There are so many priorities in your life. You've got your school, you've got your work, you've got your children, you've got your church. But how do you know which one to place where? Picking your proper priorities coming up right now on the 3B Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr.
Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We're so glad you're joining us for the conversation.
And we're here in the studio with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time, Dr. Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr.
Shah, great conversation on leadership today. Absolutely. We're going to pick up and talk about priorities again. Putting our priorities first. What did you say earlier?
Picking your proper priorities. Did you plan that? I did. That was very good. I was going to say that.
I saw, I'm a sucker for alliteration, so I saw an opportunity and I had that. That's the guys on a priority. That's the proper priorities. Yeah. Say it right.
Picking your proper priorities. Yeah. I was going to say something in the theme music, but I was like, yeah, maybe not. Give me a Peter Parker, a Bruce Banner, a J. Jonah Jameson.
A Fin Fang Foon. Any day. Yeah, all that stuff. All that stuff. Kurt Connors.
That's right. Fantastic Four. That's right. Silver Surfer. I'm done.
I've got one more. One more? One more. Mini the Moocher. Oh, deep.
We're talking about Nehemiah, whose name is not alliteration.
However, we're talking about Nehemiah and how he sorted through what to prioritize. Because sometimes when you're looking at a task, I know I'm guilty of this.
Sometimes you're looking at a task and you lose the forest for the trees. You start to look at the details and it's difficult to figure out what to do next and what to prioritize. Dr. Shah, where do we begin?
Well, look at how the priests were the first one to build the walls. They were the first one to stand up. It says right here very clearly: then Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priests, and built the sheep gate.
Now, not only as priests, they were the first to stand up because as pastors, as leaders, as shepherds, whether in the church ministry or anywhere else, you should be the first in line. And we talked about that in our show yesterday. But also what did they build? What did they repair? They did not repair the fish gate.
I mean, they could have done that and helped improve the food market in Jerusalem because that's how the food came in. Right. There was a valley gate, and they could have started there and helped fortify the defenses of Jerusalem. There was also the Watergate. Not the Nixon Watergate.
They could have started there and helped the water supply of the city, but they started with the Sheep Gate. Why the sheepgate? The sheep gate was in the northeastern corner of the city wall, and it got its name from the sheep that were brought in through that gate For sacrifice at the temple. Because even though the temple had been rebuilt at this point. Keep in mind Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the temple.
He had destroyed the city, he had torn down the city walls and burned the gates with fire, taken away the exiles, driven away the people. I mean, nothing was left. When Cyrus the Great freed the people and one by one they began to come by not really one by one in groups they came back One of the first tasks was to rebuild the temple. And they began. But because of opposition, for many years, they abandoned that project.
Until You know, some came up. The profits. inspired the people. To Finished the task and they rebuilt the temple. Yeah.
But the city walls were still lying in ruins. And this is when Nehemiah gets the word. He cries, he weeps, he fasts, goes before the king, gets permission, comes, and he begins the project. Of course there is opposition. This is where we are.
The priests are the first in line to begin the task. But they begin at the sheep gate because even though the temple was there, Bringing in sheep was very difficult.
So imagine How hard it is when they're trying to sacrifice.
Well, we have to, well, maybe let's not do it today because. It's going to be hard for the shepherds to get the sheep in here. The walls are torn down. They cannot come through. The sheep are going to break their limbs or the gates over there, but the gates on the other side of the city, we can't really.
Well, maybe if y'all can get some sheep, I mean, early on, we can maybe.
So you can imagine. Yeah. Yeah. It's in disarray. Yeah.
So they chose, it was not like an eeny, meeny, miney, mo, let's pick the let's pick the gate we want to do first and get going. It was like, no, the sheep gate is the priority because of the sacrifices. Because of the sacrifices. It was not just that they were the priests and they were first in line, but also what they did was of Of prime importance, the sacrificial system has to be reinstated. This is about the gospel.
Yeah. You know, when people read the book of Nehemiah, they just think this is about leadership or renovating some business or some church. No, this is about. reinstituting the gospel. The priest, by fixing the sheep gate, keep in mind, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
So by fixing the sheep gate, they were once again returning to the primary purpose for which God called Israel. Which is to take the gospel of the Lamb of God. To the ends of the earth. I love that in all the conversation about Nehemiah and all of his choices, wise choices as a leader, it's gone back to his vision of seeing God's plan to fruition, of seeing, making sure that God's plan of salvation was not in jeopardy. That, yes, Jerusalem needed its wall so that it could be a stronger city, but God's plan was really the focus for Nehemiah.
