Nehemiah - Introduction

The Historical Background of Nehemiah

Take out your Bibles and turn in the Old Testament to the book of Nehemiah this morning. If you’re unsure where that is, just open your Bible to the middle and start working your way backwards through the book of Psalms and you’ll eventually get there. But don’t worry, pretty soon your Bible will start to just open to Nehemiah just like so many of your Bibles did when we spent two years in the book of Acts. Now, I don’t imagine that we will be in Nehemiah for anywhere near that long, but I do want to make sure that we take our time to properly work through this incredible book in-depth, so we’re definitely not going to rush it. I am excited about the opportunity to study and work through this book with you, and I hope and pray that this will be both an encouragement and a challenge to each of us individually and to our church corporately as we explore so many wonderful theological truths and principles found within this ancient text. And on that note, let me go ahead and answer a question that some of you may wrestle with from time to time.

Some Christians, and even some pastors, struggle with whether or not we should spend much time studying the Old Testament and have the idea that while the Old Testament is still part of the Word of God, we should spend more time in the New Testament, studying what they believe would be more relevant teachings for the church today. Nehemiah is in fact an ancient book. It is one of the historical books of the Old Testament that was written about 2400 years ago, and if you know anything about the book of Nehemiah already, you might know that it covers a span of less than 20 years from the beginning to the end. While it may not cover a vast span of time, it does however cover a significant moment in the history of the nation of Israel, one that would have far-reaching implications lasting even through the time of Jesus’s earthly ministry some 400-500 years later. But beyond that, the book of Nehemiah contains within its pages some of the most practical examples and instructions for how we should live as followers of Christ and how if we as the church want to succeed in the work to which God has called us, we must be a people who are focused on doing God’s work God’s way. That is the tagline for this whole series. We must be a people focused on doing God’s work God’s way. What we will discover throughout our study is that through the leadership of Nehemiah, through God’s working through Nehemiah, the people of Israel became a people of the Book, led by the Spirit, serving their community in a relevant and meaningful way. And that’s the challenge for us today. We must be a people of the Book, led by the Spirit, serving our community in a relevant and meaningful way.

This can only come through the proper study and exposition of all Scripture. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Paul didn’t tell Timothy that only some of the Bible was relevant for studying, to just focus on the good parts or the interesting parts. Neither did Paul tell Timothy to only study the letters that he himself had been writing to the churches. Paul instructed Timothy to study the whole Bible, and as he did, he would grow into the man that God wanted him to become. As we work through the book of Nehemiah, we will quickly see that this book is indeed profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction or training in righteousness. And my prayer is that as we explore this book and mine these deep theological truths from its pages, we will as a result become men and women of God who are ready and equipped for every good work for which God has called us.

So, let’s go ahead and dive in this morning to the book of Nehemiah, and we’re only going to be reading just a couple verses as a sort of introduction today. Today, we’ll be covering a lot of history. If you enjoy history, then this will be a very good day for you. If you can’t stand history, then I’m sorry. Maybe next week will be better for you. You’ll just have to suffer through for the moment. So, let’s talk about the book of Nehemiah. Despite being named after him, Nehemiah is not the author of the book. He does write some of it, but from what most scholars believe, Ezra, or someone who wrote a large portion of 2 Chronicles wrote Nehemiah and included some of his personal diary or journal into the writing, that’s why we’re going to see some writing in the first person like we’ll see here in the verses this morning. In the Hebrew Bible, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were actually one book and were considered to be written by the Chronicler. Regardless, in most modern translations, they are regarded as two separate books. But I would encourage you to read through the book of Ezra as some extra study to help you have a better foundation on where we’re going in our study through Nehemiah. I’ll talk about some of that as we go this morning, but it would be beneficial to read it on your own, along with the last chapter of 2 Chronicles. Let’s go ahead and begin reading this morning with verse 1 in chapter 1 of Nehemiah:

1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev (kis-layv), in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem.

