Nehemiah #1

This morning I'm really excited to be opening the word of God with you guys. I'm excited because I believe that the word of God does speak to us now and does provide comfort and grace and knowledge and wisdom and all these things that we need. And I'm also excited because I get to part a series from the Old Testament again, and I love preaching from the Old Testament. It's one of my great joys. I think I'm a narrative thinker, so I like to read and to think through some of the great heroes of the faith and the great blunders of the past and to see the amazing thread of God's grace woven through it all.

And so this morning, I'm really excited to start a series on the book of Nehemiah with you guys. And so if you want to turn to that, we're going to read the first chapter of the book of Nehemiah. Let's have a quick read first. Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 1. The words of Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah.

In the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men and I questioned them about the Jewish remnants that survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burnt with fire." When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days, I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

Then I said, "O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands. Let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer Your servant is praying for You day and night for Your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against You. We have acted very wickedly towards You. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws You gave Your servant Moses."

"Remember the instruction You gave Your servant Moses saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.' They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great strength and Your mighty hand. O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of this Your servant and to the prayer of Your servants who delight in revering Your name. Give Your servant success today by granting him favour in the presence of this man."

I was the cup bearer to the king. So far, our reading. And before we start, we probably need to do a little bit of context searching. So we will start by asking a few questions. Who wrote the book?

Where are we? And what is the big idea of the story? Who wrote this book? Well, tradition places it and identifies a man called Nehemiah who himself was a primary author of this book. The reason they say so, and the reason many believe so, is because it is written in the first person.

It talks about "I". "I, Nehemiah." The story of Nehemiah could be read, however, as a sequel to another book of the Old Testament, the book of Ezra. And people thought that perhaps it's possible that Ezra and Nehemiah were two volumes of the same collection. So Ezra first and then Nehemiah, kind of like Luke and Acts in the New Testament.

And perhaps then, Ezra, who was known as a scribe and was a contemporary of Nehemiah, Ezra was the one that maybe compiled all of Nehemiah's personal reflections into this book. We don't know anything much more about Nehemiah's youth, his background, his family situation or anything like that. We know that he was the cup bearer to the king, which meant that he was probably intelligent. He was probably handsome, because you had to present yourself well if you were part of the king's entourage. He was probably well educated and probably a nobleman from the Jewish people.

Just like Daniel was. Remember, when the exile happened, Daniel was taken to the king's court with all the other nobles. So an educated man, a well-to-do sort of guy. Where are we? Where are we?

Well, the book of Nehemiah opens in the Persian city of Susa in the year of April. Later that year, Nehemiah would travel to Israel leading the third return of the Jewish people back into the promised land. So the exile took people away in stages and the return to the promised land also happened in stages. And so Nehemiah took another group back and this would be the third return to the promised land. By this time, the mighty nation of Israel had shrunk to a little province called Judah or Judea at that time with Jerusalem as its capital.

But interestingly for us to remember is that this return, this third return, happened a hundred and forty years after the first return of the exile. A hundred and forty years people have been able to go back into the promised land at this stage. Most of the book centres in Jerusalem. Most of the book and the events of the book centres on Jerusalem. The book of Nehemiah is also the last historical book of the Old Testament.

It is the final historical piece to the Old Testament story. Although the book of Esther appears after Nehemiah in the canon, in the order of the Bible, the events in Esther actually occurred in the time between Ezra chapter six and Ezra chapter seven, between the first and the second returns of the people of Israel. So that is where we are. And what is the big idea of the story? What is happening here?

Well, it's all about a stupid old wall. It's about a wall that needs to be built. Together, Nehemiah and Ezra the scribe, who had led the spiritual revival of the people in Jerusalem, Nehemiah would go and direct the political and the religious restoration of the Jews after their Babylonian and Persian captivity. So this is about renewal, about reformation, about restoration. The Bible begins the story of Nehemiah by giving up front a problem, and it becomes this problem the mission for Nehemiah.

We hear that Nehemiah is serving the king and his brother comes back from Jerusalem. And Nehemiah is interested to hear about what's been going on over there. And he asks them, what's the situation? And his brother says it's not good news. Our people are in great peril.

They are in great disgrace, he says. We know from scripture that Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian emperor, had stripped down the walls of Jerusalem a century before Nehemiah. He had obliterated those walls and much of the city during a siege of the final stronghold of the Jewish people, Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to ensure that Jerusalem wouldn't be able to revolt again anytime soon behind this massive wall that he had, and so he strips down the wall leaving her defenceless. Ezra chapter four indicates that there were attempts to rebuild the wall but shows that it failed.

