“ENCOURAGED BY REDEMPTIVE USEFULNESS.”
NEHEMIAH 1: 1-3, 4-7, 10-11; 2:4-8, 17-18.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO NEHEMIAH 1.
True to God’s promise of judgment, He brought the Assyrians and Babylonians to deliver His chastisement upon wayward Judah and Israel. In 722 BC the Assyrians deported the 10 northern tribes (Israel), and, according to 2 Kings 17, scattered them, all over the then known world.
Several centuries later in 605-586 BC, God used the Babylonians to sack, destroy, and nearly depopulate Jerusalem, because Judah had persisted in her unfaithfulness to the covenant. God chastened His people with 70 years of captivity in Babylon.
During the Jew’s captivity empire leadership changed from the Babylonians to the Persians. The Book of Ezra begins with the decree of Cyrus, a Persian King to return God’s people to Jerusalem. Zerubbabel and Joshua led the first return and rebuilt the Temple. Ezra 7-10 recounts the second return lead by Ezra in 458 BC. This brings to today’s lesson where Nehemiah, a Jewish exile, is a famous cupbearer to King Cyrus. His name means “Jehovah Comforts.” He never appears in Scripture outside of this book, which bears his name.
The Jews built a modest temple for worshiping the Lord and dedicated it about 516 BC, 70 years after Solomon’s glorious temple was ruined. The city of Jerusalem, however, was still in shambles. Debris was everywhere. The city walls—so important for security---had not been repaired. Into this situation came Nehemiah. God used this Jewish employee of a pagan king to accomplish his purposes for the city of Jerusalem, despite overwhelming circumstances.
The story of Nehemiah will stir your blood and move your faith to action. From being a Jewish exile who served table to Cyrus the King, he was given the burden and a dream of rebuilding Jerusalem. For 52 furious and dangerous days he and his companions, with a trawl in one hand and a sword in the other, actually rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls, getting it ready for Ezra, the faithful scribe, to come forth and reestablish the people with God’s Word.
It took two dangerous trips from Babylon, for Nehemiah with permission from Cyrus to accomplish the virtually impossible task to rebuild the city of God, the Great King.
PLEASE READ NEHEMIAH 1: 1-3.
One of the Persian cities was Susa or Shushan, located in what is now southwest Iran. There, Nehemiah lived as a Jew who had descended from the original exiles. The king of Persia ruling from Susa at the time was Artaxerxes. His 20th year to rule was about 445 BC. This means that the returned Jews had been living in Jerusalem for about 70 years since their temple had been restored. Nehemiah was in Shushan (Susa) in the winter palace of the Persian king. He was at this time an important official in King Artaxerxes’s household. He served as the royal cupbearer. According to ancient historians, the cupbearer was responsible to taste the king’s wine to be sure it contained no poison. Obviously Nehemiah had proven himself to be trustworthy and reliable, for the king’s life depended on him. Although he was a Jew, he held this high office in the king’s service.
The station of Nehemiah was one of worldly prosperity. But like Moses, his heart was with his lowly brethren, and his spirit was zealous for the testimony of the Lord.
During the time Nehemiah was in Susa, he was visited by some people from Judah. Hanani (huh-NAY-nigh) was a fellow Jew, who later became a supervisor over the wall-building project in Jerusalem. Whether he was one of Nehemiah’s biological brothers or simply a fellow Jew is unknown. He arrived with men from Judah at the Persian city of Susa one December day. Nehemiah was curious about Jerusalem. Now there was no king there. Only the Jewish remnant that had returned from exile loved there, eking out an existence as a people subject to Persia.
In vs. 3 Nehemiah soon learned about both the people and their physical situation. Jerusalem’s wall had been broken down, and, its gates had been burned down by the Babylonians, about 140 years earlier. Of course Nehemiah knew about that. He likely assumed that the situation had recently been corrected. He soon learned otherwise.
People living in an unwalled city were subject to great trouble by any threatening enemy. Further it was a disgrace for the people who belonged to an all-powerful God to be living in such sad circumstances.
It is well said that we cannot meet a need (spiritual or otherwise) until we learn about that need. Nehemiah was surely not expecting to be confronted with a need that day. New information, however, is often how God stirs up His people to accomplish His purposes. Nehemiah probably knew something of the need, but this description showed how desperate the need was.
