Before The God Of Heaven

Introduction

Turn to Nehemiah 1:1-5.

One inescapable part of life is that from time to time, we may be told some bad news. It might be a crisis in a loved one’s life or it might be an unexpected phone call from your doctor.

There’s a few ways that humans can respond to such things. One temptation is that we simply try to escape reality and ignore what we have heard.

However, one man wisely said,

“‘Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.’

Closing our eyes and ears to the truth could be the first step toward tragedy for ourselves as well as for others.”

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In Nehemiah chapter one, we find a Jewish man who was comfortably serving a pagan king in Shushan, the capital of Persia. He was roughly 1000 miles away from Jerusalem, but he cared enough to ask how the Jews in Jerusalem were doing and all he heard was bad news.

Read Nehemiah 1:1-5.

What did Nehemiah learn about Jerusalem and the Jews? Three words summarize the bad news: remnant, ruin, and reproach. Instead of a land inhabited by a great nation, only a remnant of people lived there, and they were in great affliction and struggling to survive. Instead of a magnificent city, Jerusalem was in shambles, and where there had once been great glory, there was now nothing but great reproach.

Wiersbe, Warren W.. Be Determined (Nehemiah): Standing Firm in the Face of Opposition (The BE Series Commentary) (pp. 3-4). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

Nehemiah had a natural response to the news that he received - he was overwhelmed! I’m not at all surprised. I wonder if he regretted even asking.

The question I want you to focus on is this: what did Nehemiah do when he was faced with overwhelming problems? What did he choose to do after he recovered from the initial shock?

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Nehemiah remembered who God is - Nehemiah 1:4-5.

In verses four and five, Nehemiah refers to God as the God of Heaven.

The Bible doesn’t give a reason why, but why do you think Nehemiah called God that? Why not the God of Jerusalem? Why not the God of Israel? Perhaps it was because Jerusalem was in ruins. Perhaps it was because Israel had not been the faithful covenant people of God, so those titles were empty and meaningless.

This title of God occurs 24 times across the Bible. We find it first in Genesis chapter 24 when Abraham is speaking to his servant and making him promise to find a suitable wife for Isaac. Most times, we find this title in the books of Ezra, Daniel, and Nehemiah - all during the time when Jerusalem was in ruins and Israel was a broken people under Gentile rule.

When this title of God is used in Scripture, it reminds us of the following:

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He is the Creator - Genesis 24:3; Jonah 1:9.

He is a promise-keeper - Genesis 24:7.

He is sovereign - bigger than my problems - 2 Chronicles 36:23; Ezra 1:2, 5:11-12; Daniel 2:37,44.

He is a law-making God - Ezra 6:9-10; 7:12, 21.

I want you to get a feel of all the meaning packed into this title of God! When Nehemiah was overwhelmed with his problems, he turned to behold the God of Heaven and Nehemiah remembered who He is!

Here’s some more:

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He is a judgment-bringing God - Ezra 7:23; Revelation 11:13, 16:11.

He is a petition-hearing God - Nehemiah 1:5, 2:4.

He is a protective God - Nehemiah 2:20.

He is a merciful God - Psalm 136:22; Daniel 2:18-19.

Nehemiah hears that his fellow Jews are in dire conditions. He wondered if they would even survive! Nehemiah hears that Jerusalem is still in ruins! By this time, it was almost 100 years since the first Jews had gone back to Jerusalem under Cyrus the Great. They had been there almost 100 years and Jerusalem was still in ruins! 100 years and still the Jews living there were despised, taunted, and taken advantage of by their neighbors. Nehemiah was overwhelmed by this, but then he remembered, “despite all this, my God is bigger than these problems! He is the God of Heaven!”

Application: Christian, when you are overwhelmed, remember who God is. Remember that the God of Heaven is your God. Think Biblically! Make the choice to stop worrying about the problem and instead meditate on the God of Heaven! That is faith! That is what pleases your God!!! That is what brings a smile to God’s face as He watches you from the throne of heaven.