People just weren't able to go through with it in a hundred and forty years. But now in the palace of a new emperor, under a new empire, the Persian empire, the king Artaxerxes the first, under this new global empire, has a Jew serving at his side by the name of Nehemiah. Word comes to him that Jerusalem is in great peril, and it says Nehemiah wept at this news. The Bible says that he sat down low and mourned. And we know, scholars and commentators say, that this sitting down low was a formal act of grieving.

If someone, a friend, or a family member had died, you sat low on a low stool for seven days and mourned their loss. Nehemiah was grief stricken at the news. It wasn't a sniffle. It wasn't wiping away a little tear. It wasn't a sympathetic shake of the head and, you know, "that's a shame" sort of comment.

This was a man broken by the news. It was heartbreaking. But the question we have to ask is why? Why is he heartbroken for a wall that has been unbuilt for a hundred and forty years? It's not new news. Do you know how long a hundred and forty years is?

If we trace back a hundred and forty years from now, that's the time that Ned Kelly was around. That's the time when Uluru was first seen by Europeans. That's a long time ago. Why is it that Nehemiah was so distraught at the thought of a broken down wall in Jerusalem? Well, firstly, we need to understand that Nehemiah was so broken because of this situation because God had moved him to be broken and burdened by this.

There would only be one Nehemiah and there will only ever be one Nehemiah. And so we need to reflect that this burden probably is very confined to this one man. It's often dangerous to equate a character in the Bible with exactly how we should be living, and we've heard those sort of sermons that, you know, King David slew a giant, therefore we need to slay giants or whatever. It's not that simple. It's not that clear.

So at first I want to say Nehemiah had a burden and was broken for Jerusalem because he is Nehemiah and God was moving in his heart. But why the wall? Well, commentators say that not only did a broken wall leave a city defenceless, not only was it defenceless, but if you've been to Jerusalem, if you've seen Jerusalem, you know how it's built on a very steep incline. It's a very steep hill that it's built on and the walls around Jerusalem would have actually been used to form a foundation for the terraced gardens and the fields that were protected by the city as well. So the city, Jerusalem, without walls meant that it had no fields.

It had no terraced gardens. Its economy would have been in tatters because of it. People were poor. Not only defenceless. And so Nehemiah's burden stemmed from feeling the people's great need. They were poor.

They were hungry. They were at threat by their enemies. Two thoughts that I want to share this morning regarding God-given burdens. Firstly, and we do see this from Nehemiah, but I think it's something we can reflect on. Don't let the immensity of a burden paralyse you so that you don't do anything about it.

Sometimes we hear about overwhelming needs around us and you run for cover because there's no way to respond to them all out of emotional survival. And we throw up a barricade around our hearts and we say this is too much. This is too much. I'm in another country. I'm so far removed from it.

I can't physically even get there. I can't do anything about this. It is too much. Paralysed by the immensity of this burden. People being raided and raped by bad men.

I can't do anything about this. Out of emotional survival, we throw up a barricade around our hearts that blocks all the needs from moving us. We end up engrossed in our own pursuit of pleasure and ignore the needs of others. Sometimes we need to not turn off the TV on the news, or the really sad Facebook post that comes across, or the story we read of an account of injustice. We need to let it sit with us and marinate in us a little bit.

Don't let the immensity of a burden paralyse you. Secondly, don't commit yourself too quickly to something just because the need is there. Now the needs are simply endless. We know that. We say that.

Perhaps more than any other generation we know about so many needs around us with our twenty four hours, seven days a week news that we have. We have to recognise that we don't have the capacity to deal with all the needs of this world. Nobody can do that. Yet we have a God who can and a God we can go to in prayer and we see that now in Nehemiah. But we know this idea that we have to go to God and wait on him.

The Psalms talk about this idea a lot and it's a challenge for me how to wait on God. Do I really wait on God or do I shoot these sort of arrow prayers up to him and, you know, if he doesn't deal with it I just move on. Psalm 130 says this: in His word you will find hope. So wait on His word. Psalm 33, verse 20, says, "Our soul waits for the Lord because He is our help and our shield."

We are told to wait on God and He will lead us next. So I believe that by the Holy Spirit, this burden on our heart, this great need that we have, we can not only sense it, but we can do something about it by going to God with it. So that's how we see how God moves Nehemiah through this burden. The third thing we see is Nehemiah's burden is lightened by his knowledge of who God is. Nehemiah sees this great terrible thing.

He is moved by it. He is grief stricken by it. He sits low and he mourns for days about this. But then we see how Nehemiah's burden is lightened by knowing God. And we see that in his prayer, and that's what we're going to investigate a little bit closer now. Nehemiah begins his prayer by addressing God, and you see the title upon title upon title, the characteristic of God that he keeps putting towards God and to himself as he addresses God.

