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Thursday, September 30, 2021

Bible In One Year Day 273 (Nehemiah 3, Zechariah 14, Proverbs 20: 23-26)

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Agape Bible Study 
Nehemiah 3 

Nehemiah 3:1-32 ~ A Record of the Builders and How the Walls Were Rebuilt

Chapter 3 describes the reconstruction of about 45 sections of wall from the north side of the city and moving counterclockwise. Nehemiah organizes the people into forty-two groups from eight classes of society to work on various sections of the ruined walls, employing chief priests, Levitical lesser ministers, princes, nobles, guild representatives (goldsmiths, perfumers, merchants), rulers of provincial districts, people from other cities (Jericho, Tekoah, Gibeon, and Mizpah), and ordinary citizens of Jerusalem. It was a cooperative effort, but the plan worked because of the Lord's support. Yahweh listened to their prayers and blessed their efforts.

A list of the numbers of workers assigned to different sections of the wall:

  1. The northern section had eight work assignments (3:1-5).
  2. The western section had ten work assignments (3:6-13).
  3. The southern section had two work assignments (3:14-15).
  4. The eastern section had twenty-one work assignments (3:16-32).

For the East Wall, the builders seem to have built an entirely new wall, and this may explain the large numbers of workers.

Nehemiah names ten city gates beginning in the city's northern wall. The list of gates in Chapter 3:

  1. Sheep Gate
  2. Fish Gate
  3. New Gate
  4. Valley Gate
  5. Dung Gate
  6. Fountain Gate
  7. Water Gate
  8. Horse Gate
  9. East Gate
  10. Muster Gate

The location of gates and other sites mentioned in Chapter 3:

