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These free online Bible study guides of Nehemiah 7 contain cross-references, commentary, Bible study discussion questions, and applications.  Visit our library of inductive Bible studies for more in depth practical Bible studies on this and other books of the Bible you can use in your small group.

Nehemiah 7 Bible Study Guide – Preserving a Remnant

Outline

I. Nehemiah organizes after the wall is finished (7:1-5)
II. Genealogies of the people who returned in the first wave (6-69)
III. People donate to the work (70-73)

I. Nehemiah organizes after the wall is finished (7:1-5)

Discussion Questions

• What did Nehemiah do after the wall had been finished?
• How did he start to take them forward from pre-wall life to post-wall life?
• What do we learn about Nehemiah from this?
• What type of people did he put in charge? Why is this important?
• What is the point of Nehemiah’s plans in verse 3?
• What did Nehemiah plan to do in verse 5? How did he get this idea? How does this relate to Chapter 8?

Verse by Verse Commentary

1. Verse 1 – Rebuilding the wall wasn’t the end. It was the beginning. There was still work to be done. Nehemiah wanted to make sure that things would run smoothly and not regress. There are times to build and there are times to preserve what has been built. Imagine how foolish it would be if, after all of that work rebuilding the wall, a tactical mistake allowed the enemy to come into the city and defeat them. Nehemiah continues to organize, delegate, and make sure that every detail is attended to.

2. He puts wise leaders in charge – He appoints leaders that he knows and trusts. He appoints leaders who fear God and are men of integrity (this is what Paul also commanded in 1 Timothy and Titus about appointing elders).

3. Nehemiah sets rules for the opening and closing of the gates and appoints guards – If one gate was left open at the wrong time or if one spot was unguarded, all of their work may have been done for nothing. Nehemiah understood that their achievements and past victories would not guarantee that the enemy would stop trying to destroy them. The enemy would persevere and so should they. Before he surveyed the wall to find the weakness in order to fix it. Now his enemy would survey the wall to find the weakness in order to attack.

Application: We should be alert and aware. We should understand our weaknesses and take appropriate measures to protect ourselves from temptation in those areas. For example?

4. Nehemiah called the people together – God put this idea in his heart. We will see the result of this in Chapter 8. Worshipping God is a community affair. Both in the Old Testament and today, we need to fellowship with other believers. Corporate worship and fellowship are the public side of our faith. We can both receive from and give encouragement to others. We can challenge each other. Two are stronger than one. Together we are stronger than we are by ourselves. Be sure you regularly fellowship with and serve God together with other believers.

5. Genealogies of the people who returned in the first wave (6-69)

Discussion Questions

• How many people returned in the first wave?
• Who led them?
• Are there any lessons we can learn from their return?

Verse by Verse Commentary

1. Many of the families made the decision to go back to Jerusalem. It was certainly not an easy decision. Most of them were born and raised in the Babylonian (and the Persian) Empire. This was “home” to them in a sense. The people they knew were there. Their houses were there. They had friends there. They had careers, jobs, and possessions. They had security. Back in Jerusalem, they wouldn’t know what to expect. Certainly, there would be dangers both on the way and when they arrived back. They would have to start their lives completely from scratch, facing difficulties and opposition they had never dreamed of.

But they made the choice to go because God stirred their hearts. God put this desire in their hearts and they responded. In their heart, they knew that Babylon wasn’t really their home. It wasn’t the land God had promised to them. Judah was their home. In like manner, we are also aliens in this world and our citizenship is in heaven, where our hearts should also be.

Application: These people obeyed God’s will for them, much like their ancestor Abraham had done so long before. We must be willing to obey Christ no matter how much it costs. That is what it means to be His disciple.

The list in Nehemiah 7 is the same as the list in Ezra 2. Here are a few observations:

The people each returned to their own city. Although seventy years had passed, they continued keeping track of family lines and property ownership.

Ezra numbers all the people meticulously, giving a clear impression of a very organized return. It is not chaos. Everything is done in order. The leaders taking them back know precisely who is going back, where they will go, and who they are with. This gives a certain amount of safety and accountability. You can imagine they also likely did some periodic counts to make sure that everyone who left Babylon was still safe and in the caravan.

We see some people from all of the key groups returning, including Benjamin, Judah, Levites, Priests, and Temple Servants.

If you add up all the numbers given in the first part of the chapter, it is actually around 10,000 short of the number given in verse 64. This is explained by the fact that Ezra doesn’t list out everyone by family, probably not including the numbers for the non-Judah and Benjamin tribes.

We also see that there are a couple of groups that could not find records of their ancestry. They were therefore excluded from serving as a priest until a priest could ascertain God’s will for them from the Urim and Thummim.

Upon returning to the land, one of the first things they did was give a contribution to the temple to build the foundation. This appears to be on a volunteer basis. The people freely gave from what they received when they left Babylon. This gets the temple construction project off to a good start.

The number of people returning seems very small. There are only 42,360. Contrast that with the likely 2 million people leaving Egypt at the Exodus. We can see Israel has been humbled. Its position is very low. They have no standing, status, or power in world affairs. The few things they have were mostly given to them by charity. They only have the right to be there because the leader of the empire they now serve gave them permission. No longer are they a strong, proud, independent nation. They are lowly servants dependent on the crumbs falling from their masters’ table.

What can we learn from this? God certainly blessed them and showed them His grace to allow them to return. But sin doesn’t come without consequences. God eventually forgave them and restored them. But what they were restored to was much less than what they lost before.

In our own lives, God will always be willing to forgive us and accept us back again, but it doesn’t mean that we can get everything we had before we sinned. Therefore, by far the best choice is to never stray from or disobey God.

III. People donate to the work (70-73)

Discussion Questions

• Who donated?
• What kind of things did they donate?
• What can we learn from them?