Listen to this. He says in verse five, "O Lord, O Yahweh, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands." Nehemiah's life is a nice little study on leadership, and I've heard sermons, many sermons, on Nehemiah that focus on what a great leader of men he was. He overcomes opposition from outsiders who are threatening the restoration of Jerusalem and its walls. He's able to subside and ease internal turmoil while building the wall.

He exercises administrative skills in his strategy to use half the people to build the wall while the other half keep watch for the Samaritans who are going to attack them. We see that later as governor, he negotiated peace amongst the Jews who were unhappy with the Persian taxes that were being asked of them. And we see in Nehemiah a steadfast leader, resolute in pursuing the great vision that he had. He's a good study on leadership, but the story is not about Nehemiah. The story is about God, and it's about God and His power and God in His love to restore His people.

Nehemiah is burdened by the plight of his people in Jerusalem, but he knows it's up to who? It's up to God to change the situation. Nehemiah doesn't jump into this feeling this burden, having a great vision, then says, I'm trained, I'm educated, I'm ready for this job. He goes to God. He goes to God and he believes that God can change the situation.

And why would God change the situation? Why would he go to God? Because he knows the character of God. His prayer life is marked by a deep understanding of who God is and how He has revealed Himself. Listen to these characteristics that he lists of God.

"O Yahweh, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands." Nehemiah is about to make an audacious request to God to change the heart of a king and to restore broken, sinful Jerusalem. Why is this so audacious? Because in volume one, in the book of Ezra chapter four, we see a letter that had been written to the king, the same king, King Artaxerxes, from the governors on behalf of the king looking after Jerusalem. They say, "There's a plan, king.

There's some Jews that want to rebuild this wall. And king, I don't know if you know this, but if you'll do some research, you'll know that Jerusalem, this people, they are a rebellious and wicked people. They will rebuild this wall, they will hunker down, and you'll have to do another siege and break them down again. Don't let them rebuild this wall." And Artaxerxes receives this letter.

He says, "That makes a lot of sense." Sends it back to them. And the governors, by force, Israel forces, by force, prevent them from rebuilding this wall. And it's in this context that Nehemiah hears that the wall is not being rebuilt and he's broken by it. But this is the audacity of Nehemiah. We're talking months later.

Months after this letter was sent back, he's going to go and ask the king, "Can we rebuild the wall? Is that possible?" This emperor who has so much pride, how can he come back on his word a few months later and say, "Well, okay, now I've changed my mind again. Let this wicked, rebellious city who's got this reputation"—because he does his research and he says in his letter back to them, "Yes, I've heard about this." How does he trust Nehemiah?

How does he trust the people of Jerusalem? It's an audacious request, but in his prayer, we see three things happening. Firstly, Nehemiah focuses himself on God's character. He says Yahweh, Yahweh, the God who swore to Himself and by Himself to be the God of Israel. Who swore Himself to be Israel's protector and father and king.

Yahweh. Yahweh, the God of heaven. The God who reigns, who created this whole universe, the God who reigns over all things. No idols can be compared to Him. Yahweh, the God of heaven who reigns over all earth today. Awesome and great in power are You, the God who keeps His covenant of love.

And we get that Hesed, that Hebrew word that ties up grace and mercy and faithfulness and steadfastness and patience and this word that sums up the character of God as love. He says, "The God who is faithful, the God who is gracious and steadfast, You are the One I come to." Nehemiah begins his prayer and he makes an impossible request. Why? Because he knows his God.

Secondly, because he knows his God's character, he realises something himself and he sees himself aright. He recognises his sin before this God. Nehemiah confesses not only the sin of his people in verses six and seven that had caused their exile and had caused the destruction of Jerusalem. He acknowledges not only their sin, but my sin. My sin.

I have sinned against You. My father's house has sinned against You. Against the backdrop, in other words, of God's character, His holiness, His perfection, His power, Nehemiah knows that he is stripped naked before this God. There's absolutely nowhere to hide before Him. And in that, there is no tribute that he can bring to sway the mind of this God.

There's no tribute that he can bring that says, "Well, God, You know, we've offered this at least, so, you know, maybe You can give us a bit of a hand here. You know, we've done this quite well, so maybe You can fix this wall for us. You can change the heart of this king for us." There's absolutely nothing he can offer to this God. John Calvin, the theologian of the Reformation, writes, "The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy that it often dupes itself."

Nehemiah, the gifted, educated, well spoken, charismatic cup bearer to the king, and we'll hear more about him next week, is gifted and influential. He could have been tempted into thinking that he could sort out the situation by himself, but once he addresses God, all his vanities and all his hypocrisies come to the surface and he realises that any thought of doing this in his own strength is a dupe. It is laughably inadequate. "I am a sinful man," he says. "My people are sinful people.

