Nehemiah’s Opening Prayer

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All right, so tonight we’re going to study Nehemiah chapter 1, the whole chapter, just as quickly as we can. I don’t want to keep you here all night. I told you earlier we’d be out in time for you to watch the thunder if that’s what you like to do.

But we’re going to be in Nehemiah chapter 1, and I want to start over the next several Wednesday nights going through the book of Nehemiah. I thought it would be a good place to start with you on Wednesday nights for a number of reasons. We think of Nehemiah a lot of times when we think about undertaking a project for God.

And so I thought, well, that’s kind of what I’m doing. That’s kind of what we’re doing. Not that everything starts over just because I came.

But in a sense, you know, we are we’re starting on this journey together. You’ve been on it for years, but as far as doing this together, we’re just getting started. So I thought it would be a good place to start.

Nehemiah comes at the end of the Old Testament. I know that when you turn there, it’s sort of in the middle of the Old Testament, but chronologically, it’s the very end. So I don’t completely understand why it’s placed in the order it is, but it’s just about the last story.

Some people think that Ezra and Nehemiah happened at the same time. They may be right. I think there was a little gap where Ezra came first and Nehemiah came a little later.

But they were originally combined into one book, and the book was about the Israelites’ return from their captivity, where the Babylonians had taken them all captive, and then the Persians had come in and whooped up on the Babylonians. And so it was the Persians that allowed them to come back. Actually, it was God that allowed them to come back, but God impressed on the heart of the Persian king to send them home.

And so Ezra, as far as I can tell, returned first, and he went to work on restoring the temple. And Nehemiah returned a few years later to oversee the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem. And as we start tonight in chapter 1, we will see that the reconstruction of the city wasn’t going as well as it should have been.

So we’re going to read chapter 1 together, and then we’re going to come back and look at some of this a little more in depth. So starting in verse 1, it says, The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah, It came to pass in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, Please let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night, for the children of Israel, your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you.

Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances, which you commanded your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name.

And let your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer. And just to clarify, when he says, when he asks for God to grant Nehemiah mercy in the sight of this man, he’s talking about King Artaxerxes because he was his cupbearer.

And to really understand what he’s talking about, he’s going to go in the next chapter to talk to King Artaxerxes about being able to go back and rebuild Jerusalem, rebuild the walls. And he had no right to go in and approach the Persian king. But also, if you remember the story of Daniel and the lion’s den, their law was irrevocable.

Once one of their Persian kings made a law, nobody could change it, not even that king himself. There was no overturning the law. There was no changing their minds.

So he was going and he was going to go ask Artaxerxes to do what he could not do under ordinary circumstances and change his mind. Because they had already, the Persian kings had already allowed the Israelites to start work on the wall and then they put a stop to it. And for him to go back and say, you know that order to stop the work, could you rescind that?

He’s asking God to do something impossible. From a human standpoint, it was impossible, which we’ll talk about a little bit more as we get through this. But we see in the beginning of this passage, Jerusalem was in bad shape.

The city was still in chaos after the Babylonian captivity. And sometimes, I know I thought of the story of the Babylonian captivity, that the Babylonians just marched in, destroyed Jerusalem, and marched back out. But there were actually multiple invasions, and they came in each time, And what little was left from the time before, they destroyed that.

So by the time they were done, there was very little, if anything, left standing of Jerusalem. And things had just been left to kind of languish in that shape for 70 years. And the rebuilding of the city had begun years earlier, but it stopped because the book of Ezra tells us that rumors were circulated by the Israelites’ enemies that the Israelites were about to rebel against the kings of Persia.

They told the kings of Persia that the Israelites were saying, boy, once we get our wall built, once we’re strong behind this will, then we’re not going to listen to the Persians anymore. And so the Persian kings got wind of that and thought, well, maybe rebuilding the city is not such a good idea after all. So the work had been shut down by the Persians.

And Nehemiah’s brother, now a lot of scholars think that And he’s talking about his actual brother, not just his brother in the sense that he’s a fellow Jew. But his actual brother showed up with a report. This would be about 445 B.

C. Nehemiah wasn’t shocked. You see his reaction.

Nehemiah wasn’t shocked that the city was in ruins. It had been in ruins for over a generation. He was shocked that it was still in ruins because the order had gone out to rebuild.

and apparently it had been shut down almost without warning. And they reported to him that the walls and the gates were destroyed. Now, when this happened, it was going to leave the city and the people vulnerable to attack.

