Nehemiah 1:4-11 The Humble Prayer of a Leader

Nehemiah 1:4-11 The Humble Prayer of a Leader July 13, 2025 Lesson 2 Kingdom Assignment The Relentless Pursuit of Obedience Class Presentation Notes AAAAAA

Background Scriptures:

· Note before reading our Scripture:  Daniel, the prophet from the Bible, likely lived during the 6th century BC. He was taken into exile in Babylon around 605 BC when approx. 16 and lived at least until the third year of King Cyrus of Persia (536 BC). This means he would have been alive during the Babylonian exile and the early years of the Persian Empire.

Daniel 9:1–19 (NASB95)

Daniel’s Prayer for His People

   1     In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans—

   2     in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

   3     So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

   4     I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,

   5     we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.

   6     “Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.

   7     “Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You.

   8     “Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.

   9     “To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him;

10     nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lordour God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets.

11     “Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.

12     “Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem.

13     “As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the Lordour God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth.

14     “Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lordour God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.

15     “And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for Yourself, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have been wicked.

16     “O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us.

17     “So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary.

18     “O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.

19     “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

Main Idea:

· God’s plans for us are dynamic, not static.  Nehemiah constantly reinvented himself as God led him from being a cupbearer to the king, then builder of the wall and finally, as governor of the land.

Study Aim:

· To understand how to follow Nehemiah example in prayer including his God-given burden, adoration, petition for people and perseverance.

Create Interest:

· In Lesson 1, we were tasked to learn how to discern God’s plan for our lives.   You might note that Nehemiah 1:1-3, 11 were our text.  My challenge with limiting that lesson to just those Scriptures was that Nehemiah was a godly man who devoted his life to prayer to seek God’s guidance.   I could not deliver the lesson without including Nehemiah 1:4-11.  Thus, in the time available we studied prayer as shared by Nehemiah last week and learned several lessons in the effort.

· As prayer is the most important aspect of our relationship with God, I will continue digging into our Scriptures to give you more blessings offered by the Scriptures in Nehemiah 1:4-11.   You will be glad you hung in here.

Lesson in Historical Context:

· This is the first of 12 prayers recorded in the book. The words of Nehemiah’s prayer are an allusion to Deut 30:1–4 below.  At times, Nehemiah paraphrases the text; at other times he directly quotes it and gains encouragement, strength, resolve, and direction from Scriptures

Deuteronomy 30:1–4 (NASB95) Restoration Promised

   1     “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,

   2     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,

   3     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.

   4     “If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.

Bible Study:

Nehemiah 1:4–6 (NASB95)

          4 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.

          5I 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,

          6let 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.

· Vs. 4-5: Hearing this bleak and discouraging news about his homeland broke Nehemiah’s heart. Grave concern gripped the inner recesses of his soul. He began to weep and mourn over the severe distress of his people. Utterly broken, Nehemiah began to fast and pray for many days on their behalf. Just how many days is not stated by Scripture. But day after day he sought the Lord, begging the Lord to help his people through these dire circumstances.

· Nehemiah “fasted, and prayed”. He appreciated that he did not have the answer to the problem that confronted him, and therefore he turned to prayer. It was not the last resort for Nehemiah, but the first.

o Clearly, it was habitual for him to pray. Throughout the book he slipped comfortably into prayer whenever the occasion demanded it.

· Vs. 5: If we love God and the advance of His glory, we will feel deep sorrow when the advance of the gospel is halted, and we will be disciplined and diligent to fast and pray.

o If we are not feeling sorrow and cultivating diligence and discipline, we should seek to stir ourselves and one another up to love and good deeds. We can do this by considering what Nehemiah shows us about where he got this kind of passionate fervor for God and His kingdom.

o In the content of his prayer in verses 5–11, Nehemiah shows that he understands the Scriptures and wants to see the Scriptures fulfilled.