We live in a world of all kinds of needs. Anyone who wants to be useful to God and others will see needs that someone can meet. One danger of assessing the situation in which we live is that we may become so overwhelmed by the number and complexity of the needs that we throw up our hands in frustration. As a consequence, we may do nothing. Or we can follow the example of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah felt helpless when confronted by the problem back in Jerusalem. But God opened the door for him to do something about it.
PLEASE READ NEHEMIAH 1: 4-7.
Although Nehemiah was neither a prophet nor a priest, he had a deep sense of Jerusalem’s significance to God and greatly distressed that affairs there had not advanced the cause and glory of God. Vs. 4 shows Nehemiah’s response to his awareness of this need. He sat down, wept, mourned, fasted and prayed. He seems to have been a man of great feelings. Perhaps it was patriotism: perhaps it was religion: but it did not stop with mere feelings. Nehemiah’s actions are expressed with intensity. Notice also that he continued to do this for days.
In fact, the number of days of mourning, fasting and praying may have lasted a few months between Nehemiah’s hearing the news and his going to the king to make his request for the king to send him to rebuild Jerusalem.
In his mourning, Nehemiah abstained from food to help him concentrate on his people’s needs and discern God’s will for him to help. In praying, he prostrated himself before the God of heaven to intercede for his afflicted people and his beloved city.
In vs. 5 Nehemiah found help in prayer. His prayer for the devastated Israelites fell into three sections: Praise, Confession of sin, and petition. In his prayer Nehemiah praised God for who He is and what He does for His people. He began by addressing God as Lord, which is the personal name by which God revealed Himself. The name probably means “the One who causes to be.” With the expression Lord God of Heaven, Nehemiah affirmed God’s universal sovereignty and indicated His dwelling place to be in the heaven of heavens, which is above the visible sky. By His nature and action God inspired awe and godly fear.
Toward those who reject Him, He is great and awe-inspiring in wrath. Toward those who love Him and keep His commands, He is awesome in keeping His gracious covenant and in showing His steadfast love. He has eyes that open and ears that can be attentive. God sees His people’s needs and hears when they pray---unlike the false gods of other religions.
Nehemiah testified in vs. 6 that he had prayed day and night for God’s people in Judah since he heard of their plight. This need not mean that Nehemiah prayed 24 hours each day; but since it was combined with fasting, Nehemiah’s prayer was made many times throughout the day and night. The Bible teaches us to keep on praying. This is not necessary to impress God but in order that He can prepare us for living for Him. Another reason we keep praying is that real needs are constantly on our minds and hearts.
He asked God to hear his prayer in the sense of taking action on behalf of His servants, the Israelites. In making the request with confession of sins, Nehemiah underscored his, his own father’s house, and his people’s sins as being the cause of the present problem. He also confessed his sins to remove any barrier between him and God. Only then did Nehemiah believe he would know how to help his people and have power to help them.
In vs. 7 Nehemiah described the Israelites behavior as having acted corruptly before God. To corrupt carries the idea of ruining and causing pain. God’s commands, statutes, or ordinances, which God commanded through Moses, were not given without reason. He knows what is best for people, and society. He gave his laws as an act of grace to point the way to the good life.
His disobedient people had brought ruin to themselves and to their city by failing to live in accord with God’s ethical demands. They also had ruined God’s witness through them to the world by failure to show others through their lives the value of living according to God’s will.
These words, commands, decrees, and judgments are all overlapping terms to express the laws that God had commanded through His servant Moses. This indicates that Nehemiah had the Scriptures available in this own time. This would have included Genesis through Deuteronomy, perhaps more.
Nehemiah knew that when he sinned, it could also be called acting very corruptly before God. Sin had corrupted his relationships with God, with others, and with himself. The normal pattern among those God uses is that He cleanses them of sin before He uses them in His service.
Acknowledging sin and turning to God are necessary parts of being useful servants of God. Sins keep a person from knowing and doing God’s will.
Nehemiah’s prayer was an intercessory prayer, not just a personal petition. He was thinking of the people in Jerusalem. He prayed that God would show mercy to His sinful people. He confessed the sins of the Children of Israel. Nehemiah included himself and his family among those who had sinned. He said, “Both I and my father’s house have sinned. This shows two things. For one thing, being right with God spiritually is the most important need of every person. The people of Jerusalem needed a new wall, but their basic need was to be the kind of people who honored the Lord. The other thing it shows is that the one doing the praying must be right with God. Thus Jesus taught us to pray in Luke 11:4,”Forgive us our sins.”