Up until fairly recently, we’ve lived in a generally peaceful day and age where you don’t have to worry about roving bans of people, lawlessness in the streets. We have basically lived in a country of law and order. They didn’t have that in the ancient world.

America, as we have known it, is kind of the exception in human history. For them to feel safe, it wasn’t, oh, we feel safe because we know our neighbors and because the police. They felt safe because they had walls.

They had walls to protect them. And they had gates that they could open to let trade in and out and for them to come and go, but that they could shut at night so they knew who was in the city. and if you didn’t have those walls, if you didn’t have those gates, you were vulnerable.

Anybody could come in and do anything they wanted to you at just about any time and there was not a lot you could do to stop it. And so it had left the city and the people vulnerable to not have these walls and the surrounding nations also looked at this and thought it’s not really much of a city without walls. And so they mocked Jerusalem and being the capital of Israel, They mocked Israel because their capital was in such bad shape.

They also mocked the God of Israel. So there were all sorts of implications to the wall being destroyed and to the city being destroyed that the people looked at and said, this is a terrible thing that’s happened. I mean, it wasn’t just the physical wall.

It had totally undermined everything that Israel trusted in. But I want you to see something else here. the physical deterioration of Jerusalem that he’s dealing with, that he’s about to go and address, it actually reflected the spiritual decay of Israel.

Now, a lot of times we will look at this book and we’ll teach it just as it’s kind of an instruction manual to go out and undertake a big project for God. We focus on the wall. And the wall’s important.

I don’t want to tell you that it’s not important. It’s talked about here. But if we just focus on the wall, if we just focus on the project, we miss the main point of this book.

You see, the wall is a symbol. Let me explain what I mean by that. Because sometimes a Bible teacher will tell you something’s a symbol, and what they mean by that is, oh, the story was made up to illustrate a deeper spiritual point.

I don’t believe anything in the Bible is made up. I believe if the Bible says it happened, it happened. So when I say the wall is a symbol, I don’t mean that the whole story of Nehemiah is made up.

I believe there was a literal Nehemiah. I believe there was a literal wall. But I believe as Nehemiah is looking at the reality of the wall based on his prayer, he’s seeing it as also a picture of a spiritual reality.

And we see that a lot in Scripture, that what happens in the physical world reflects a spiritual reality behind it. So this book is about more than just rebuilding the wall. It’s about renewing God’s people.

And if we think of the. . .

We’ve got to realize that the work on the wall went hand in hand with the work on the people. this book is about God doing something through his people that only he can do. So I don’t want us to miss that part of it and just say, oh, it’s about the wall and rebuilding and the project.

No, it’s about what needed to happen among God’s people, and the wall is a physical picture of that as well. So Nehemiah recognized that their spiritual problems, their spiritual problems were at the root of everything that was physically wrong in Jerusalem. And if you know that period of biblical history at all, you know that to be true, because it wasn’t an accident of history that the Babylonians came in and took over.

It wasn’t an accident that the Babylonians came in and attacked the city. God allowed that to happen after numerous warnings, because the Israelites wouldn’t turn away from their idolatry. They wouldn’t obey God.

And God, time after time, God gave them opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, and they still would not do what they knew was right. And there are so many of these instances in the Old Testament where something will happen, and now through our modern lens where we think we know more than God, we’ll look at it and say, well, that’s so harsh that God would let that happen. So cruel that God would let that happen.

And what people ignore is that before God let something happen, He gave warning after warning after warning after opportunity after opportunity after opportunity before he had to step in and say, you’re not learning this, and he had to do something more drastic to get their attention. Just like us, yeah. And anybody in this room that has ever raised children knows this is how it works, right?

I can tell them all day, don’t run in the street. One of my children has discovered it’s really fun to run out here in the middle of B Avenue as we’re trying to get everybody in the vehicle. Fortunately, there’s not been traffic when they’ve done it, but it still scares the fire out of Daddy every time.

So I’ve told, don’t run out in the street. Don’t run out in the street. I’ve yelled, don’t run out in the street.

You might hear sounds coming out of me that you didn’t think I could make. Finally, after opportunity, after opportunity, after opportunity, and warning after warning after warning, Daddy has had to step in and use the wooden spoon. all right and some people probably think oh that’s so horrible not if I’m trying to prevent them from getting run over by a big truck and god was dealing with people in the old testament trying to bring them back to himself and sometimes when they wouldn’t listen he had to use drastic measures in order to prevent something even more drastic from happening which was them to go on in their separation from him into eternity and so god allowed the babylonians to come in and and take them over.