We could not hold Your commands. We could not love You as You wanted us to love You." Nehemiah confesses his sin in the face of God's character. And then thirdly, in this prayer, comes to focus on God's grace. He comes to focus on God's grace.

And friends, who said that the Old Testament doesn't have grace? Let me tell you, this comes from the Old Testament. Verse eight and nine, "Remember, O Lord," he says, "the instruction You gave Your servant Moses saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you. But if you return to Me and obey My commands, then even if you are exiled to the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I've chosen.'

Nehemiah reminds God of His grace. Nehemiah reminds God of His grace. Remember God, he says. Remember. He prays in verse 10, "These are Your servants.

They're not mine. They're not my people. They are my people, but they're not mine. These are Your servants, God. These are Your people, God." Five times he says the word "You" or "Your".

These aren't my people, they're Your people. Remember them. Remember Your promises to them, Lord. Lord, have mercy according to who You said You will be, according to who You said You are. Not that we are ever worthy of this rescue, but please rescue us.

In the sight of his sinfulness, Nehemiah throws himself on the grace of God. He begs for it. The broken walls of Jerusalem stood for more than simply a defenceless city. It stood for a great need of God's salvation. These crumbling walls represented the crumbling hearts of God's people.

Jerusalem, that city with a rebellious reputation, that stubborn city, was not stubborn merely to an earthly king, it was stubborn to the King of the universe, the King of their hearts. The Persian king said to them, "No way. I will not allow her to be restored. She will rebel again." God says, "You have rebelled against Me.

You are a wicked city, but I will restore you." Playwright Eugene O'Neill once wrote, "Man is born broken, but he lives by mending, and the grace of God is the glue." The grace of God is the glue. Friend, we must know that the character of God shows us our absolute need of Him. Knowing God's character shows us how much we need Him.

We will be stripped naked by the terrifyingly pure searchlight of His word, of His holiness, but you will find a despair, friend, that is unending if you stop there. If you realise your sin, you realise your brokenness, if you stop there, you need to keep pushing to know this God more and more deeply. He is the God of power. He is the God of holiness. He is the God of perfection.

That's true. And so He does call for holiness and perfection from me, from you, but He is also the God who promised grace to His people. The knowledge of God's love without a knowledge of our wretchedness creates pride. The knowledge of our wretchedness without knowledge of God's love creates despair. But friend, this morning, we are reminded that the knowledge of Jesus Christ reveals grace because in Him we understand who God is and we understand our wretchedness as well.

In Jesus Christ, we find a hope of a God who is bigger than our wretchedness. Nehemiah had an impossible request to make to the king. Months later, "King, please send us to go and fix this wall so that we potentially might rebel against you." Try pitching that. We'll see how that works out next week, but we find this in his prayer, a heart that understood God and prayed accordingly.

It was audacious in seeking God's grace. Friends, let's be Christians that love to search the heart of God, that love to get to know Him. Why? Not simply because He is worth it and He is marvellous in the full sense of the word, to marvel at this God, this beauty of this God. But friends, it is a joy to know the character of this God because it impacts our lives.

It produces joy in us knowing this God who is a God of grace, exemplified in Jesus Christ. We see in His life and death and resurrection God's holiness meeting our sinfulness, where God's justice meets and deals with our rebellion, and where God's grace glues together the brokenness of our walls. Let's pray. Father, thank You for this book of Nehemiah. I pray, Lord, that as we get into it more fully, as we delve into it, Father, that our hearts may be moved not simply by a great leader and man, although He was used powerfully by You, a humble man, in Your hands, but Father, that we may be moved by a God who is compassionate and never forgets even a hundred and forty years later.

Father, I pray that as we deal with this, that our lives may be changed and renewed and restored as well. Father, for areas in our life where we may feel the burden of need, where we may be mourning and grieving for great need amongst us, around us, in us, Lord, I pray that You will give us a courage, a burden that will not escape us. You'll give us the gifting and the ability to do something about that. Father, we pray that for our own lives and we also pray that for our church community that we may be a church that also is moved by the need around us. But Father, we thank You ultimately for our Lord Jesus Christ, and that in Him, You have seen our brokenness and our wretchedness, but that You have done something to deal with it.

And not simply to deal with it, Father, but that You have glorified Your own name through this rescue of us. Thank You that You are the God of the covenant, the God of the promise to His people to restore and to rebuild no matter how many times they have broken and fallen. We thank You that this was done ultimately once and for all in Jesus, and we rejoice and we celebrate in that fact this morning again. Our hearts are Yours because of it, Jesus. Amen.