Nehemiah 1:7, refers to Israel’s past history of continually disobeying God’s commandment. In this world of needs, God is seeking people whom He can use to help meet each need. He laid on Nehemiah’s heart Jerusalem’s need for walls. He will lay on our hearts some need that we can help meet. Our first response should be to pray earnestly about the need. We need to pray for the spiritual needs of those who are involved, and we need to confess our own sins and be sure our hearts are open to the Lord.
3, PLEASE READ NEHEMIAH 1: 8-11.
Nehemiah’s prayer continues in vs. 8-11. Vs 8 refers to God’s warning to ancient Israel that disobedience would be punished by being scattered among the nations. Vs. 9 refers to God’s promise of restoration to His people. Vs. 10 describes how the Lord redeems His people by His great power. This could refer to the redemption of Israel from Egyptian slavery, or it could refer to His sending them from exile to the Promised Land. Vs. 11 repeats much of vs. 6 by asking the Lord to be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants.
Nehemiah prayed that he might prosper and that God would grant him mercy in the sight of this man. The next verses make clear that this man was King Artzxerxes. At some point in the process of learning about the need, being concerned about it, and praying about it, Nehemiah began to hear God’s call to take a leadership position in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. This is implied by the prayer, that God give him favor in the king’s eyes, and it is made clear by the events that followed.
As Nehemiah prayed, a specific day came when he intended to go to the king with the request that he be allowed to go to Jerusalem. He asked God to give him success in this mission. He asked God to cause the king to approve him and his request. Going into the presence of a Persian king was dangerous. Persian kings were fickle in how they responded to such requests. Nehemiah also knew that the king had earlier ordered that the Jews attempt to rebuild the wall be stopped.
However, Nehemiah had two reasons for cautious optimism. One was that he was the king’s cupbearer. In some countries this post was help by some expendable servant whose main job was to taste small portions of what the king ate and dank to ensure that it was not poisoned. But “recent studies ha e shown the importance of this position. In the ancient Near Eastern court the cupbearer, with his direct access to the king, was regarded as important and influential.” Some sources consider the cupbearer as second only to the king. Thus when Nehemiah later was named governor of Judah (5:14), this was in a sense a demotion. This direct access was probably a key factor in Nehemiah’s sense of call.
The other reason for Nehemiah to be optimistic is even more important, He felt that he was doing what God wanted him to do. His trust was not in his position or abilities but in the Lord. Nehemiah knew that the king—for all his power---was only a man. God is the Lord of all—including kings. Later Nehemiah testified that all that happened in leading him to Jerusalem was the hand of the Lord.
Becoming concerned enough about some need and praying for God to meet that need led Nehemiah to hear God calling to be God’s instrument in meeting that need. Praying can be dangerous. Jesus told the apostles in Matt. 9:38 to pray that the Lord of the harvest send workers into the fields. A few verses later we read in Matt. 10:5, “These twelve Jesus sent forth.” Do you really want to be useful to God? Look about you at the needs. Pray about the needs, and you will find your place in meeting needs.
PLEASE TURN TO NEHEMIAH CHAPTER TWO.
PLEASE READ NEHEMIAH 2: 4-8.
Four months had passed since Nehemiah received the news from Jerusalem. He had been praying and planning during these four months so that he would be ready when the opportunity arose.
It pleased the God of heaven, in bringing about an answer to Nehemiah’s prayer, to attract the attention of the Persian ruler to the grief-stricken face of Nehemiah. Kindly the monarch inquired after the cause of this change of countenance. “Why is thy countenance sad?” asks the king, “seeing thou art not sick. This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.”
Fearful of his sovereign’s displeasure, his cupbearer replies, “Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my father’s sepulchers, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?”
Nehemiah could not be indifferent to a matter of this kind. But observe, he did not stand aside and write pamphlets on the failure of his brethren or simply denounce them for their backsliding while doing nothing to help them reach a better state. His grief was deep and genuine.
And so when the king inquired, “For what dost thou make request?”: he didn’t answer till he had “prayed to the God of heaven.” What an atmosphere of prayer surrounds this man! It is his constant resource throughout all his varied experiences. He walked with God because, he talked with God. Now, assured of the Lord’s mind, he made request for permission to visit the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, that he might “build it.”
Nehemiah asked the king to send him to Judah with the king’s authority to rebuild the city. To show his submission to the king, Nehemiah used two conditional statements in his polite request.
