Nehemiah 2
Notes
Transcript
An instrument to cut the ocean in half
Sea saw
Have you ever gotten news you weren’t expecting? I’m sure you have, there was a time when I was going to college, back before I answered the call to ministry and I was going to school to learn how to build robots, but at time time I was working at the University of Kentucky and I was working for what they called the Outside Plant. We pulled telephone, cable, and fiber into new buildings, through manholes, and hung it on telephone lines, it was a fun job sometimes, and sometimes it was cold and miserable. It was a great job as a student, becuase I could drive the work truck right outside the classroom and park in a service spot while I was in class and then get back in and drive back to the worksite. Well this morning, strangely the boss wanted to drive me to the worksite instead of letting me drive a work truck, I didn’t have any classes because they were over for the Christmas break, but on the five minute drive to the site he turns to me and says, “Well, this is it, you got till Friday and we are having layoffs.” Friday was the next day, mind you, about a week before Christmas, it was awful. That’s all he said to me too, and then he told me hed be back at lunch to get me.
Some of you have similar stories, I have seen recently a story of a couple, and the man went all out to plan this amazing hike through the mountains and he had a photographer planned to take pictures and he gets down on one knee to ask her to marry him, and she tells him no, and you can see from a distance he is a little distraught, as we all would be.
Coming through the Christmas Season this example was brought to the forefront of my mind as I was watching Christmas Vacation, because Clark who had always gotten a Christmas bonus didn’t receive his normal bonus of money, but instead got a bonus of a year subscription to Jelly of the month club. This is the basis for pretty much 80% of the problems in the entirety of the movie. That is pretty much what has happened last week and ongoing this week in the book of Nehemiah. He has received news he didn’t exactly expect and it has wrecked him.
There are some conflicting stories about what Nehemiah knew, or should have known in his position so close to the King, because by all accounts it was Artaxerxes, the same man that Nehemiah was serving as cup bearer, who had received a letter from Rehum, a Persian official to let Artaxerxes know the Jews he had allowed to return to Jerusalem were rebuilding the wall. Rehum told the King, this would cause a problem
13 “Now let it be known to the king, that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, they will not pay tribute, custom or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings.
So, he is saying, Artie, buddy if we let this go on we will no longer have their money, they will cut us off and defend themselves inside the city wall and we will have no power over them. And it was then after looking into what the Jewish people were capable of he responded with a letter of his own,
21 “So, now issue a decree to make these men stop work, that this city may not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me.
And Rehum gets the letter and
23 Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes’ document was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force of arms.
So, it appears that Nehemiah would have known about all of this, he would have known the letter Artaxerxes sent back and he shouldn’t be surprised, but he is and it is most likely because he didn’t know how Rehum would respond, he just assumed he would make them stop working, but according to the report from Hanani, it was bad - Rehum had burned the gates, destroyed the walls and left Jerusalem a mess, so this is not what Nehemiah had expected at all. He was hurt, and we saw last week he spent four months fasting and praying, and as we pick up the story this morning, we see Nehemiah finds himself at some big event, which is evident by the queens presence in verse 6, and we can read the words of Nehemiah 2:1
1 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.
2 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.
Here is what you need to know, this is a horribly dangerous thing for Nehemiah to come in the kings presence looking the way he did and up until this point he has never done this. He has always put on the right face in front of the king by coming to the king in this manner he could have been killed or demoted and if this had happened he would have lost any chance he had to have the king help him get done the job he needed to have done. What the king recognized is Nehemiah didn’t have the long face because of some type of illness, but because something was bothering him, something was going on inside of Nehemiah to cause this. The thing of it was, Nehemiah knew the risk, but he knew he had to take a shot if he wanted to do something. He had just spent what amounted to 4 months in prayer and fasting, and by all means he probably still was at this point, so after all of that prayer he started to put his trust in God and take a chance, his hopes were in his moment of weakness the King would see him and be favorable toward him and not have him put to death.
Here is what is clear from the response we are about to see from Nehemiah, he had spent a lot of time thinking about how he was going to respond. (ADHD) He had studied and planned what he would say, what he would need, and what he would do if the king responded favorably. I am going to guess he probably had an equal response planned if the King hadn’t responded in his favor. Look at how Nehemiah responds
3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever…
I’m just telling you this is an amazing case of pandering to the audience, kids, you may think buttering him up, you know this is how it goes when you go to ask your mom for something and the first thing you say is how amazing she looks today, and how good she smells. You know you are hoping she will have a soft spot in her heart after he says all of this. But the side you may not realize with this statement is Nehemiah is showing his loyalty to Artexerxes, he is telling him he hopes he doesn’t die, that he doesn’t want anything to happen to him. We kind of blow past this, but understand in this situation, in light of all we are about to see this is a definitive statement to the king about how he will always stay close to him. And he goes on
3 …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?”