All of this ruin that had happened to them was because they had neglected God. And so Nehemiah recognized that. In verse 6, he acknowledged the sins of the nation.

He said, I pray before you now day and night. You skip a little bit just for clarity. He says, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you.

So he acknowledged the sins of the nation. As somebody whose immediate instinct was to turn to God, I don’t think Nehemiah was one of the ones in Israel that was responsible for all of this. I think he was part of the remnant that was still looking to God, but yet he’s saying, as part of the nation of Israel, we are responsible.

Think about the implications of that for us as Americans. We may not be responsible for the. .

. We may not be personally responsible for the wickedness in our country. Boy, we better start confessing it and repenting of it and saying and begging God’s God’s mercy because I see us going down some roads that look very similar to things that the Israelites were involved in so he acknowledged what the what the nation had done wrong and he for his for his part he repented of it but also the sins closer to home he said both my father’s house and I have sinned I don’t think I mean this is my opinion I don’t think based on his response that Nehemiah was involved in the idolatry and all of that.

But even those of us, you know, even those who are in the remnant and are trying to be faithful to God, we recognize we still have sin of our own. And it’s not enough to just say, you know, God forgive those people out there for what they’re doing. We need to own our sin as well.

You know, cleansing begins among God’s people. He said, both my father’s house and I have sinned. He said, for whatever part I’ve played in this, he’s confessing.

They had violated God’s law. They had neglected God. He spells that out all throughout verse 7.

And as much as they needed physical renewal, their greatest need was spiritual renewal. As I was rereading this again this week, I realized, unless I missed it, he didn’t pray at all for the wall. I’ve looked at it several times. It’s possible I overlooked something.

Go check that out for yourself. But I don’t see that he prayed for the wall anywhere in chapter 1. It was the condition of the wall that woke him up to the need to cry out to God.

But it’s not what he prayed for. And sometimes we’ll get in those situations where some physical or practical need will come up, and we’ll think, I need to cry out to God about this, and we’ll pray about that that is the symptom, when really we need to deal with sometimes the spiritual issue behind it. And he said it was their spiritual need that was greater.

He said they were scattered, verse 8, they were scattered because of their sin. He points back to what God had told Moses, that if they were unfaithful, he would scatter them among the nations. And by this time, it had been about 300 years that God had been scattering them among the nations.

It started with the ten northern tribes of Israel, and then eventually came down to the two southern tribes of Judah. God had scattered them. But when their relationship with God was repaired, their nation would be repaired.

You see, in verse 9, he refers back to God’s promises again, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, Though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. He said once the. .

. He was resting in that promise of God that once their relationship was fixed, God would take care of these other things. He promised to regather them.

Notice that in verse 9. He promised to regather them no matter how far away they were. There was no place that man could scatter them.

There was no place that their sin could scatter them, that God could not find them and bring them back if they would trust in him. Well, that’s an important truth for our world today, isn’t it? And he would make them a dwelling for his name.

Now, I struggled with this a little bit in verse 9, where he says he’d bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. And I thought he’s bringing them back to the temple. I don’t know that he brought everybody in Israel back to the temple.

It makes me wonder if he’s not saying there that he’s going to bring Israel, the nation, back into the land and for them to be the dwelling for his name. Because we know under the New Testament that the dwelling place, the temple, is not a physical temple made with human hands. It’s this right here, that the Spirit of God dwells within us.

And so I think, again, check this out for yourself, but I think there he’s telling Israel, I will dwell within you, I’ll dwell among you. And so Nehemiah cried out to God to renew the people spiritually. He started that in verses 4, 5, and 6, and he continued it in 10 and 11.

But we know that he was serious and he was committed. You know, to really seek God to renew us spiritually, we can’t do it half-heartedly. We can’t just, okay, God, bless me today, amen, and then go on about our lives.

In verse 4, he said that he sat down and he wept and he mourned. I mean, he really felt it. And he said he did this for many days.

Something changed in Nehemiah’s heart that day that began drawing him closer to God. He was serious and he was committed. And he called on God as being faithful, as being a covenant keeper.

He called on God to look kindly on Israel and deal more kindly than they deserved. And that’s what we’ve got to realize, too, when spiritual renewal is needed. It’s not about what we deserve or what we can do.

