Nehemiah the Faithful Servant (2)

Nehemiah Fears a Just God (1:4-8)

So not a ton of backround to start out Nehemiah. It reads a lot like an auto biography and because of that reason some think it was written by Nehemiah himself. Others believe Ezra to be the author. I believe there to be a compelling argument for both. It was written around 430 B.C which would make sense because Artaxerus was king during that time.

Although the book comes before the book of Ester that Nate taught 2 weeks ago it comes after it chronologically.

My text is 1:4-2:9 but for context I want to start with verse 1

Nehemiah 1:1–2:9 NASB95

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capitol, that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem. They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.” When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. I said, “I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. “We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. “Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ “They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. “O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man.” Now I was the cupbearer to the king. And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, “Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?” Then the king said to me, “What would you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. I said to the king, “If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time. And I said to the king, “If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me. Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.

Nehemiah got news that his city had been destroyed and burned with fire.

But I mean He was living a comfortable life in Persia’s capitol. The destruction of Jerusalem would have no effect on him If kept living his life as the King’s Cupbearer but verse 4 says .

Nehemiah 1:4 NASB95

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Why would he care?

I think the reason for such sorrow wasn’t just patriotism and worry about his countrymen but he was realizing that God was giving them exactly what He said he would do if Isreal forsakes the commandments of the Lord. He knows exactly what is Happening and why because God had told Moses in Leviticus.

Leviticus 26:14–17 NASB95

‘But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up. ‘I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.

Now we have already seen this happening with Babylon and now Persia but there is more. lets go down to verse 30

Leviticus 26:30–39 NASB95

‘I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. ‘I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas. ‘I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. ‘You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste. ‘Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. ‘All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it. ‘As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall. ‘They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies. ‘But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. ‘So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

If that Isn’t a scary warning then I don’t know what is.

I think that Nehemiah’s mourning was a result of a right fear of God. A God that has the power and ability to crush the nation of Israel as well as Nehemiah himself. He saw that Israel’s unfaithfulness was being punished exactly the way the God said he would and that “I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste” in verse 33 was hitting a little too close to home.

I think that sometimes we as Christians gravitate towards God’s grace and love and forget to marvel at his justice. When in reality we serve a powerful God who should be feared. Because when we have a proper fear of God our obedience to him will be more important to us than anything in our lives.

Now I want to take a look at Nehemiah’s response to this in the next few verses.

Nehemiah 1:5 NASB95

I said, “I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,

the word awesome here in the text has more of a sense of respect out of fear, than anything. most of the time when we think of the word awesome we think of something amazing or cool so its really easy to just glace over it.

Nehemiah 1:5–6 (NASB95)

I said, “I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,

let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants,

Nehemiah was hit )with intense emotions for a long time. Verse 6 says he prayed day and night. And I don’t believe this was just for a couple of days either. I believe that this attitude of lament through fasting and prayer lasted for months. Verse one says that he recieved the news that Jerusalem was laid waste in the month of Chislev which is the 9th month in the Jewish calendar. Our eqivalent would be November-Decemberish. This goes on until Chapter 2 verse one where he goes to the king in the month of Nisan which would be the first month March/April our time. So this was at minimum of three months of not being able to enter the Kings court because of the state he was in. For Nehemiah this must have been emotional exhaustion to the next level.

Nehemiah 1:6–8 (NASB95)

confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned.

“We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.

“Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples;

Nehemiah actually references the passage that we read in Leviticus here so we know for sure that he had knew what was going to happen if Israel stayed in their unrepentant state. We see Nehemiah acknowledging the sin of Israel and boldly asking God for forgivevnes on behalf of the entire nation. It would have been easy to get frustrated with his people but Nehemiah does not. No where does he exclude himself from the sins of his people he uses language like, We have acted corruptly, I and fathers house have sinned. This seems like an attitude of true repentance.

Hope in the Promise of the Lord (9-11a)

After verse 8 The chapter seems to flip from judgement and fear to hope in the promise of the Lord.

I had a professor who would say

Thank God for the great buts of the Bible.

Nehemiah 1:9–10 NASB95

but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ “They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.

Now Nehemiah recall God’s promises for a repentant Israel.

Deuteronomy 30:1–3 NASB95

“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.

Nehemiah s doing exactly what it says in verse 1. He is remembering the blessing and the curse that God has set before him in the nation that God has banished him to.