Yeah, the gospel was the first thing. You can talk about that a little bit for how churches do this today, where. A lot of the times we get so caught up in our projects or our renovations or our building or our plans or our vision that we forget that the gospel has to be and I don't mean we as in Clearview, but just the church in general. We forget that the gospel has to be central to all of it. You know what I'm saying?
And even if they have like children in mind, or we care about the young families. It's more like so we can have children here. That's it? For what purpose? Oh, we want to get some young families in church.
Why? Oh, because you know that means there's life.
So, do you think Jesus came and died on the cross so that your church can have life? He said, Well, yeah, no, what I'm saying here is you have the wrong vision. Everything we do. Should be gospel-centered. That's right.
And that's what the priests did. In fact, it says right here that they consecrated that gate and hung its door. They consecrated.
So this is not just like, oh yeah, you're saying the sheep get Because it's the Lamb of God connection you made. You're spiritualizing the text. No, they consecrated the door, the gate.
So they knew exactly what they were doing. And they were doing the first things first, which is the gospel of the coming Son of God. You know, one of the things that I think is really unique about you as a pastor is you're very into, not even just into, you're a leading voice in biblical academics, right? And New Testament textual criticism. It's not just a hobby.
You know what I'm saying? And I think a lot of times people will do that where it's like, okay, I'm a pastor. I've got a great church.
Now it's time for a hobby. I can dive a little deeper into what I'm interested in. But it's not that at all. The more equipped you are to understand how these manuscripts were. Written and were copied, and how the inner working of the Bible has the more qualified you are to teach on the Bible, and the more people you teach the Bible, the more they're coming to accept the Bible.
You know?
Well, just keep in mind that the Bible is under attack, has been since the beginning of time. I mean, as God indeed said, that's what the serpent said to Eve.
So the word of God has been under attack since the very beginning, since the Garden of Eden. But especially now. In the past couple of decades, the new Weapon that the enemy has used against the Word of God is manuscript evidence. Do you have the manuscript? Because you keep talking about the Word of God, the Word of God, the powerful, inerrant, inspired, authoritative Word of God.
But do you even know what the Word of God is? See, Serpent asked Eve, Has God indeed said? Are you sure that's what he said? Same thing is happening today. Wow.
How do you feel that you have the Word of God? Because, based on manuscript evidence, You don't. I mean, somebody recently attacked me on social media talking about my work, Changing the Goalpost, where I talk about how retrieving the original text of the New Testament has become passe. To be fair, though, that guy read two chapters. Right.
He didn't even read chapters. And that's in chapter two. Yeah, he was in chapter two, and he said you were a Sturzian text. Which is not true. I was like, where did he get that?
It wasn't in those two chapters. Anything, I'm a Byzantine text priority. Not Sturzian. Sturzian is like Byzantine and Alexandrian and Western, you know, two out of three. As long as it's two out of three, then we go with that text.
Yeah. That's not what I was ever saying. Yeah. Right. So maybe read a little better, read a little more closely.
I think, I mean, this is just me, and maybe we cut this out of the episode. I think it's kind of crazy to go into a New Testament textual criticism Facebook thread. Say, I've read two chapters of this book, but I'm ready to talk about it and solicit other people's opinion. I'm ready to criticize this text. To me?
That's a little crazy, man. That's a little crazy. Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. Actually, read it and understand it.
I'm not saying my dissertation is foolproof and has no problems in it. Of course, there are issues you may have, but the issue you had was not the issue. Yeah. You got the wrong issue. Right.
That's like going to McDonald's and complaining about the pizza. Yeah, you're in the wrong conversation. Let's move on before this guy cries. Because you know, he's going to be listening to this.
So, but for real, though, like, we're talking about the gospel, right? We're talking about putting the reason that you're in academics is not to pursue a degree so that people will listen to me and think I'm smart. The reason you're in academics is because the more qualified I am to teach, the more people I can reach. That's right. Yeah, exactly.
I didn't even mean to make that round. Hey, that was good. That was pretty. I'm learning from you. And also to fight against and defend the truth.
The veracity of the word of God. And that's, I thank God for that. Amen. But something else you notice here when you read the list of names that stepped up to build the walls around Jerusalem. He also noticed humility.