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When I teach my English students how to break down a narrative story, I tell them to start with a few main points or key elements. There are a few questions that we try to answer that help us gain a better understanding of the work. Who are the main characters? When does the story take place? Where does the story take place? So, just in these first two verses, let’s ask ourselves these questions. So far, who are the main characters? Now, don’t get ultra-spiritual on me and say God is the main character. We all know you’re right, but let’s stick to the writing. Ok, so in this first verse we are introduced to this man Nehemiah. Who is Nehemiah? Well, he is the son of Hacaliah and possibly the brother of Hanani. Does that clear things up for you? No? Well, me neither. I’ve looked all throughout the Bible and there’s no mention of this guy Hacaliah or his son Nehemiah or Hanani outside of this book. So, we don’t really know who this guy is, but since these are his words and the book is named after him, we’ll go ahead and say he’s an important character in the narrative. Next question. When does the story take place? In the month of Chislev (kis-layv). Light bulbs are going off for everyone, right? “Oh, yeah, the month Chislev! Got it!” Well, the month Chislev was the third month of the Hebrew ecclesiastical calendar or the ninth month of the civil calendar (think about it in terms of like a fiscal year and calendar year). Chislev would line up with our calendar from roughly mid-November to mid-December. Ok, we’re getting somewhere at least. So, we’re in November/December in the twentieth year. The twentieth year of what? Well, the Jews didn’t really keep calendar dates like we do now; typically, they marked the years based on significant events like the reign of kings. So, if we do a little more reading, over to chapter 2 verse 1, we get a little more information. We learn that this was in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes who was the king of the Persian empire. Now, that probably doesn’t clear it up too much for you if you’re not a history buff, but that gives us a good place to start to determine when and what’s happening around this time. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s go ahead and ask the last question. We’ve got the who, the when, and now we need to find out where this is happening. Nehemiah says he was in Susa the citadel or palace. Susa was the winter palace of King Artaxerxes and as you can see here on this map, it was east of Babylon, and north of the Persian Gulf. So, we have this guy named Nehemiah, we don’t really know much about him, or really anything at all, who is living in the winter capital of the Persian Empire in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes in the month of Chislev.

While we might not know much about Nehemiah, at least not yet, but we do know a good deal about King Artaxerxes and the Persian Empire. And it’s here that we will get to see the big picture of where the events that are about to happen in this book take place within the history of the Jewish people. So, let’s start by going back in time roughly a thousand years from this point to Israel’s exodus from Egypt. I’m going to try to give you a very quick and very high-altitude view of Israel’s history up to this point in the Old Testament, so hold on tight. Ok, so most of you are familiar with the fact that the people of Israel became enslaved in Egypt for four hundred years before God used Moses to rescue them and lead them out into the wilderness on their way to their Promised Land, the land of Canaan which God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. After some bickering and disobedience and subsequent forty years of punishment hanging out in the wilderness, God finally allowed them to enter the Promised Land, but not before entering into a contract with them through the giving of the Law of Moses. God had already made a covenant with Abraham that He would make him the father of a great nation through which all the earth would be blessed, but now at this point in Israel’s history, God made what we call the Mosaic Covenant with Israel.

The Mosaic Covenant was a conditional covenant where God promised that He would be their God and they would be His people and that He would lead them, take care of them, and bless them if they agreed to abide by His law. But if they refused to obey His law and instead follow after other gods or go their own way, they would be faced with punishment in various forms, one of which would be that their cities would be destroyed, and they would be taken captive and enslaved by foreign nations. The people of Israel agreed to the covenant and God led them into the land of Canaan through Joshua. This was somewhere around 1407-1406 BC. From there, the people entered into a continual cycle of sin and restoration as we can see through the book of Judges. The people would serve the Lord and obey His Laws, then they would disobey and worship other gods. Because of their disobedience, God would send punishment often in the form of oppression from surrounding nations resulting in the people being enslaved. Israel would cry out to the Lord in repentance, God would send someone to rescue them, and in their deliverance, they returned to serving the Lord for a time before the whole cycle would repeat itself for about 400 years. Take a look at this graphic. If you read through the book of Judges, you’ll basically see that happen over and over again.

Eventually, the people of Israel desired to be like every other kingdom on earth and were dissatisfied with the fact that God was their King. You see, Israel was a theocracy, a country led by a divine King. But in their carnality, that government wasn’t good enough, so they begged God to give them a king. Despite God’s warning of what a king would do to them and the nation and the results that would follow in perpetuity, Israel begged God for a king, thinking that having a king would fix all their problems. Let me just take a moment here to remind you that the answer to spiritual issues is never a political appointment. God can use political figures, kings and presidents, to move forward His plan as He has for thousands of years, but the solution to spiritual issues is never a political appointment, it’s a renewed commitment to the rule of God in our life. But Israel couldn’t see that. They wanted to be like all the other godless nations, and they wanted a king. So, that’s what they got. From that point forward, Israel would be ruled by kings. Saul would be their first king, but we won’t talk about him. Let’s move on to their second king – David. You all know David. Started out as just a small shepherd boy, but even as a small shepherd boy, he had a big God who did big things through him. While Saul and his army were in a standoff in the battle with the Philistines, David’s father Jesse sent him to take some food to his brothers who were fighting in the battle. You know the story. David shows up and immediately gets offended by the vial language being spewed by the Philistine giant, Goliath. David says they should do something about that guy; his brothers mock him, Saul doubts him, but God did a great work through him and David took down the giant with just a sling and a stone and the power of God. Sometime around 1010 BC, God moved Saul out of the way and made David king. Despite David’s many poor decisions during his reign, he was still a man after God’s own heart. God blessed David and blessed the nation of Israel through him. Eventually David wanted to build a temple for God, but God told David that task would be reserved for his son, Solomon, since David was a man of war. Through David, Israel experienced an incredible time of peace, and when he died, he left the kingdom, the time of peace, and all the material needed to build the temple to his son Solomon.