o If we would feel the kind of zeal for the church that results in weeping, mourning, fasting, and praying in response to reports about how the enemies of the gospel have attacked God’s kingdom, we should seek to understand the Scriptures and pray that God would cause us to long for their fulfillment.[1]

· Vs. 6: Although this particular prayer can be read in a matter of moments, he prayed persistently over a lengthy period in the same spirit. He speaks of “the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night”.

o Indeed, it was not until the month Nisan (March/April) that he spoke to Artaxerxes about his deep exercise concerning the Jews and Jerusalem (2:1), four months after Hanani and the men of Judah had brought the news to him.

o There were times when Nehemiah’s prayers were answered immediately, but he understood that there were occasions when there was a need for him to be persistent and to wait patiently for God’s answer.  Can we consider having patience for God to reveal His will?

§ Some commentators believe that the words, “prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day” (v. 11), may well indicate that this prayer was the culmination of four months of conversing with God over the matter, and now he had arrived at a crucial point on “today” (v. 11).[2]

Thoughts to Soak On:

· Nehemiah’s tender heart and deep concern for others were evident in his life by his actions. When others suffered, he was gripped by compassion for their welfare. So it must be with us.

o When we see or hear about people in need, we must feel empathy, identifying with their need.

o But even more important than just feeling for others, we must act.

§ We must be benevolent in meeting the needs of others both at home and abroad. On a larger scale, think of these very real and very desperate needs around the world …

· Countless numbers are hurting in countless ways. Like Nehemiah, we must arouse ourselves to show tender concern for the hurting and suffering of this world. We must reach out in compassion to help all we can.[3]

o Matthew 25:35–40 (NASB95)

          35      ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;

          36      naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’

          37      “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?

          38      ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?

          39      ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

          40      “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

· How do we allow this to be part of our lives in our world today?

Nehemiah 1:7–10 (NASB95)

   7     “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.

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

   9     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.’

10     “They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.

· Vs. 7:  In Job 34:31 the word translated “acted corruptly” (ḥābal) means to “offend.”

· When Nehemiah heard of the devastation in Jerusalem, he fasted and prayed to God, repenting of the corrupt actions of his people and asking for restoration (Neh. 1:7). Elihu also used the term, suggesting the case of a man confessing his guilt to God and promising not “to offend” again (Job 34:31)[4]

· Nehemiah was speaking to God here as to a master he has offended by disregarding his commands.

o The concept of disobedience goes right to the heart of the matter. God’s commands are not unpredictable; He knows what is best for his people and for all society.

o Nehemiah recognized the seriousness of disobeying God’s ethical demands. Many ethical dilemmas of our day are not easily solved.

§ However, we often make them more difficult by not accepting as relevant ethical commands that are clear in Scripture. In this case “the commands, decrees and laws” refer to the Pentateuch.[5]

· Vs. 8-10:  Remember: what a powerful way to come to God! To ask Him to remember His promises! Nehemiah is saying, “Lord, You made a promise to Moses and this nation, I ask you now to make good on it!” (Nehemiah is quoting from both Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 30).

o This, no doubt, is the secret to great power in prayer: to plead the promises of God. We may be a bit annoyed when one of our children comes to us saying “Daddy, you promised”.

§ But our Father in heaven delights in it—and often demands it before prayer becomes effective.

o God will not open His storehouse until we open our mouths in asking Him to perform His promises!   But note the following…………….

· “If you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them”: Nehemiah quotes a conditional promise.

o The condition was returning to God and keeping His commandments. But how could he know the nation was keeping these conditions?

§ He really couldn’t; but he knew that he was keeping them, and because he had identified himself with the nation in their sin, the nation could identify itself with Nehemiah in his godly fulfillment of these conditions.[6]   Discuss.

Thoughts to Soak On:

· It is important to see that Nehemiah recognizes the relation of God’s mercy to His covenant. He perceives that the two go together, that the covenant does not dispense with the need for mercy any more than it forecloses the action of mercy.

· Big point here.  When the covenant people fall into sin, they cannot claim forgiveness as a right; nor can they ever demand deliverance from trouble on the ground of their pact with God. God does not bargain with His children.