And I know people are going to say, what do you mean by humility? These people had some money. I'm not saying they were super rich. They could have easily hired laborers to build the walls. They could have easily hired carpenters, to build the gates.
to hang the the gates on the hinges. They didn't do that. They did it themselves. I mean listen to Nehemiah chapter 3 verse 8.
Next to him Uziel The son of Herhia, one of the goldsmiths. Goldsmith Ghostman's don't don't build wall. Yeah. They don't You know, Saul trees and and and And, you know, s like lay timber and stuff. Lay timber and and build gates.
They're working with precious metal. Yeah, they work with with, you know, tiny little, you know, strings of gold to make necklaces and bracelets and earrings and nose rings. I mean, that's what they do. They don't do that. And next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs.
Why do you think he's the perfumers? Does not seem like the person you would hire for a construction work. Got to smell good, y'all. Like, y'all want this. Verse 9: Next to them, Raphael, the son of Hur, leader of half the district of Jerusalem in repair.
I mean, this is a prominent person. Mm-hmm.
So when you think about The people are in disarray, the walls are Torn down, the gates are burned with fire. Don't think that there is no administration. There is. Except that they are very vulnerable to their enemies. They have zero control over their future.
They have no promise that they will see tomorrow. But there is.
Some level of administration because this guy, Raphael, was the head of kind of like a.
Okay. County commissioner or a city council member. Then in verse 14, Nehemiah 3:14, Melchiah, the son of Rechab, the leader of the district of Beth-Hakarim. repair repaired the refuse gate. He built it and hung its doors with its bolts and bars.
Shaloon, the son of Col Jose, leader of the district of Mitzpah. repaired the fountain gate, he built it, covered it, hung its doors with its bolts, and bars.
So Goldsmiths Perfumers City Administrators Leaders All of them came together Set aside their immediate occupation, or whatever they were called to do, To go build the walls around Jerusalem. What does that do for our ministries? What does that do for us who are in ministry and who feel like, you know, I've been called to do this, but maybe I'm seeing that there's a need over here? You know, sometimes when people come to church, they go, Oh, I work with money, I can work with money here. At your church.
Red flag.
Well, sometimes it can be good.
Sometimes it's like, okay, you have a great knowledge. We can definitely benefit from that. But don't think that you cannot pick up a chainsaw and trim some bushes. You can do that. You may be a doctor.
And then work in the nursery ministry. Or you can be a police officer. And help and be in the play. Like we have some. Yeah.
Yeah. In the theater ministry. I saw a tweet years ago from Mike Donaghy. He's the lead singer of 10th Avenue North. I don't even know if they're still a band anymore, but I remember this tweet.
It was years and years ago, but he said. If you're not willing to hold a toilet brush, you're unworthy to hold a microphone. And I don't know why, but that tweet always stuck with me. I was like, you know what? It was, I think, before I even came here, but I was like, that's the kind of person I want to be.
I want to be willing to do what these men did. Absolutely. I mean, these men who could have thrown every roadblock and said, I don't do that sort of work. I don't do that kind of thing. You're asking the wrong person.
They didn't. Maybe they questioned it and we just don't have it in scripture, but I think Nehemiah issued the call and they rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Absolutely. You know what it makes me think of that day that we put that tent? Remember that huge tent?
We still have the tent. Oh, yeah, but we were all out there together and like none of us really knew. How to put this massive tent together. But you've got all these men who are like, we're going to figure this thing out. And we were out there like, Six hours.
Yeah, I know. It was terrible. It was bad. But I still think that that showed me that, hey, we are going to come together. And no matter what it takes, we're figuring this thing out.
And I can definitely say our team at Clearview, Clearview Church, are just like that. No matter what's happening, no matter what needs to be done, they don't sit back and say, that's not my responsibility. That's not my area of responsibility. No, they step in, they jump in, they do whatever needs to be done. And I'm grateful for each and every one of you, every single one of you.
Thank you for saying that. And I'll kick it back to you because it's just like we're talking about with Nehemiah. It's a culture of leadership. If you did not exhibit that for us, I mean, maybe we'd do it, but I know me and that spirit of, hey, I'm here. That's not naturally in me.
We might not all have that naturally in us at all times, but I think the culture that you've established, Dr. Shaw, and John, just like we've talked about on, I think it was yesterday's episode of you crawling underneath the floor where there's like live wires and open nails and risking your own physical well-being to make sure something gets done. I mean, that's the kind of person that you are. That's the kind of culture that you've set here. And that's the kind of people that you've shaped us into be.