First, Nehemiah called on the king to evaluate his service. The king had halted the unauthorized and perhaps rebellious attempt of some Jews to rebuild and refortify the city of JERUSALEM. But Nehemiah had shown himself to be the king’s trusted servant. He would not lead the Jews into rebellion but could be counted on to carry out the king’s policies.
In vs. 6 the king granted Nehemiah’s request after inquiring concerning the time required to complete the mission. Nehemiah gave the king a definite time. However, Nehemiah did not say how much time he specified. The building of the wall took 52 days. Later that year the king appointed Nehemiah governor of Judah in which position Nehemiah served for 12 years. Nehemiah probably returned to Susa after rebuilding the wall and then received the 12-year appointment.
In vs. 7-8 Nehemiah made additional requests needed to carry out his commission. He asked he king to give him royal letters of safe passage to the governors west of the Euphrates River through whose provinces Nehemiah would have to pass to get to Judah. Nehemiah also requested a royal letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forests, to secure the timber necessary for rebuilding the gates…the city wall, and Nehemiah’s official residence. With the declaration I was graciously strengthened by my God, Nehemiah testified how he succeeded with the king. God move the king to help Nehemiah. All that may be needed for the work of building is granted by the king.
PLEASE READ NEHEMIAH 2: 17-18.
In vs. 9 God had moved the Persian King to dispatch royal army captains and horsemen to accompany Nehemiah through the regions of the governors west of the Euphrates River to protect him.
In vs. 10 when Sanballet the Moabite and Tobiah the Ammonite heard of Nehemiah’s plan to rebuild Jerusalem they were deeply disturbed. These men were probably leading the opposition described in Ezra 4: 7-23 which stopped the work in Jerusalem before.
Sanballet was governor of Samaria and Tobiah was governor east of the Jordan River. When they heard of Nehemiah’s arrival in Jerusalem Vs. 10 says “it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.” These men caused Nehemiah much concern and trouble later on.
In Nehemiah 13: 1 while reading from Deut. 13:3-4 the people were reminded that “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord----because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt,---“ Vs. 6 says, “You shall not seek their peace or prosperity all your days forever.”
Moab and Ammon were the natural sons of Lot, but by his own two daughters. The Israelites considered them “bastards” and not sons. The enmity between the descendants of these two and the Israelites had existed for centuries, ever since Lot had fled from Gomorrah. They would do anything they could to prevent the restoration of Jerusalem.
Reaching Jerusalem, Nehemiah rested for three days. Then taking a few men with him he arose in the night and went out to view in silence the ruins of the city. It was not till after this night view t hat he called the people with the rulers and priests to share the purpose of his mission. The people had apparently given in to inertia, accepting things the way they were.
In vs. 17 Nehemiah identifies himself fully with those assembled. His speech would rouse them to action. He begins with “You see the distress we are in, how Jerusalem lies in waste.” He assured the Jews in vs. 2 that because God would prosper them in their endeavor for His glory, they should move ahead..
He entreats, “Let us build.” He pleads, “Let us be no more a reproach.” And then in vs. 18 he tells of the good hand of his God upon him, and of the king’s commission. The people are aroused and encouraged, and cry at once, “Let us rise up and build;” and so they join hands with God’s dear servant for the work he has planned. With all these encouragements, Nehemiah was offering a clear and definite course of action. Surely these principles stand the test of time. God can use us to encourage others, and one way to do so is to speak directly to them, just as Nehemiah did.
Nehemiah’s heart sang with joy, when he heard the people say, “Let us rise up and build.” “Let’s start rebuilding.” Then vs. 18 says, “Then they set their hands to this good work.” They completed the building of the wall in 52 days. In Neh. 3: 1-7:3 is a detailed account of the rebuilding of the wall.
Should time permit we will hear of Sanballet and Tobiah again; and with them a third adversary, Geshem the Arabian. When this unworthy trio hear of the work contemplated they indulge in sarcastic merriment. Nehemiah noted in vs. 19, “They laughed us to scorn and despised us, and said, What is this that you do? Will you rebel against the king?” To all their sneers Nehemiah in vs. 20 calmly replies, “The God of heaven, He will prosper us---but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.”
Not only did Nehemiah have the king’s permission and was not rebelling against him, but he had God’s protection. Those enemies who tried to intimidate against the work have neither, since they were not commissioned by God or the king.
NEXT SUNDAY WE ARE “ENCOURAGED BY FAITHFUL HOPE” BY THE EXAMPLE OF HABAKKUK 1-3. A.V. DAUGHERTY altav@swbell.net http://theweeks.org/av/