Solomon, as you might know, was the wisest and richest king to ever live. He was the wisest king to ever live because God told him to ask for one thing and He would grant it to him. Rather than ask for riches or power, Solomon asked God for wisdom, and in return, God gave him wisdom and riches and power beyond comprehension. According to scholars, Solomon’s wealth would have surpassed two trillion dollars today (that’s almost worth as much as five Elon Musks put together). He was so rich that according to 1 Kings chapter 10, when the Queen of Sheba came to visit him, his great wealth took her breath away. God had blessed Solomon immensely and allowed him to build the temple at Jerusalem using the materials gathered and prepared by his father, somewhere around 967 BC. When the temple was completed, God came to Solomon, and in 1 Kings chapter 9, we can see what God told him. You don’t have to turn there, just let me sum it up. God told Solomon, “If you walk in my way like your father David did and if you have integrity of heart and keep my law, then I will establish your throne forever. But if you turn from me and do not keep my law and go and serve other gods, then I will cut off Israel from this land, this house that you have built for me will be destroyed in such a way that people will pass by the ruins and wonder what these people did that caused the Lord to bring them to such a ruin.” It’s pretty simple. God was renewing the covenant that He had made with the people, the covenant that they had broken so many times, He was telling them that it was still valid. All they had to do was follow God and keep His commandments. But by the time we get to 1 Kings chapter 11, the very first words we read are that “King Solomon loved many foreign women.” Now, that might not mean much to you, but that issue is clarified in verse 2. Listen to this: “…the Lord had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.” Solomon turned from the Lord in disobedience and as a result, he invited in these 700 women into his life in such an intimate way that they turned his heart from the Lord and Solomon began to worship other gods. Because of Solomon’s disobedience, God came to him again and told him that because of his disobedience, the kingdom would be conquered and divided. And that’s exactly what happened. Around 930 BC, after the death of Solomon, the country was divided as a result of bitter political discord. Ten of the tribes made Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s servants, their king and became the Northern Kingdom that would also be called Israel. Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to Solomon’s son Rehoboam and became the Southern Kingdom called Judah in which was the city of Jerusalem.

But that wasn’t the end of their troubles. The two kingdoms would engage in bloody warfare for many years. During that time, both kingdoms experienced continued punishment from God for their lack of obedience and constant worship of false gods. Eventually, beginning around 740 BC, God led the Assyrians to go to war against the Northern Kingdom. For 20 years, the Assyrians besieged Israel and carried off many people into captivity. Then in 722 BC, the Northern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians. That’s a date that you should probably remember – 722 BC. Twenty years later, the Assyrians marched south to attack Judah, but they were unsuccessful because God answered the prayer of King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah. The Kingdom of Judah would continue for over a hundred years more before God’s wrath would be poured out against them for their wickedness. After the death of Josiah, who was a godly king in Judah, God sent Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon to invade Judah. For three years, Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, became a servant king and paid tribute to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. After three years, Jehoiakim decided not to pay the tribute to anymore. Bad move. Nebuchadnezzar came and quelled the uprising and carried off thousands of Jews as prisoners to Babylon. This would include Daniel and his friends. Nebuchadnezzar would return and carry away more than 10,000 prisoners, all the skilled workmen, and all the officials of the city along with all of the treasure of the Temple and the palace. Jerusalem had been stripped bare. All that remained was the new puppet king Zedekiah and the poorest people of the land. But again, as a result of the king’s rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian army returned, this time with such fury and force that they destroyed the city. This would be another significant date for you to write down. In 586 BC, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. They burned the Temple, the king’s house, all the houses of Jerusalem, and broke down the walls and gates of the city. Anyone who was left eventually fled to Egypt. Jerusalem had been utterly destroyed just as God had promised Solomon some 400 years earlier.