  1. The Sheep Gate was likely named for the sheep market located there. It was probably also called the Benjamin Gate because it led into the tribal lands of Benjamin north of Jerusalem and was known in New Testament times as located near the Pool of Bethesda in the northeastern corner of Jerusalem ( Neh 3:1, 32; 12:39; Josh 18:11-28; Jer 37:13; 38:7; Zech 14:10; Jn 5:2).4
  2. The Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel were in the northwest part of the wall. The "hundred" may have referred to its height in cubits, its number of steps, or a military unit (Dt 1:15). Both towers were associated with the citadel by the Temple (Neh 2:8). The Tower of Hananel was probably the predecessor of the Antonia Fortress built by King Herod in the 1st century BC as the military barracks for Jerusalem's Roman garrison.
    Towers could be circular or square stone structures and served as military watch posts (Neh 3:2).
  3. The Fish Gate was on the west side of the city (Neh 3:1).
  4. The Old Gate was probably the gate to the extended Second Quarter of the city (Neh 3:6; also cf., 2 Kng 22:14).
  5. The Broad Wall was part of the western quarter of the pre-exile city (Neh 3:8).
  6. The Furnace Tower, also called the Tower of the Ovens or the Angle Tower, was located in the western wall probably near the bread baking district (Neh 3:11, 19; 2 Chron 26:9).
  7. The Valley Gate in the eastern wall had a long stretch of wall between it and the previous gate, (Neh 3:6). Nehemiah records eight separate sections of the wall completed before coming to the Valley Gate and another long stretch of wall of 1000 cubits before coming to the Dung Gate (Neh 3:13-14).5
  8. The Dung Gate was in the southern wall and led out to the Hinnom Valley. The Septuagint calls it the Cheese Gate, and it was later known as the Gate of the Essenes (Neh 2:12; 3:13-14; 12:31). It got its name because refuse was hauled out of the city through this gate to the constantly burning trash heaps in the Hinnom Valley.
  9. The Fountain Gate was in the southeastern wall and completely rebuilt. It was the gate nearest to the Pool of Siloam (Neh 3:15; 12:37).
  10. The Pool of Siloah/Siloam (also called Pool of Shelah) near the King's garden in Jerusalem and one of the chief water sources for the city, bringing water from the Gihon spring on the southeastern slope of the city by an open canal to the Lower Pool, the pool of Siloam (Is 22; Neh 3:15). King Hezekiah significantly improved the water-supply system by building a tunnel to bring the water to the pool (2 Kng 20:20; 2 Chron 32:30). In the New Testament, the pool of Siloam was the site where Jesus returned vision to the man born blind (Jn 9:7-10).
  11. The City of David was the first settled site of ancient Jerusalem on Ophel hill on the southeast side of the city and where David had his palace and administrative center (Neh 3:15; 2 Sam 5:9f).6
  12. The "graves of David" refers to the tombs of the Davidic kings, although only King David was buried within the city walls (1 Kng 2:10; 2 Chron 21:20; 32:33; Neh 3:16; Acts 2:29).
  13. The artificial pool was an old, no longer used reservoir that drew off water from the Gihon pool and was filled in by King Hezekiah when he built his tunnel system for delivering the water from the Gihon (2 Kng 20:20). The House of Champions or House of Warriors was once the barracks of the bodyguards or "mighty men of King David and the Davidic kings (2 Sam 16:6; 23:8-39; Neh 3:16).
  14. The Angle, mentioned in verses 19, 20, 24, and 25, was a defense structure of the city built by King Uzziah when he fortified the city by constructing towers at various gates (2 Chron 26:9). The Angle seems to have been located along the east wall somewhere near the Water Gate and near the city's armory.
  15. The King's Upper Palace by the Court of the Guard refers to Solomon's palace that was north of the City of David and below the Temple Mount; the Court of the Guard was the barracks for the Davidic king's bodyguards (Neh 3:25).
  16. Biblical historians debate the location of the Water Gate, but most believe it was close to the City of David and near the Gihon spring, both on the southeastern side of the city (Neh 3:26). It must have opened on to a large area since Ezra's reading of the Law took place there (Neh 8:1, 3, 16; 12:37).
  17. The Ophel was the southeastern ridge of Jerusalem overlooking the Kidron Valley on the east side of the city and the site of the original City of David (Neh 3:26-27; 11:21; 2 Chron 27:3; 33:14).
  18. The projecting tower may have been a large tower whose ruins were discovered by archaeologists on the crest of the Ophel hill.
  19. The Horse Gate was in the wall leading from the palace of Solomon and facing the Kidron Valley on the east side of the city across from the Mount of Olives and was the entrance to the royal stables (2 Chron 23:15; Jer 31:40; Neh 3:28).
  20. The East Gate led out to the bridge that crossed the Kidron Valley and on to the Mount of Olives. It is the gate Jesus will use to enter the city from the Mount of Olives whenever He visited the city and stayed in Bethany. Christians call it the Golden Gate. In 1517, the Muslim ruler Suleiman the Magnificent sealed shut the East Gate because, according to the prophet Zechariah, it is the way the Messiah will return in His Second Advent (Zech 14:4-5; also see Ez 44:3 that prophesizes the gate will be closed until "the prince" comes to enter it). The gate from Jesus' time is buried below the current gate.
  21. Hall of the Temple slaves was living quarters for the palace servants.
  22. Hall of the Merchants was a resting/inn place for merchants and their animals who traveled to Jerusalem with their goods.
  23. Muster Gate, in Hebrew the Miphkad Gate, meaning the "inspection gate," may have been the gate leading into the Temple complex (Neh 3:31).


Nehemiah 3:33-35 ~ Opposition to the Reconstruction and Ridicule by Judah's Enemies

Nehemiah's opponents believe it will be an impossible task for him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem because they have neither the expertise nor the best materials to build a solid wall. They have underestimated Nehemiah and his God!



Nehemiah 3:36-38 (4:1-6) ~ Nehemiah's Prayer and Rebuilding the Wall Continues

Nehemiah's response is to go to God in prayer, asking for protection from their adversaries and justice for his people. He wants their enemies to experience the curses they heap on the covenant people and for them to pay for their insensitivity to the struggles of the exiles in their captivity and return to Judah. Nehemiah and the Jews did not dwell on their problems, but steadily continued rebuilding the wall until it had reached half the planned height because "the people put their hearts into the work."


Agape Bible Study
 Zechariah 14 

Chapter 14

Chapter 14:1-21 is the last prophecy in the apocalypse of Zechariah. It foretells the cosmic events produced in the second advent of the Davidic Messiah. When He returns, time becomes unified in one continuous day, and the earth is transformed in its leveling of the Holy Land and abolishing the occasions for and memory of idolatry and divination (stars and seasons, Gehenna and Tophet, Mount of Scandal, etc.). Also, there will be a unifying of religion to believe in the One God who will be "all in all." Verses 1-5 describe the end times battle continued in verses 12-15. Between these passages is a description of the new order in the new Age that is unending.

