A few short quotes about the man called
Nehemiah, before we dig-in to the book called after the man:
“Nehemiah was an energetic leader who
combined a deep trust in the Lord with precise planning, careful organization, and
discreet but energetic action.”
“He stood like an anvil, till the hammers of
opposition wore themselves out vainly beating against him.”
“A man with the counsel of God alone in his
mind and in his heart….He will not begin till he has counted the cost. And then he will not stop till he has
finished the work.”
At the outset, let me tell you – I LIKE
THIS MAN! If I could go back in time
and make a life-choice, I would follow Nehemiah around, learning how to be a
servant and prayer warrior.
Our journey through the Nehemiah Journal must
begin with a bit of background, so that we may fully appreciate what God did
with this man. What we have is
Nehemiah’s personal account, or journal, set against the backdrop of history.
In the 8th Century B.C. Assyria conquered
the northern kingdom of Israel. The
prophets foresaw it; the Lord brought it to pass. The people had become backslidden. Instead of worshipping the Lord God, they had
fallen-in with the pagan nations surrounding them. It isn’t much different in America today.
A few centuries later the southern kingdom
followed suit, as Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian empire. Later it was the Persians whose dominance in
the ancient world replaced Babylon. We
are talking here not only about ancient history. The regions extend from Afghanistan to Iraq,
Iran and Saudi Arabia. The problems are just
early chapters in the ongoing saga of strife in the Middle East. Jacob and Esau have never ceased their
struggle.
In the 5th century, seven decades
after being conquered and deported, the Persian rulers began allowing the Jews
to return to Jerusalem. It happened in stages. First a man named Zerubbabel led a group to
begin the rebuilding process. The city
had been destroyed, and lay in rubble.
But, Zerubbabel’s efforts only partially restored things. Fifty years later Ezra, a priest, returned to
rebuild the temple. Then, fifteen years
after Ezra the story we are about to investigate begins to unfold in Susa, the
capitol city of the Persian Empire.
Nehemiah was a Jew, probably born in
exile. He was a sharp pencil, trained in
the art of business and administration.
He was also the man God would use to change history’s map and the
courage of a nation he called “home” – even though his eyes had never seen the
place.
Some of Nehemiah’s accomplishments include
rebuilding the walls and military defenses of Jerusalem. Later he also instituted reforms among God’s
people. He helped restore purity in
worship, and integrity in family relationships.
In short, he helped restore behavior among God’s people more in line
with the belief God’s people claimed they had!
What is so profitable about the book of
Nehemiah is that he accomplished all that in the face of great adversity. Among the obstacles he faced were these
several:
a.
He was not a “ruler”, but part of the
conquered exiles, outnumbered and with little “moving and shaking” ability.
b.
There was a widespread laziness among God’s
people to overcome.
c.
There were plots from his own people,
attempting to cause his efforts to fail.
d.
Misunderstandings and lack of faith abounded.
All of Nehemiah’s mountains to climb are
present today in the Christian experience.
We NEED to explore this.
Today we also see the same problems Nehemiah
encountered...
The walls are broken down. American life and culture is obsessed with
self, sex and little direction for family life.
Community in America, even in the church is
anemic, if not comatose.
The typical approach that most Christians
have when trying to address problems center on the worldly model rather than
the Biblical model. We can shake our
heads and cluck our tongues all we wish…but when God’s people do things the
worldly way, and then celebrate our cleverness, or gush over how wonderful we
are, we are standing in the midst of crumbling walls. That’s the trouble with rubble!
Nehemiah demonstrates the opposite. Notice the reaction of a servant and prayer
warrior as he hears the news of broken walls and disgraceful conditions in his
homeland…
These are the memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In late autumn of the twentieth year of King
Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me
with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had survived
the captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. They said to me, “Things are not going well
for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and
the gates have been burned.” When
I heard this, I sat down and wept. In
fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1: 1-4 (NLT)
With a heart blazing alive for God, Nehemiah hears of the distress
and disgrace of Jerusalem, and he immediately wept. It started him mourning, fasting and praying
for days. At the end of those days of
praying and fasting, Nehemiah did not get up and get on with life as
usual…something altogether different occurred…Nehemiah got on with doing
something. And in that we find our
prayer model for servant warriors.