But that’s not all. Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon didn’t last forever. In fact, God had already told the people of Judah through the prophet Jeremiah that their captivity would only last for 70 years. So, what happened during that time? In 539 BC, the Babylonian Empire fell to the Persians, just as God had promised through Daniel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. The Persians were led by an unusually humane ruler by the name of Cyrus. This was the same King Cyrus whom Isaiah had prophesied nearly 150 years earlier would be the king who would allow the Jews to return from their captivity to their home in Jerusalem. He was actually shown this writing, possibly by Daniel, and realized that he was called by God to allow the Jews to return and help them rebuild and you can read about that in 2 Chronicles 36. This was the first return of the Jews to the city of Jerusalem. Cyrus had even granted them the finances and supplies necessary to rebuild the Temple and sent back with them the treasures that belonged in the Temple that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away. Chapters 1-6 of the book of Ezra cover this return. Despite the support of Cyrus, the Jews faced tremendous opposition from the Samaritans, and it took fifteen years for the temple to be rebuilt. And that happened around 520-515 BC, during the reign of King Darius. Historians believe that it was also during this time that the Jews had attempted to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem but were hindered by opposition from the Samaritans. But more on that later. After Darius, his son, Xerxes I, who made Esther his queen, reigned for 20 years until 465 BC. Then in 465 BC, Artaxerxes I ascended to the throne of the Persian Empire. And now, 20 years after that, (445 BC) in the month of Chislev in the winter palace of King Artaxerxes I we find our man Nehemiah.

Ok, I know that was a lot of Biblical history, and I hope you were able to follow along. If, however, the person next to you is sleeping, you might want to jab them with your elbow and let them know the history lesson is over. Now, that we have a better understanding at least about the when and the where, let’s go back to verse 2 and see if we can learn a little more about the man Nehemiah.

Nehemiah is living in Susa, the winter capital of the Persian Empire, when he runs into a man by the name of Hanani. The text reads in most translations that he is one of Nehemiah’s brothers, which can either mean he was simply a Jew, he was of the same family or clan as Nehemiah, or he was literally Nehemiah’s sibling. Since it lists others from Judah and doesn’t call them his brothers, I’m inclined to believe that he was at least part of Nehemiah’s extended family, if not his actual brother. But notice this – where were they from? They had come from Judah. You see, if you look back into the book of Ezra, in chapter 7, you can see that in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes the king made a decree that any of the Jews who so desired could go back to Jerusalem. Write this down – Ezra 7 – go home and read that at some point this week. So, thirteen years before the opening verse of Nehemiah chapter 1, through the divine leadership of God, the King of Persia allowed as many Jews to go back to their home as wanted to go. It is possible that Nehemiah’s brother and these others with him had chosen to go home and had returned to the capital either on business or to see their family. Nehemiah sees these men, and notice what he asks them: How are the Jews who had escaped? How is the city of Jerusalem? You see, Nehemiah was a man who had a heart for God and God’s people. We get to catch just a quick glimpse into his character in these two questions. He doesn’t ask about other family members, doesn’t ask about their trip, or anything else. The first thing that comes into his mind is God’s people and the place that represented God’s presence with His people.

Since the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, nearly 140 years before this moment, the Jews had struggled to maintain their identity as the people of God. They had faced terrible internal and external opposition and oppression, mostly as a direct result of God’s judgment on them for their disobedience. But even after all these years, there was still a remnant, a faithful remnant who loved God and loved God’s people. Nehemiah was born in exile. He was most likely born in Susa or somewhere nearby. He had most likely never even been to Jerusalem. But he knew the Scriptures. He knew the stories. He knew God. And his heart was burdened for his people and his city. We’re going to see that even more clearly in the words that follow in the next few verses next time. But as we wrap up this morning, let me direct your attention back to the history that we’ve covered this morning.

If you were to just open up your Bible and begin reading the book of Nehemiah, on the surface it might appear to be a fantastical story of a man who was successful against all odds. And while that may be true, Nehemiah was indeed successful against great odds, the underlying truth is that this isn’t just some random, obscure story found within the pages of history. The story of Nehemiah is one of a man who was in the right place at the right time, not as a matter of fate, destiny, or coincidence, but rather by the sovereignty of God for such a time as this. Nehemiah is a man who overcame great opposition and accomplished an even greater task, not simply because of his skills as a leader, but because Nehemiah was a man who did God’s work God’s way. In the pages of this book, we are going to discover not only the heart of Nehemiah, but the essential truths that lead us to be a people of God, a people of the Book, led by the Spirit, serving our community in a relevant and meaningful way. I hope that you’ll make plans to join us each week, but as we close this morning, let me leave you with this challenge. While I do hope that you’ll make plans to join us each week, don’t just make plans to show up. Come prepared. Let your heart be prepared for the hearing of the Word of God each week. Come with anticipation of what God will speak into your life each week. And come with a sense of excitement to see how God is going to shape our church and use our church as we learn to do God’s work God’s way.

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