Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

Repopulation of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 11:1-12:26)

Bryan Schneider · December 2, 2019

Nehemiah 11:1

sharonrpc.org/sermons/repopulation-of-jerusalem

Summary

Jerusalem's walls and houses are restored, but the holy city needs inhabitants; lots designate one in ten to move, while willing volunteers are publicly blessed.
Relocation requires people to leave recently recovered ancestral lands and comforts, making their names witnesses to costly participation in God's covenant purpose.
The detailed lists show God's promise to gather, plant, and preserve a people after exile being fulfilled through identifiable families and ordinary servants.
Levites return without territorial inheritance, accepting dependence on God's provision and a heritage defined by service rather than property.
Priests likewise receive the Lord as their portion and resume temple ministry, yet their repeated names and sacrifices expose the limits of the old order.
Jesus is the final and better high priest who ministers in the heavenly sanctuary and, by his own blood, obtains eternal redemption in one completed offering.
The genealogies are meant to create longing for Christ, whose perfect priesthood cleanses the conscience, grants access to God, and provides a lasting inheritance.

Why did a rebuilt Jerusalem still need deliberate repopulation?
What might relocation have cost the families chosen by lot or moved by willingness?
Why does Scripture preserve so many individual and family names in these chapters?
How do the returning people fulfill Jeremiah's promises of gathering and planting?
What made service to the Lord the Levites' and priests' distinctive inheritance?
Why could the old priestly succession and repeated sacrifices never fully satisfy?
How is Jesus' priesthood different in duration, sanctuary, sacrifice, and effect?
Where do we seek roots and satisfaction apart from the inheritance offered in Christ?

Repopulation: The deliberate resettling of Jerusalem so the restored city could again sustain covenant life and worship.
Lot: A means used in the narrative to identify households for relocation under God's providence.
Levite: A member of Levi's tribe assigned to support temple worship and service, distinct from the narrower Aaronic priesthood.
Priest: An Aaronic minister who represented the people and offered sacrifices under the old covenant.
High priest: The priest who entered the Most Holy Place under the old order, ultimately surpassed by Jesus' eternal priesthood.
Once for all: The finality of Christ's single, sufficient self-offering, which never needs repetition.