And, you know, there's some people out there who like that kind of thing. Like me personally, I really love going up under the stage by myself, running cables, running. I would come up here on a day off and do that because I like doing it. What I don't like doing and what I'm not really good at doing is leading people. But I see my pastor who is like, no, no, no, this is important.
We are going to foster leadership among ourselves. Even if I don't like doing it or if I'm not, I don't feel like I'm good at it. Hey, this is important work. And if it's important work to him, then it's important work to me. And I think that Nehemiah exhibits that.
And I think you do a great job with Nehemiah. Thank you. Thank you. That means a lot. And you know, going back to Nehemiah.
Right now, we complimented all those people for doing something that was not their in their wheelhouse. They did things that they were not trained to do. But they were humble enough to do it. But there were some who did not do that. Oh, no.
So here we go. You ready for this? I'm ready. Verse five here.
Next to them The Techoites. made repairs. But their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work of their lord.
Now, you know, good and well, Nehemiah had to call him out in the word of God. That's right. You act up with somebody who's right in the word of God, you're going to get called out. Wherever you show out, that's where you're going to get worked out.
Well, see, the nobles were not the rich, they were. The high class. The imagery there is agricultural. It is a picture of a stiff-necked ox refusing to be yoked. Too proud.
Yeah, gotcha. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. No, no. Just because this guy shows up from Persia and he fills your mind with all kinds of these these thoughts that we can we can rebuild Jerusalem again, Yeah, you can do that.
We're not helping. He didn't ask me. He didn't come and tell me. Yeah, I don't bow to anybody. Yeah, I don't know who this guy thinks he is.
I don't care if he came right from the king of Persia. I'm not bowing to him. Dr. Shah, do we know who the Tekoites were? Were they people who were already in the city?
Were they an outside force? Who were they?
Well, the best I know is that they were a group of people. I mean, this is kind of like their origin. This is the name of where they came from. But they're nobles. The the sort of the the more sophisticated type.
among the techoids just refused to work. The frou frou the froufroups. The frilled collars and white painted cheeks. Right, right, right. Of course, of course.
Too proud to bend down and pick up. You know what? Never mind. Yeah, don't even go. I'm just going to get upset at it.
I'm just going to get upset. You know, pride comes before the fall. Yeah. And these people were full of pride. And if that gets into a church, if that gets into the staff, if somebody becomes prideful, like that's beneath me, and that's I don't get paid for that.
That's above my pay grade kind of thing. Then you have a problem. Yeah, and I think about like these techoites too, like. Imagine, I know that momentary rush of winning an interaction where someone's like, hey, we need to get to work. I'm not doing that.
And then they walk away and you feel like, I won. That was great. But man, now think about the trade-off. You're in the word of God for the rest of time. You know what I'm saying?
Or even like in our current day ministry position, like, yeah, I won that interaction. But you know what? That person will never trust me again. Everybody who saw that interaction doesn't respect me. Our church now isn't where it needs to be spiritually.
Also, think about the trade-off. Like these, these people, the Techoites were like, I'm not doing that. My pride's too valuable. I'm not going to, I'm not going to stoop myself to that level.
Okay, so what's the alternative? Your city still doesn't have walls. You're still at risk, but oh, well, thank goodness your pride's intact. It was a nobles among the techoites because the regular people did it. Right.
Yeah. Now something also very interesting. We looked at priority, the priests, first, and the first thing was the sheepgate. We looked at humility. These people were not trained in construction work.
They were goldsmiths and perfumers and city council people, and yet they did what needed to be done. But something else about these people. Many of them were not from Jerusalem. Hmm.
Okay. Many of them were doing it because it was the right thing to do, because they knew that Jerusalem. Is the soul of their people. This is where the promises, the prophecies were directed. We gotta get this right.
So, in verse 2, you have next to Eliashab, the men of Jericho. And that's from the city of Jericho, not from Jerusalem. Mm-hmm.
Next to them, the Techoids. That's another place. Verse 7.
Next to them, Milatiah, the Gibeonite. Another place Jadon, the Meronathite. the men of Gibeon and Mitzpah repaired.
So The point is These were not people living in Jerusalem and they were not building it so that they could feel safe. They were doing it because this was the right thing to do.
