had to be of a certain tribe to be a priest, so genealogy was very important there.

5. The big celebration in which the walls are dedicated, songs are sung, processions are processed, and sacrifices given. It must have been quite an event.

13.4-31 is a rather strange coda to the tale. As you might recall, Nehemiah asks to take a certain amount of time to go to Jerusalem, and then he would return to the emperor. Apparently this was about 12 years. After he serves the king for a while, he returns again, and finds much in disarray. The Samarians have caused trouble in the temple, and many of the priests are working in the fields instead of working in the temple. People have again inter-married and brought the pagan beliefs of their wives into their home. People worked on the Sabbath. Let's just say Nehemiah sets things back on the straight and narrow.


Malachi
Who Malachi was and when exactly he made these prophecies is not known. We know it was after the Temple was rebuilt, and is either contemporary with Ezra-Nehemiah, or most likely follows them after some time. So the last book of the OT is actually the last chronologically (though some of Daniel is probably as late or later than Malachi).

The subject the book seems to engage is the promise of the restoration of Judah and the kingdom of God. There were probably a lot of people who thought they were living in the time of the restoration prophecies (like in Isaiah and Ezekiel). Where was the unconditional blessing and the elevation of Jerusalem above all other powers?

The answer that Malachi gives is that these things are not fulfilled because the people have not been faithful. They continue in their old ways. Perhaps we should bear in mind the end of Nehemiah as we read the words of the prophet.

The book is divided into portions different than the chapters and verses.

The first section 1.2-5 is a general piece and begins the pattern of question and answer. "I have loved you," says God. The people reply, "Have you loved us?" The implication being - we don't think we are loved. The argument then continues as to why they do not feel loved and why it is not God's fault.

1.6-2.9: covers the priesthood which has fallen down on the job, offering blind and lame animals instead of unblemished ones. "What a weariness this is," they say, and wonder why the restoration has not manifested in its fullness.

2.10-16: The people have not honored their commitment to one another. Their has been idolatry and injustice, particularly in marriage relationships. Remember, marriage was as much a lawful contract with specific obligations and responsibilities as anything else.

2.17-3.5: God is wearied by their complaint. They look for justice when they do not do justice. There is one coming who will prepare the way of the Lord, and the Lord (whom you are looking for) will suddenly appear and you will not like it. He will refine the priests and the people and justice will be done in the land.

3.6-12: A call for repentance and returning to God. Pay the tithe and God will fulfill the promises of the covenant.

3.13-4.3: Here is the flip side of apocalypse. It seems that God is absent from the world, and those who follow God are fools. Why bother? It does no good? Here God promises that all he has said will be fulfilled. The good will receive good and those who are arrogant and evil will be destroyed.

4.4-5: Two appendices. One recalls the covenant of Moses, so important in this book. The other is a passage whose ripples have rolled out to today. Elijah will come at the time of restoration and his prophecy will be heeded by the people. This saying was very much known at the time of Jesus, as people were looking for Elijah to return. Also, if you have every shared sabbath or Seder with a Jewish family, you know that there is always an extra setting at the table in case Elijah returns.


Revelation
17-18: The fall of Babylon (Rome). The whore and the beast represent the Roman empire. The whore is more particularly the city (cities were feminine in grammar). The beast - seven heads for seven hills (Rome was on seven hills) and the 10 horns, ten emperors (probably Julius Caesar through Domitian).

The kings and merchants of the earth are seen as being in collusion with the empire, but eventually turning against it. In 18, God's messengers pronounce judgment on Rome, but the rest of the world (especially the merchants) lament the fall of Rome.

19: There is rejoicing in heaven over the destruction of Rome, the enemy of God and oppressor and murder of God's people. The first part of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah is found in verse 6. There is a final battle between Jesus and the armies of the beasts (notice it does not say this happens at Armageddon which actually pops up earlier and may have nothing to do with this event). The enemies are quickly defeated by the words of Jesus (this could be seen as an essentially non-violent episode - the beast and his followers are defeated by the testimony of Jesus, not an army). The beasts are judged and burned alive.

20: Satan is imprisoned and there appears to be a Messianic kingdom for a while (1000 years is purely symbolic). Satan is released to tempt the nations again, but the rebellion is quickly put down. How this fits into unclear. Some believe there will be an actual 1000 year reign of Jesus at which time the Devil will be unleashed. This is an idea not found anywhere else in the Bible and is not a part of the witness of the apostles. The writer seems to be referring to a time after the fall of Rome, but that may not be the case. This could all be allegory for the death and resurrection of Jesus, in which case the reign of Jesus would be now.

Then we have the great white throne judgment in which all the dead will be judged.

21: The new Jerusalem. Like Ezekiel again, we have a vision of the holy city, this time not built by human hands, but fashioned in heaven. There is no temple, and its gates are pearls, its streets gold, but transparent. I find myself thinking about that gigantic UFO in the climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Notice that there is a new heavens and a new earth. Where do the people of God live? On the new earth and in the holy city. I often tell people that Christians don't go to heaven. You can imagine the reaction I get. But that is the simple witness of our spiritual founders. There is no end of the world, there is instead a resurrection of the world, and of the people, and we continue to live on this resurrected earth.

22: The description continues through verse 5, describing the river that flows out of the city, again like in Ezekiel. There is not more night, nor lamps or sun.

Starting in verse 6 we get a testimony that the words are true and then encouragement, exhortation and the promise that Jesus will come.


Well folks - that's it. Assuming you have stayed with the program, if you are reading this, you have finished reading the entire Bible!