Zechariah 14:1-5 ~ The Eschatological (End Times) Battle

The "Day of Yahweh" is a day of divine judgment for the nations that surround Jerusalem with their armies. The Book of Revelation Chapters 16-19 describes the same event in a battle near Megiddo called the Battle of Armageddon (mount Megiddo) when the Christ will arrive to defeat the forces aligned with the Antichrist to restore the Davidic line and establish the new Kingdom of God on earth.

Question: What three acts of violence will the attackers inflict on the citizens of Jerusalem?
Answer: The capture of the city, the houses looted, and the women sexually abused.

Zechariah records the Divine Warrior will intervene, arriving to touch down on the Mount of Olives (Verses 3-4). The result is a major seismic event forming an extraordinary rift that emerges as the weight of the feet of Yahweh touching down will split the Mount of Olives in half with one divine foot on each side of the rift. The newly created valley will allow for Yahweh's people to escape. This rift is not the existing Kidron Valley that is parallel to the Mount of Olives since the Kidron turns eastward just south of Jerusalem and extends as far as the Dead Sea. Directly across from the Mount of Olives are the walls of Jerusalem. The gate in the wall by which Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm/Passion Sunday was closed off with stones by the Muslims sometime after they conquered the city in the 7th century AD to prevent the Christian Messiah from reentering the city and fulfilling the prophecies in Zechariah and Acts Chapter 1. The entrance to the Eastern Gate remains closed, but will not stop the return of the Messiah, the great earthquake and the resulting rift will announce the coming of Yahweh the Divine Warrior!

The only mention of the Mount of Olives in the Old Testament is in Zechariah 14:4 and 2 Samuel 15:30 when David escaped from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, weeping as his rebellious and ungrateful son entered Jerusalem. However, the "hill east of Jerusalem," where the Mount of Olive stands is where King Solomon constructed pagan shrines for his foreign wives (1 Kng 11:7-8; cf. 2 Kng 23:13), and it is probably the same location as the site of the sacrifice and burning of the Red Heifer (Num 19:1-22). The ashes of the Red Heifer were the essential ingredient in the purifying water used to cleanse persons and objects defiled by human death. In the New Testament, the greater power of Christ's blood that cleanses every believer in Christ of dead works (Heb 9:13-14) surpasses the Old Covenant ritual purifications. The ritual of the Red Heifer and other New Testament events all point to prophecies of judgment associated with this mountain.

Zechariah Lesson 4 listed passages in the New Testament that were associated with the Mount of Olives and Jesus' ministry. However, during Jesus' ministry, passages referring to the Mount of Olives are often associated with judgment. 

The Mount of Olives forms a ridge running north and south for about 2 miles (3 km) across the Kidron Valley east of Mount Moriah and Jerusalem. Zechariah 14:4 predicts in the eschatological future (end times) that Israel's enemies will launch a final battle against Jerusalem that will end with the return of the Divine Messiah to fight for His city. His feet will touch the Mount of Olives and cause a split in the mountain that will run from east to west. This divide will form a valley and an avenue of escape for the people of Jerusalem from their enemies (verse 5).


Jasol is the rendering in the Greek Septuagint that is Azal in Hebrew and possibly means "very near," suggesting the way of escape will be made easy. Or, if it is a place name, it may refer to some place near the western extreme of the valley, the limit to which the ravine of the Mount of Olives will extend. The prophet Amos mentions an earthquake during the reign of King Uzziah (Amos 1:1), and Isaiah 6:4 may allude to the same event. Earthquakes are frequent occurrences in the region which lies along the great Rift Valley extending from the upper Jordan River down to the Gulf of Eilat and along East Africa.

There are six earthquakes recorded in Scripture:

  1. The quake at Mount Horeb/Sinai for Elijah's benefit (1 Kng 19:11).
  2. The earthquake Amos refers to (Amos 1:1).
  3. The quake in the reign of King Uzziah (Zec 14:5).
  4. The shaking of the earth at the time of Jesus' Resurrection (Mt 28:2).
  5. The earthquake God initiated to free Paul and Silas from prison (Acts 16:26).
  6. The event mentioned by Isaiah as a form of judgment from God on the enemies of His people (Is 29:6).