Something else here. Fathers worked with their children. I noticed that earlier when you when we were talking about the goldsmith, it was talking about the goldsmith and his son doing it. See, in verse 10, Jediah, the son of Harumath, made repairs in front of his house.
So there was a sense of ownership there. Maybe also an example. To the children to see, look, look, dad is doing that for you. Verse twenty three, Azariah the son of Massey, the son of Ananiah, made repairs by his house. Maybe grandfather, father and son.
Yeah. Three generations were three generations there. Verse thirty, Meshulem, the son of Berechiah, made repairs in front of his dwelling. And some might say this is so male chauvinistic. Verse 12: Shalom, the son of Haluchesh.
leader of half the district of Jerusalem, he and his His daughters. Daughters. Yeah. Girl power calls. Boys.
Girls were also invited. Yeah, I love it. I love it. That's the way it's supposed to be. And I think that's the way that it is in most healthy churches: you've got young men, young women working alongside different generations to accomplish the same goal.
That's truly a sweet spot in a ministry when you have an intergenerational model of ministry. People who are serving alongside their nieces and nephews, grandparents serving alongside grandkids, and then multiple generations in the church family interacting with one another. 70-year-olds serving alongside seven-year-olds. I mean, that's the picture of the church family coming together for the sake of the gospel. Amen.
What if there's someone listening who's there saying, you know, I don't have that in my church, but I want it. I want young men, young women working alongside different generations to accomplish this. How do I get that? Everything that you do is intentional. Of course, you need to pray over it.
You need to see God's blessing upon it. You need to get your people on the same vision. Explain to them the benefits of what you're trying to do, but also intentionality. I know that word gets overused, but that's very important. Intentionally seek to bring about this spirit in your church.
I'm not saying for a single moment that Clearview is like hitting ten on all these things. We're not. I would say we're not. Yeah. But hopefully Probably after going through this lesson, this episode, maybe we need to make that our priority.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But I want to point out one thing if we have a couple of questions. Yeah, absolutely. We do.
There are two names in this list. that are very interesting. Verse 4. And next to them Merimoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Koz, made repairs.
Now, who was Miramot? We just read past that, we don't think about it. Merrimoth had a bad past. His grandfather, Hakos, had been removed from the priesthood because of marriage, After false gods. Merimoth could have been bitter, he could have gone astray, he could have followed in his grandfather's way, he could have joined up with San Ballot or Tobiah or Geshem, but instead he said I'm gonna make things right.
I'm going to help in this project.
So, also, with people who are listening to this, maybe I want to help out with the, I want to get involved with what the ministry is doing, but I got a bad past. Yeah, I got a past I'm ashamed of.
Well, there's another one here in verse 11: Melchiah, the son of Harim, and Hashub, the son of Pahat Moab, repaired another section as well as the tower of the ovens.
Now, who was Melchiah? He too had a bad past, but it was not his grandfather, it was him, because 13 years earlier, he also had married after false gods. And under Ezra's ministry he got it right. And there he is. Wow.
So, whether foundationally your family, had issues or you yourself made some bad choices? If God is doing something in your church, repent. Get your heart right with Jesus Christ. And get busy. Yeah, maybe speak to what that does for your testimony.
Especially as people are watching you in this minute. Absolutely. Now, there may be some places that you may not be able to serve. Like if you messed up and you're like, well, I'm going to be the pastor now. No, maybe not.
Maybe you disqualified yourself. I don't know. I don't know what that offense is.
So, depending on the offense, you may not have certain ministries, but that's okay. Do something. Do something because it's going to tell the world. And tell your family. that God's grace covers all And it's gonna also help you as a believer to be part of what God is doing.
So don't get upset if somebody says, well, thank you for helping, but we don't need you here. Oh you need you here.
Okay, no problem. I'll do that.
So I hope somebody needing listening today will take this to heart and step up. And join in where God is moving. That's right. Because, like we said earlier, in humility, there's nothing that's beneath you. You're not too good for anything.
You step up and you do the work that's set before you because that's what it means to be called together to accomplish a task. That's right. And it may not happen overnight. It may not happen within a week or a month, but as time passes, you will see your leadership begins to take effect. That's right.
Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow. We're going to continue this conversation about Nehemiah, see how this rebuilding project is affecting them, not only as a people, but affecting them as a nation and affecting their understanding of God's plan for salvation and securing that for their future. That's right. Make sure you're sharing these episodes with your friends, your loved ones. You can do that by following along with any of our podcasting platforms.
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