· A Divine covenant is not a business arrangement, the terms of which can be interpreted like those of a deed of partnership and put into force by the determinate will of either party.

o The covenant is from the first, a gracious Divine promise and dispensation, conditioned by certain requirements to be observed on man’s side. Its very existence is a fruit of God’s mercy, not an outcome of man’s haggling, and its operation is just through the continuance of that mercy.

o It is true a promise, a sort of pledge, goes with the covenant; but that is a promise of mercy, a pledge of grace.

§ It does not dispense with the mercy of God by converting what would otherwise be an act of pure grace on his part into a right which we possess and act upon of our own sole will.

§ What it does is to afford a channel for the mercy of God, and to assure us of His mercy, which, however, remains mercy throughout.[7]

Nehemiah 1:11 (NASB95)

11 “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 (Nehemiah) compassion before this man(the king).”  NowI was the cupbearer to the king.  (  ) added for clarity in your understanding.

· Nehemiah identifies with his people in their wrongdoing.He knows we cannot say that our nation’s or our church’s failure belongs to them and not to us. We are part of our nation and church and are implicated in their failure. Yet Nehemiah goes on to appeal to the fact that he is God’s servant.

· He has applied the term “God’s servants” to his people, the people who failed and did damage, but evidently that was a kind of honorary description. They had not behaved like servants.

· But when he calls himself God’s servant, he means he really is committed to his master. The point is made explicit by his going on to refer to servants who revere God’s name—in other words, people who know who God is and who behave accordingly. Revering God implies doing what God says.

· Alongside the fact of long-lasting failure on the part of God’s servants, Nehemiah wants God to note the commitment of servants like himself and Hanani, and even to take more account of the latter than the former. On their behalf he is prepared to say, “I am willing to do whatever you ask to make up for the offense we caused you—tell me what that is.”He thereby puts himself in the position of being the unconditional servant of the master.

o In his particular circumstances, he knows that the first thing he needs is for the king to feel some compassion for him.[8]

Thoughts in Closing😊

· Nehemiah’s prayer is a model of theological correctness.

o He first acknowledged God’s sovereignty and covenant grace and faithfulness (Neh. 1:5).

o He then petitioned the Lord to hear his confession of national and personal sins (v. 6), covenant violations (v. 7) which had resulted in the dispersion of the chosen people to the ends of the earth (v. 8; cf. Lev. 26:27–33; Deut. 28:25, 36, 47–57).

o Such confession, accompanied by sincere repentance, would prompt the Lord to forgive his people and restore them to the land once again (Neh. 1:9; cf. Deut. 30:1–10).

· Returning to the present situation, Nehemiah reminded the Lord that the suffering Jews of Jerusalem were those very ones to whom the redemptive promises pertained (Neh. 1:10). He now interceded for them, but also for himself.

o May God respond to the needs of his obedient and desperate people, he pled (v. 11), and may He also listen to his servant Nehemiah and give him favor before his human lord, King Artaxerxes, the one who would have to grant him leave of absence (cf. 2:5).

· The brief notation that Nehemiah was cupbearer to the king is not without significance.

o It speaks of his privileged role in the royal court but, at the same time, of his indispensability.

o The cupbearer, among other things, sampled the food and drink of the king to determine whether or not it was safe for his consumption.

§ Such a man must enjoy the king’s trust.

o Nehemiah’s very uniqueness of responsibility made it unlikely that the king could do without him, even for a brief time.

§ `Hence, Nehemiah’s prayer for divine intervention.[9]

Note: I have included excerpts below from a sermon by Dr. Adrian Rogers entitled, Calling America Back to God, October 27, 1996.   Dr. Rogers was waking his congregation just before the presidential election.   I felt this sermon is timely for us considering the downward spiral away from God our nation is in today.