Details about the events immediately preceding the final great battle in the Book of Revelation include:

Only then will the forces of evil, the Antichrist leading the rulers of the whole world, and the Messiah, the rider on the white horse (Rev 19:11-14) meet for battle at Armageddon, mentioned for the first and only time in the Bible. These events are examples that support the Biblical testimony that all natural phenomena (earthquakes, wind, storms, rain, hail, celestial events, etc. are under divine control and are part of God's sovereignty in ruling the world in righteousness.

The coming of Yahweh with "all the holy ones with him" in Zechariah 14:5b suggests divine warfare and has elements of St. Paul's prophecy in 2 Thessalonians 4:16 and events in the Book of Revelation. Paul describes the Lord returning with a full complement of saints and angels, and in the Book of Revelation, "The Word of God" and the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, come to defeat evil in the final battle (Rev 19:11-16, 19-20:3). 

Zechariah 14:6-11 ~ The Events on the Day of Yahweh's Judgment

In 14:6-7, the sun displaced by the glory of God recalls the same imagery in Isaiah 24:23; 60:19-20 and Revelation 22:5. The eternally flowing "living waters" imagery in 14:8, already mentioned in 13:1, that flow from the Temple of God that is the new Jerusalem recalls Jesus' promise to the Samaritan woman in John 4:10-14 and 7:37-39 and the waters John describes in the Book of Revelation 7:17; 11:15, and 21:23.


Zechariah 14:12-15 ~ The Plague of Destruction

The translators have placed verse 15 after verse 12 since they believe the sense of the passage required this adjustment. In these passages, "Jerusalem" becomes a symbolic image of God's covenant people and His restored Kingdom. The curse-judgment will be lifted from "Jerusalem" and directed toward her enemies. Those who choose to fight against God's holy covenant people will suffer the same fate as those Israelites who broke faith with Yahweh after entering the Promised Land.

Question: What did God warn would be the fate of those Israelites about to enter the Promised Land who abandoned their covenant with Him in Deuteronomy 28:20-22?
Answer: They would not prosper, all their works would accomplish nothing lasting, and they would be struck down will diseases.

Zechariah 14:16-21 ~ The Temple of the Lord After the Return of the Messiah

Verses 16-21 describe the new age beyond the "Day of Yahweh" when the remnants of other nations will come to the Lord God and keep an annual pilgrimage like the Feast of Shelters/Tabernacles/Booths which celebrated the dedication of the desert Sanctuary and God's covenant with His holy people (Lev 23:39-43).

The Oracle is positive for the Gentile nations because they will be able to find relief in the Lord's presence (Is 19:16-25). According to the Book of Revelation, the de-creation of the earth of humankind will be followed by a new era with a "new heaven and earth when a Final Judgment Day will take place with the resurrected dead judged according to their works (Rev 20:11-15; 21:1-8). All the Gentile nations are invited to be part of the new order, even the Egyptians, the historical enemies of the covenant people.


All the nations that had been enemies of God's people will participate in the sacred life of Jerusalem as the embodiment of the Kingdom of the Church of the people of God in the New Age that follows the Messianic Age. Even the bells worn by the warhorses as well as bowls and cooking pots will be ritually purified and called "Holy (or Holy) to Yahweh," The phrase "Sacred to Yahweh" was engraved on the golden plate worn by the anointed high priest on his miter (Ex 28:36-38) as a reminder of his consecration to God's service. In the New Age, everyone and everything will be consecrated to God's divine service. The end of this passage concerns: Yahweh's defeat of Israel's enemies by altering the created order, the acceptance of Yahweh's sovereignty by the survivors of those enemies, and the sanctity of the heavenly beings that have accompanied Yahweh in overturning nature to produce a new world order.

Zechariah's final prophecy affirms that Yahweh, God of Israel, is and will remain the one who controls the course of human history. These verses anticipate the gathering of all nations to the new Jerusalem Kingdom of the Messiah with the exclusion of "traders," in Hebrew "Canaanites," referring to those who refuse to worship Yahweh as the One God who will be denied entrance to His kingdom like God ordered the original Canaanites to be cast out of the Promised Land. The term "Canaanites" represented anyone who was morally or spiritually unclean and could not be included among the chosen people of God.

