Rebuild: Nehemiah’s Prayer

Notes:

Introduction:

Ezra the Pastor

Nehemiahs the Contractor

Ezra: Think Bible

Nehemiah: Think Builder

Honorable Position

Setting:

Journey from Persian Gulf to Jerusalem. SW Iran

90 years after King Cyrus first decreed the Exiles could move.

13 years since Ezra left for Jerusalem (see Ezra 7:7).

Throw back to Ezra 4 (the fast forward part of Ezra 4, in the time of Artexerxes) and those who came into to hault the building of the walls of Jerusalem for political reasons.

Main events=445BC. Mid-November and Mid-December 446.

Who is Nehemiah

“Now I was cupbearer to the king.”

Name= “Yahweh Comforts”

“Cushy government job”?

TRUSTED JOB: “Artexerxes’ own father, Xerxes, had been assassinated in his own bedchamber by a court attendant. Wariness and security concerns prevailed—-hence having dependable ‘inner circle’ personnel was crucial. As for ‘cupbearer’ itself, Xenophon reports that when cupbearers would offer the wine to the king, they would first draw some of it off with a ladle, pour it into their left hand, and swallow it down, so that, if the cupbearer (or someone else?) had put poison in it, he would get his everlasting. Moreover, the cupbearer’s closeness to the king probably meant he had some influence over the got access to the king.” Dale Davis, from Edwin Yamauchi

4 Months of Prayer:

Conversation with King in ch. 2=March/April 445

He’s a big deal!

Approached with an issue from Hanani:

v. 2: “One of my brothers…” Could actually be his brother.

Humble Prayer

Physical Posture

4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Wept and morned for days.

Challenge

To to your place:

Go to a place to pray.

Consider this, want to be careful being too prescriptive, but I’ve been challenged by both Ezra and Nehemiah’s prayers:

Ezra 9:3 “… I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled.”

Jesus teaches us something about our physical posture as well:

Matthew 6:5-6: “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Prayer closet:

Humble Points

Praise

5 And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Deuteronomy 7:9 “9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,”

Deuteronomy 7:21 “21 You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.”

God’s greatness.

Awesome:

God’s covenant keeping

God’s love.

Plead:

v. 6: Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open

v. 6: Plead to listen his prayer he prays day and night

Confess:

v. 6: Confessing the sins of the people of Israel. “Even I and my father’s house have sinner.” ??

v. 7: “We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.

Call back from the week prior:

.5%:

Grieve sin!

Appeal:

vv. 8-9: Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithfulness, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them into the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.”

Deuteronomy 30:1–5 “1 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.”

Deuteronomy 12:5 “5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go,”

Deuteronomy 28:64 “64 “And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.”

Deuteronomy 9:29 “29 For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’”

vv 10-11: They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer and by your strong hand.

Pleasure:

O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and given success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

“Who delight to fear your name”

“This man”=Artexerxes!

Patience:

Served 12 years as governor

Approachability of God

Prayed for 4 months

Courageous Prayer!

Who knows what he would say!

King Louis XVI, “It is legal because it is my will.”