It’s about who God is and how faithful He is. Because you notice, He doesn’t say, God, won’t you restore Israel for old times’ sake? You remember all the good times we’ve had, how we walked with you in the past?

In verse 5, He talks about who God is. He’s the God of heaven. He’s great and awesome.

He’s a covenant keeper. They were covenant breakers, but He’s a covenant keeper. He’s merciful.

And so He says, please let your ear be attentive and your eyes be open. hear our prayers, see us. They didn’t deserve that, but because of who God is, he asked for it.

He asked God to work in the midst of Israel for the sake of those who still loved him or still were trying to love him. You notice he describes not necessarily those who fear his name, but those who desire to fear his name. Have you ever been in a situation with God where you know you’re wrong, but you want to be right with God?

You know you’re being unfaithful, but you want to be I’ve heard a preacher describe it as not being willing but being willing to be made willing okay he’s talking about those who desire to fear God and so just for the sake of those who are not right with God but really in their hearts desire to be there he asked God to to be merciful in verse 10 he talks about God being the the Lord over Israel these are your servants and they’re your people they haven’t acted like it but if God really is the God of heaven if he really is the God of Israel, then those are his people, whether they acknowledge it or not. And so he asked God to grant mercy to him and to cause the king to grant mercy when he went and spoke to him.

And folks, how this applies to us tonight, I think this part of this chapter is a reminder to us about the need to cry out to God for spiritual renewal. You know, a lot of times we will rush to the more obvious problems, the things that we see with our eyes will rush to the so-called practical problems. I don’t like when we separate practical and spiritual, because I think spiritual things are very practical. But you know what I mean, right? The things that we can see and touch and smell, we run to those problems, and we forget that there’s often a spiritual need at the root. As a matter of fact, I’d say all of our problems result from sin.

Notice I didn’t say our sin. because sometimes you’re affected by somebody else’s sin. Nobody sins in a vacuum.

Every sin affects the world around us. Adam and Eve ate fruit they weren’t supposed to, and it still affects us today. So sometimes when I say all problems are the result of sin, don’t take that as I’m saying, oh, you got cancer, you must have done something bad.

Or you were in a car wreck, You need to look and see if you’re right with God. I just mean that sin affects everything. Sin permeates everything.

Sometimes we have difficulty because we caused it with our choices, but sometimes it’s just the price of living in a fallen sinful world. There is a spiritual need at the root of every physical need, whether it’s our fault or not. But we rush to deal with those practical problems, and we forget about the spiritual need.

And as God’s people, we need to be renewed at times in our commitment to Him. So before we look at those times of difficulty, before we look at those practical needs around us, and we rush to say, God, would you handle that? There’s nothing wrong with asking God to handle that.

There’d be nothing wrong with Nehemiah saying, God, can you give us what we need for the wall? Here’s all the construction. Here’s how many men on it.

There’d be nothing wrong with that. But he dealt with the spiritual first. There’s nothing wrong with us asking God to meet our needs, but it’s so much better if we stop and take stock. Let those times of difficulty be a reminder to us to stop and take stock of where we are with God spiritually and deal with any issues that are there.

That’s exactly what Nehemiah did, and I believe God blessed him for it. We’ll see in the coming chapters that God did bless him for it. And so as God’s people today, we need to be renewed at times spiritually.

We need to be renewed in our commitment to Him. you may find that maybe there’s not a problem between you and God, but it’s just a time to remember who He is and what He’s done for you and to learn to rely on Him even more. But ultimately, we need renewal that only He can provide, and that’s where our relationship with Jesus Christ comes in.

If we need spiritual renewal, there’s no other place to get it. There’s no other means for us to get closer to God, but that Jesus Christ provides that relationship. And so I’d say to you, if you’re listening, and well, I don’t know why I say if you’re listening.

If you’re not listening, I’m not talking to you. You’re not hearing me, right? But if you’re, I’d say to you that if when you hear this, you recognize, you know, there is a spiritual need and all these physical needs, all these practical needs bring them to mind, that there is this spiritual need, there is this separation between me and God, I’d say start with Jesus Christ. if you’ve never trusted Him as your Lord and Savior, that’s where it has to begin.

But if you do belong to Him, if you’ve trusted Him as your Savior, He’s the way we come closer to the Father. And we need to deal with Him for that spiritual renewal.