Nehemiah remembered who God is and secondly…

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Nehemiah believed that God would hear - Nehemiah 1:6, 11.

You cannot help but realize that prayer is a key theme of this chapter. Most of this chapter is Nehemiah talking to God. Why? Because Nehemiah believed that God would hear.

Put yourself in Nehemiah’s shoes. After hearing this news, do you think that Nehemiah felt like praying? Do you think his emotions were such that he could say, “Oh! I just can’t wait to go and pray today! Today is a day where I feel close to God and I feel like He will hear me!”

No! This was one of those prayer meetings that felt like God was far away. This was one of those prayer times where Nehemiah felt like God had forgotten His people and couldn’t care less about what happened to them, but he chose to pray anyway. He chose to pray when he felt overwhelmed.

Application: It is rare that you will feel like praying - you can’t wait until you feel like it. If you wait to pray until you feel like it, you’re not going to be a praying Christian. You must choose to pray especially when you don’t feel like it. That takes discipline, but that is also faith.

Let me encourage you though: something interesting will slowly happen over time as you continue to pray. As you get to know God in prayer, that time spent with God will become more and more precious to you. You will develop a spiritual appetite for it. Your flesh will still fight it, of course, but your spirit will crave it.

I am confident that this prayer was not the first time Nehemiah went before the God of Heaven. For him to pray like this at this moment, prayer was already a part of his life before the problems came. Don’t wait till the problems come to learn to pray. Start today. In my opinion, you usually learn more about prayer by doing it than by listening to preaching about it.

Nehemiah believed that God would hear. Thirdly…

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Nehemiah humbled himself before God - Nehemiah 1:6-7.

Read Nehemiah 1:6-7.

When are we most susceptible to pride? Generally, in my own life, I find it’s when everything in life is going grand. That’s how it was for Nebuchadnezzar! Life was grand! His Empire was in great shape! His building projects were going ahead of schedule! And what did he say?

Daniel 4:30 KJV 1900

The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?

Coming back to Nehemiah, what does he do when he is overwhelmed by the magnitude of these problems? He humbled himself before God.

He prays as a spokesperson for Israel and includes himself as a sinner! He doesn’t confess the sins of the Jews in Jerusalem! He includes himself when he says, “which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.”

He really makes this personal right here. He humbles himself before God! He doesn’t focus on other people and their sins against God; he focuses on himself!

Application: Christian, God intends to use your overwhelming problems to humble you and bring you to a place of greater dependence upon Him! God wants to bring you to a place where you say, “God, I can’t do this! I can’t handle this! But you can! You are able to take the problem away or you can safely bring me through it! Either way, I am trusting you!”

Nehemiah humbled himself before God. Fourthly…

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Nehemiah reminded God of the Scriptures - Nehemiah 1:8-10.

When you stop and think about it, it seems rather strange to remind an all-knowing God of what He has said. But that’s what Nehemiah does here. “God, remember what you commanded Moses!”

Deuteronomy 4:26–29 KJV 1900

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Why did Nehemiah remind God of the Scriptures? I assure you, this wasn’t for God’s benefit, but for Nehemiah’s. You cannot remind an infinite, all-knowing God of anything because He already knows it all. God didn’t need to be reminded of what His Word says. Nehemiah was reminding himself of what God had promised to do. God had promised that if Israel forgot Him, they would be destroyed. That’s exactly what happened! But the promise did not stop there. If they would seek the Lord with all of their heart, He would be found. Nehemiah chose to remember this promise when it seemed that Israel was a distant memory in the mind of God.

Application: Christian, when you are faced with overwhelming problems, remind yourself of what God has already said and cling to His words.

Conclusion:

By going before the God of Heaven, Nehemiah teaches us how to face overwhelming problems. You must…

Remember who God is

Believe that God will hear you

Humble yourself before God

Remind yourself of what God has already said