Nehemiah Agonized in Prayer

He began to pray, because when he visualized the problem, then he agonized in prayer. Look, if you will now, in verse 4: “And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1:4). It’s not enough to see the ruins; we need to weep over them. Nehemiah did.

Now, what was his prayer like? Let me give you the four elements of this prayer.

A Prayer of Contrition

· Jeremiah wept salty tears for the people of his day. Nehemiah wept over the people of his day. Jesus, as He saw Jerusalem under impending judgment, convulsed in sobs.

o When’s the last time you shed a tear over some soul that was mortgaged to the devil?

o When’s the last time that you broke down and literally wept before God?

o The things that break the heart of Almighty God ought to break our heart.  If you’re not moved to tears, I suggest you get alone with God and say, “God, break my cold heart and have mercy upon me.”

A Prayer of Confession

· But, not only was it a prayer of contrition; it was a prayer of confession. Look in verses 5 through 7:  And, let me tell you that the moral situation in America can be laid right at the footsteps of the Church of the Lord God, because:

o We have failed to preach as we ought to preach, speak as we ought to speak, live as we ought to live, give as we ought to give, and go as we ought to go, and it is a monument to our failure.

o We have lost the moral consensus in America today, and why? Because the people of God have failed. And, in this coming election, it’s going to be a referendum on character, but let me tell you whose character: the character of the American people.

o We’re going to find out that we have lost our moral character and our consensus, and we need to confess our sins before God. And, when Nehemiah prayed, it was a prayer of contrition; it was a prayer of confession.

A Prayer of Confidence

· Look in verse 8, if you will—I love this: “Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commands thy servant Moses”—here’s a prayer that is based on the promise of God. All true prayer is.  What’s he saying? He is saying,

· “Our Lord God, there’s nothing too hard for Thee.” “Though they be in the uttermost parts, I will bring them back. I will restore them, if they will repent and turn to Me” (Nehemiah 1:9).

· Don’t you dare say that we cannot bring America back to God, because what you’re saying is God can’t do it.

o It’s an insult to God to say we can’t have revival. As long as there’s God, there’s hope.

o Nehemiah’s day was a desperate day. Think about it.

§ The walls of Jerusalem were crumbled.

§ The streets were filled with weeds and trash;

§ The gates of the city were burned.

§ The people were in despair, disillusioned.

· But, Nehemiah got the city on his heart, and he visualized and then agonized.

A Prayer of Commitment

· A prayer of contrition, a prayer of confession, a prayer of confidence—and it was a prayer of commitment….This is very important; I want you to see this. Look, if you will, in verse 11 of this same chapter.  He was about to go to the king and ask the king for a favor to return and rebuild the walls. And, he said, “I prayed to God because I was the king’s cupbearer, and I said, ‘O God, give me now favor in the eyes of this man’ ” (Nehemiah 1:11). He wasn’t content just to see the ruins and weep, but there was commitment.[10]

Note:

Please feel free to share this with anyone….History has an uncomfortable way of repeating itself due mankind’s desire not to learn from it or worse to change it to make him/her like their made up version better….Pray for America!

Grace and peace,

Thought to soak on relating to what we have learned.

· Our greatest service to humanity lies in persuading humans to trust in Jesus. Everything else we can do for our fellow man is done best as a means to this end. We are not to be cultural warriors trying to defeat our ideological enemies, but cultural missionaries committed to “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) wherever and however we can. 

Dr. Jim Denison  6-27-2025 Excerpt from the Daily Article

Notes

This is a note I sent the Class you might find useful in your winding up your lesson on prayer.