That very model was demonstrated to me by a leader in a church I
once served. Bill contemplated the
rubble of the offering for missions in the church. It awoke him in the night and distressed him
until he asked if I’d let him talk about it in the worship service. He shared his heart and then gave more than
he had before. When he did, it started a
holy fire, and the giving goal was met and passed…and then doubled!
There is a disclaimer that comes along with this sermon; it is
much like the warning on children’s toys about “some assembly required” – or
the health thing on tobacco products.
Here is Nehemiah’s warning:
Caution:
Studying the book of
Nehemiah may lead to
doing things God’s
way;
you will find the
world will marvel,
worldly Christians
will snipe and criticize and…
God will be pleased!
Now, with that as our caution…and our target…let’s look at the
model prayer of Nehemiah, a servant prayer warrior. First of all he expresses:
Then
I said, “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his
covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, Nehemiah 1.5 (NLT)
To
“adore” the Lord in prayer is to recognize Who He is, and respond
accordingly. Nehemiah recognizes the
Lord as great and awesome the powerful God who is in control of all.
To
adore the Lord means to respond to Him as He has laid it down…love Him and obey
his commands. This is just common sense
when you recognize that He is God and we are not!
Nehemiah started his prayer with
adoration. One of the reasons we don’t
always see that in prayers is because our minds are so full of adoration for
ourselves. It is impossible to recognize
the sovereignty of God when you are having someone else occupy that
position.
Who is on the throne of your life? Is it you?
Or is it God? If it is you, then
you won’t adore God…you don’t even recognize who He is! That’s why the next part of the model is so
important for our prayers…after adoration is…
listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for
your people Israel. I confess that we
have sinned against you. Yes, even my
own family and I have sinned! We have
sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, laws, and regulations that you
gave us through your servant Moses.
Nehemiah 1.6-7 (NLT)
Nehemiah’s confession isn’t popular
today. Today, if anything has gone wrong
it is always the other guy’s fault. Hardly anyone accepts responsibility for
anything these days.
If a CEO sells his company down the tubes, he
leaves with $38 million in golden parachute separation funds.
If a high-profile preacher lives a scandalous
life of sexual sins, he thumbs his nose at his denomination and is back on the
air in no time at all.
If a president lies, he has merely
“mis-spoken” himself and doesn’t skip a beat.
By contrast, Nehemiah, born a thousand miles
from Jerusalem, having never been there, included himself in the national sin
of Israel. You say, “Boy, that’s
stretching it just a bit far!” Not
really. You see, Nehemiah is wise enough
to know that, had he been there, he also would have sinned. He understood that he was no stronger than
any of his fellow Israelites. He was
under the same commands of the Lord to live ethically and morally, and
obediently to the law of God. Nehemiah
knew his own heart.
In our text Nehemiah says “we have sinned
terribly”. Literally, the word means
“offended”. He is admitting the actions
of God’s children, including himself, are offensive to the God of Heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, that is what confession
is all about. It is recognizing that our
sins do, indeed offend holy God.
In the cultural/political climate of our day,
there are regulations against offending everyone BUT
God! Him we kick out of our schools, courts and council
rooms. God help us to confess our sins
against the Holy One!
If you want a model for being a servant
prayer warrior, there is adoration, confession, and…
“Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you sin, I will scatter you among the
nations. But if you return to me and
obey my commands, even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring
you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’ “We are your servants, the people you rescued
by your great power and might. Nehemiah
1.8-10 (NLT)
Usually we associate “thanksgiving” with
smiling to God for our blessings. It is
one thing to say “thanks” when someone gives us a gift we like. It is quite another thing to say “bless you”
(even to God) for hauling us out to the woodshed. Yet, that is exactly what Nehemiah has in
mind here. Basically, he is rehearsing
the fact that God said, “You sin, and I’ll get you! I’ll hunt you down, and I’ll bring you back
and we can do it all over again!” Then
Nehemiah says, “That was our rescue!
Thank you, Lord!”
In acknowledging God’s goodness over the
chastisement, it is reasserting the nature of God to be faithful to His other
promises of blessing and joy. God had
told them He knew they would go astray, and He was prepared to do whatever
necessary to bring them back under His wing:
“In the future, when you have children and grandchildren and have
lived in the land a long time, do not corrupt yourselves by making idols of any
kind. This is evil in the sight of the
LORD your God and will arouse his anger.