These final chapters culminate in a vision of God's ultimate victory over the people throughout history who continued to persecute His covenant people and resist His divine will to bless humanity (12:1-9). The Divine Warrior will return and bring all humanity to justice (14:1-21). Zechariah's final oracle celebrates the King's return and ultimate victory over evil, fulfilling not only the purpose of Christ's first advent but also the necessity of His second. Thus, all peoples of the earth who bow to God's sovereignty will be welcomed and sanctified to become fit to serve as worshipers in the new Jerusalem Sanctuary that is the center of worship for all humanity when "that Day comes."

In the Book of Revelation, the last Bible book, the Resurrected and glorified Christ's servant, John, like Zechariah, will receive visions and oracles concerning the return of the Messiah in glory. The victorious Christ will defeat Satan's last grip of power over the earth, bring the Final Judgment to all human beings, and create a new Heaven and earth with an eternal Jerusalem as the center of worship. In Hebrew, the word for "salvation" is y'shuah that comes from the Hebrew root yasha which means "to bring into a large, wide, open space." Through God's gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, that is precisely what Yahweh has prepared for humanity. His covenant people will inherit the new creation which will be given to them as the new Eden of one covenant family. This event is the last vision of St. John in the Book of Revelation: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea" (Rev 21:1). It is what Jesus tells St. John in Revelation 21:5, "Behold, I am making the whole of creation new."

Jesus will speak of faithful Zechariah son of Jehoiada son of Barachiah in a homily during His last week in Jerusalem, warning His generation: you will draw down on yourselves the blood of every upright person that has been shed on earth, from the blood of Abel the holy to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar (Mt 23:35-36). The inspired writer of 2 Chronicles recorded Zechariah's martyrdom: The spirit of God then invested Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said, "God says this, ‘Why transgress Yahweh's commands to your certain ruin? For if you abandon Yahweh, he will abandon you.'" They then plotted against him and, at the king's order, stoned him in the court of the Temple of Yahweh. Thus King Joash, forgetful of the devotion which Jehoiada father of Zechariah had displayed on his behalf, murdered his son, who cried out as he died, "Yahweh will see this and avenge it" (2 Chron 24:20-22). As Jesus' condemnation showed, Zechariah spoke prophetically!

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 273 The Canonicity of the Deuterocanonicals

CHALLENGE: “Why should we think the deuterocanonicals are Scripture?”

DEFENSE: Multiple lines of evidence support this conclusion.

The deuterocanonicals are seven books (Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Sirach, Wisdom, 1–2 Maccabees) and parts of two others (Daniel, Esther) considered canonical in the Catholic Church and many Eastern Orthodox and other Eastern Christian Churches but not in the Protestant community.

They were included in the canonical tradition represented by the Septuagint, the major Greek translation of the Old Testament. Where the Septuagint was translated is unclear. The traditional account links it to Alexandria; another possibility is Palestine, “because only a Palestinian origin could have generated sufficient prestige for the new translation” (Yale Anchor Bible Dictionary, s.v., “Septuagint”).

It was so prestigious that it was the version of the Old Testament overwhelmingly quoted by the authors of the New Testament. Although they could have translated from Hebrew or Aramaic versions, they used the Septuagint. According to figures provided by Gleason Archer and G.C. Chirichigno, there are 340 times when the New Testament authors appear to quote from the Septuagint, but only thirty-three times they clearly translate from the Hebrew text (Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament: A Complete Survey, xxv–xxviii).

The New Testament authors overwhelmingly used the Septuagint, which contained the deuterocanonicals. They also alluded to these books (see Day 305), and they never warned their audience against the deuterocanonical books. Consequently, it was natural for the first Christians to regard them as Scripture.

Protestant Church historian J.N.D. Kelly writes that, although some early writers had different views on these books, “for the great majority, however, the deuterocanonical writings ranked as Scripture in the fullest sense” (Early Christian Doctrines, 5th ed., 55). We thus find the use of the deuterocanonicals widely attested among the Fathers.

The reception of these books as canonical was affirmed at various councils, including Rome (382), Hippo (393), the Council of Carthage of 397, and the Council of Carthage of 419. These were local councils, but the canonicity of the books was also affirmed at the ecumenical council of Florence (1442) and infallibly defined at the Council of Trent (1546).

The canonicity of the deuterocanonicals is thus supported by Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist 

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