Ephesians 1:15-23   March 13, 2025

Class Without Walls and Fellow Pilgrims,

Do you ever find yourself wanting to pray for someone and not knowing what to pray for? I know I do very regularly…and with our world in turmoil, confusion running rampant, uncertainty avails…and if you check the prayer list for our church or watch the news, life goes on…but not as many expected….I found this Scripure reference the focus of a daily Bible reading from Dr. David Jeremiah on March 12…”What to Pray”…and then I remembered we have passed this way recently and it was worthy of our time…perhaps now again to look at the focus….Attached is the lesson I wrote for our study…but here is the “Cliff Notes” version extracted for your time saving…

Grace and peace to each of you,

jsj

            A Thought for Lent………………………

•    Paul desired the Ephesian Christians to understand what great wealth they had in Christ. Paul knew of their faith and love, and in this he rejoiced. The Christian life has two dimensions: faith toward God and love toward men, and you cannot separate the two. But Paul knew that faith and love were just the beginning. The Ephesians needed to know much more. This is why he prayed for them….and we should pray for each other.

•    In the prison prayers of Paul (Eph. 1:15–23; 3:14–21; Phil. 1:9–11; Col. 1:9–12), we discover the blessings he wanted his converts to enjoy. In noneof these prayers does Paul request material things.

•    His emphasis is on spiritual perception and real Christian character. He does not ask God to give them what they do not have, but rather prays that God will reveal to them what they already have.

•    Before we study Paul’s requests in this “prayer for enlightenment,” we must notice two facts.

•    First, enlightenment comes from the Holy Spirit. He is the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” (Isa. 11:2; John 14:25–26; 16:12–14). With his natural mind, man cannot understand the things of God. He needs the Spirit to enlighten him (1 Cor. 2:9–16).

•    The Holy Spirit reveals truth to us from the Word, and then gives us the wisdom to understand and apply it.

•    He also gives us the power—the enablement—to practice the truth (Eph. 3:14–21).

•    Second, this enlightenment comes to the heart of the believer (Eph. 1:18). Literally this verse reads, “The eyes of your heart being enlightened.” We think of the heart as the emotional part of man, but…………

•    In the Bible, the heart means the inner man, and includes the emotions, the mind, and the will. The inner man, the heart, has spiritual faculties that parallel the physical senses.

•    The inner man can see (Ps. 119:18; John 3:3), hear (Matt. 13:9; Heb. 5:11), taste (Ps. 34:8; 1 Peter 2:3), smell (Phil. 4:18; 2 Cor. 2:14), and touch (Acts 17:27). This is what Jesus meant when He said of the people: “They seeing see not, and hearing they hear not” (Matt. 13:13).

•    The inability to see and understand spiritual things is not the fault of intelligence, but of the heart. The eyes of the heart must be opened by the Spirit of God.[1]

•    For Paul, the greatest display of power the world had ever seen took place when God raised Jesus from the dead (verse 20). Nobody had ever been raised bodily from the dead, before or since. And at the center of Paul’s prayer for the church in the area, which he now reports, is his longing that they will come to realize that this same power, the power seen at Easter and now vested in Jesus, is available to them for their daily use.

  [1]Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 14–17.

Page .  Exported from Logos Bible Study, 12:43 PM July 2, 2025.

[1]James M. Hamilton Jr. et al., Exalting Jesus in Ezra-Nehemiah(Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 99–100.

[2]C. T. Lacey, “Nehemiah,”in Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, What the Bible Teaches (J. Ritchie, 2009), 217–218.

[3]Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2004), 101–102.

[4]Thoralf Gilbrant, “חָבַל,” in The Old Testament Hebrew-English Dictionary, The Complete Biblical Library (WORDsearch, 1998).

[5]Mervin Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, electronic ed., vol. 10, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 172.

[6]David Guzik, Nehemiah, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2000), Ne 1:8–10.

[7]Walter F. Adeney, “The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther,” in The Expositor’s Bible: Samuel to Job, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll, vol. 2, Expositor’s Bible (Hartford, CT: S.S. Scranton Co., 1903), 632.

[8]John Goldingay, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther for Everyone, Old Testament for Everyone (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2012), 84–85.

[9]Gregory A. Lint, ed., Ezra–Job, The Complete Biblical Library: Study Bible (World Library Press, 2000), Ne 1:4–11.

[10]Adrian Rogers, “Calling America Back to God,” in Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust, 2017), Ne 1:1–2:8.