Page 101 - Principles of Leadership - Nehemiah

When we begin to look at traditions of worship, we will find a vast array of traditions and styles of worship
throughout history. Before I begin to briefly talk about the traditions of worship, I am compelled to remind you
that the object of worship, God Himself, is vastly more important than the traditions of Worship. Throughout
the scriptures, we find a rich tradition of using musical instruments to assist in the worship experience. This
chapter shows that 27 thanksgiving and singing accompanied by cymbals, harps, and lyres were used. Verses
35 and 41 teach us that
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35 Some of the priests’ sons had trumpets: and… that the singers sang, with Jezrahiah as the leader. Charles
Swindoll adds that this was not a bunch of professionals leading a professionally done worship service.
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Commenting on verse 43, he says the following… On that day, they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced
because God had given them great joy. The women and children also celebrated, and Jerusalem’s rejoicing
was heard far away. “You’ll never convince me that all those women and kids stood at ramrod-straight
attention and walked in step like pallbearers, tight-lipped and strait-laced. No, they got with it! It was sort of
like a Disneyland parade if I read this correctly.” 216 Warren Wiersbe comments similarly when he says, “It was
not only the professional musicians who expressed praise to God, for the women and children also joined in the
singing.” 217

Charles Swindoll brings out another important tradition of worship, and that is, “Holiness precedes happiness.
There isn’t a leader reading my words who hasn’t tried to fake a clean heart and failed. Moral carelessness and
borderline sin give laughter a hollow ring. There can be no laughing off the things God hates. A leader who
expects his efforts to lift the spirits of others must start with purification.” 218 This is an instrument that is often
overlooked in leading worship. However, this is also an instrument that Nehemiah emphasized repeatedly. In
verse 30, he says that the priests and Levites had purified themselves; they purified the people. This same
theme of holiness is echoed throughout the New Testament. The writer of Hebrews says, 12:14-15 make every
effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness, no one will see the Lord.

3. The Cost of Worship

In the concluding verses of this chapter, you will find that worship was organized, and everyone was expected
to participate in helping to support the necessities of the priest and Levites so that worship could continue. In
the following verses, you will discover that the people were grateful to the priests and Levites who were
serving. This gratefulness was demonstrated in their generosity to those who served in the temple worship in
any fashion. On that same day, men were placed in charge of the rooms [that housed] the supplies,
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contributions, first fruits, and tenths. The legally required portions for the priests and Levites were gathered
from the village fields because Judah was grateful to the priests and Levites who were serving. I want to
remind you that there had been a great famine in the land, and people were selling themselves into slavery.
(Nehemiah 5:1-19) Prosperity was certainly not a term that could be used for these times. However, notice that
the legally required portions for the priests and Levites were gathered from the village fields because Judah
was grateful. This reminds me of a trip I made to a small village in Zimbabwe. When the offering was gathered,
people brought crops they had grown to the offering table. These people gave out of their deep poverty
because they were grateful. Oh, that this same spirit would capture His church today! They performed the
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service of their God and the service of purification, along with the singers and gatekeepers, as David and his
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son Solomon had prescribed. For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there were leaders of the
singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. So in the days of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, all Israel
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contributed the daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers. They also set aside daily portions for the
Levites, and the Levites set aside daily portions for the descendants of Aaron. Raymond Brown says that “No
worship can be honoring to God if those who serve the Lord are deprived of life’s necessities.” 219 The mindset
at this time was whatever it cost us; we must sacrifice. We must support the worship of God in the temple.
That’s what our lives are about. However, in 13 short years, they will slip back into their old ways. Nehemiah
will return to Babylon, and in the next chapter, purification and giving will be the first two things that will slip
away.
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