“Today I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you. If you disobey me, you will quickly disappear
from the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. You will live there only a short time; then
you will be utterly destroyed. For the
LORD will scatter you among the nations, where only a few of you will survive. There, in a foreign land, you will worship
idols made from wood and stone, gods that neither see nor hear nor eat nor
smell. From there you will search again
for the LORD your God. And if you search
for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him. “When those bitter days have come upon you
far in the future, you will finally return to the LORD your God and listen to
what he tells you. For the LORD your God
is merciful—he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn
covenant he made with your ancestors. Deuteronomy 4: 25 - 31
(NLT)
How about that? God predicted just exactly how they would
sin, and how big the sin would be. And
yet He was prepared to offer them forgiveness, based upon his loving
covenant. Do you know what that tells
you and me about God? It says, loudly
and clearly, You CAN begin again. If that isn’t something for which we can be
thankful, I cannot imagine there is anything!
And so, our model is nearly complete…There is
adoration to acknowledge God as deserving worship; there is confession to
recognize our sinfulness and need of his forgiveness; and there is thanksgiving
to realize He extends his love no matter how big we have sinned, if we will
just repent and be ready to follow Him; and then Nehemiah moves to…
O
LORD, please hear my prayer! Listen to
the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success now as I go to ask the
king for a great favor. Put it into his
heart to be kind to me.” In those days I
was the king’s cup-bearer. Nehemiah 1.11 (TNLT)
There is always a decisive moment in life
when talking, or thinking becomes insufficient.
There is a moment in time when we must have the rubber meet the road; we
must act on what we believe. In our
culture there is the expression which defines that:
Praise the Lord, and pass the
ammunition!
There is a time when praying ends and doing
begins.
For Nehemiah, that time had come. He was, after all, a man of action. The most used word in this book is “so”. It is used 32 times. They are all phrases of actions precipitated
by intent to accomplish the task:
So I prayed
(1.4)
So I came
(1.11)
So they strengthened (2.18)
So built we the wall (4.6)
So we labored
(4.21)
So the wall was finished (6.15)
This is the nature of the man Nehemiah…and
all servant/prayer warriors. Nehemiah
was committed in his prayer – then he got up off his knees and forged ahead.
Now, to say that he only prayed, and that he
laid no plans is inaccurate and naïve.
He did plan; we see that in his prayer, asking God to move in the heart
of Artaxerxes the king. Why? It was Artaxerxes, Nehemiah’s boss who had
stopped the previous work in Israel to rebuild the city:
Therefore, issue orders to have these people stop their work. That city must not be rebuilt except at my
express command. Ezra 4:21 (NLT)
Nehemiah was about to stroll into the throne
room and contradict a royal edict. Sharp
guy and good servant or not, Nehemiah was about to give the good king
Artaxerxes (a man who had killed his own brother to get the throne) all the
reason he needed to lop off his head.
You KNOW he had to be committed to God’s hand to step into that kind of
quicksand.
When’s the last time you stepped out in
faith? When’s the last time God put it
in your heart to involve yourself in such a way that you knew if He didn’t come
through, you were toast? My dear friends,
THAT is what supplication is
all about; THAT is what
depending on God is all about.
We will see in the coming weeks that the Lord
gave Nehemiah success in dealing with Artaxerxes.
We will also see that God watched over the
entire process, as Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem, overcame constant opposition
and rebuilt the city walls and defenses – just exactly as the Lord had put it
in his heart at the first.
The lesson, of course, for Christian
believers is how to be a servant/prayer warrior for God. Face adversity with faith, humbly depending
on God, as you build His kingdom with other believers. It all starts with prayer – as does this book
of Nehemiah. It opens with prayer, and
the book ends with prayer. It tells us
God uses cup-bearers, servants who are prayer warriors!
By the way – it is also the pathway to
salvation in Christ Jesus. Look once
again at the model:
Adoration – Recognize God is in charge, and
He sent Jesus to purchase our forgiveness on an old rugged cross.
Confession – Acknowledge who you are, a
sinner who needs the forgiveness Jesus died to extend.
Thanksgiving – Acknowledge your gratitude for
the cross.
Supplication – Ask Him to forgive your sins,
and receive Christ and eternal life.
This is the way to start your life as a
servant/prayer warrior!