Notice what is happening here, I added it in all caps here, Nehemiah never says the word Jerusalem. He doesn’t give him a chance to remember the past and the decrees he has made, he just says the city. He has plans and he wants to be clear there is nothing to get in the way, this shows clear forethought to what he is doing and what he is saying. I think this is very important because as we see in verse 6, the queen is with him, not only could Artexerxes stop him, but if the queen heard Jerusalem and said to her husband, “Don’t you remember what you said before?” it would have ended his plans before they started. So it is clear Nehemiah has thought this whole process out.
Can you imagine after saying all of this how thick the air in the room must have felt if you were Nehemiah? Im sure seconds would have felt like years as he has laid out this distress and is waiting for the king to respond to him.
4 Then the king said to me, “What would you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
I am sure this would bring Nehemiah a huge sigh of relief, no off with your head, no demotion, but instead, he says, What can I do for you?
Can you imagine what would have happened if Nehemiah wasn’t ready, if he hadn’t already planned what he was needing he would have started fumbling, unsure of what direction to take next and if he hadn’t know what he needed it would have given the King time to think about what Nehemiah was asking and perhaps change his mind.
What this shows us is even when we are praying for God’s divine intervention we have to do our homework, use what God has already given us, to be prepared for what God is going to do through us. Nehemiah used his status in the kings court, his intellect about various people and places to help him be prosperous.
Look at what Nehemiah’s response is to the King.
5 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.”
Nehemiah is speaking with boldness here, trying to get the king to understand Nehemiah has this duty to his ancestors to go back and do something, something the King would relate to, but at the same time, he is keeping the name of the city out of his mouth. Not really lying, but again trying to not give any reason for the King to say no. He is trying to be non-threatening when it comes to the King, he doesn’t want the king to think he is going back to rebuild Jerusalem to come and attack him, so he want him to understand that, from the very first let the king live forever.
6 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.
Can you imagine this? Nehemiah already knew how much time he would need because he had planned it while he was praying and fasting, he knew how long it would take for him to get there and he had a rough idea of how long it would take to do what he needed to do.
7 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,
Nehemiah knew he couldn’t even get to Jerusalem without the letters from the King, he knew all the governors along the way would remember the letter Artexerxes had previously written and wouldn’t allow him to pass through. He most certainly knew the name of every single governor along the way.
8 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.”
What an amazing thing, Nehemiah knew the king had a forest close to Jerusalem that would be able to help, and not only that he knew him by name and having this letter would unleash everything Nehemiah needed to not only rebuild the wall, but the gates, and other parts of the city as well. It was the way for him to get all the supplies he would need, the King had provided not only the ability for him to get it but had given him the letters to make him able to get in. This says so much about the character of Nehemiah in the face of non-believers, he lived his life in such a way that the King, a non-believer, saw the goodness in him and his character and wanted to work alongside him.
Do non-believers see you the same way today? Do people who are on the outside of the kingdom look at the life you are living and think, that is such a good person, I want to know what they are doing, I want to help them because they are doing so much good. This isn’t even so much as living a life that people see you and want to ask you about the gospel directly, because thats what we like to talk about most, but do non-believers think you are a good person?
Let me give you an example, I am not sure how many of you have ever been servers, but I have so many friends of mine who are servers talk about how much they hate working on Sundays, you want to know why? Because of all the Christians that come in after church. They say we are the worst for complaining, being impatient, and then not leaving any, or much of a tip at all. The worst part they tell me is when Christians leave tracts on the table and then leave no tip. Its like a condemnation to the faith in their eyes, how people can be so ungenerous and claim to know God.
So how do people know you? The question you may be asking, is okay, so how am I supposed to apply all of this from Nehemiah to my life, what am I supposed to do with it? There are two things
If we want to be effective, we must do all we can to prepare.
Listen, there are things in your life that we talked about last week where it is going to take a lot of prayer and fasting, but it can’t just be left at that. I remember for a long time, I had a friend who was getting older and he was praying for God to send him a spouse, and he hated internet dating, which is fine, but he also did two things in his life; he went to work, and he went back home. And he would tell me all the time he was believing God would send him a woman to be his spouse, and trust me, I believe God can do just that, and on a side note he did, but I would always tell him, bro, God is not going to send you a woman to your moms basement for you to marry. You are going to have to do your part and get out into the world to the places where you can meet someone for God to set it all up.
The same goes for you, what is it you are praying for, a new job? Are you doing the training and the studying now you will use in that new position? Are you preparing the best way to get that position, are you talking to the people who do it now, are you talking to the people who can help you get there? You should pray but are you also preparing and doing your part?
Are you believing God to send you a spouse and praying for that manner? Are you leaving your mom’s basement, sorry, that was too easy from the story earlier, but are you working on yourself to be the spouse you want to be while at the same time putting yourself into a position where God can move in your life?
Like we talked about last week and our desire to move and make a difference here in the lives of people in Georgetown, and to see it restored to its glory days, of course we are going to pray and fast and seek the Lord and his will in our lives, but we are also going to do our part. We are going to prepare the way and setup systems and goals to make sure we can do what God has called us to do.
But what is the second thing we can learn from Nehemiah.
2. If we want to be effective, we must realize we cant do it all in our own strength.
Listen, with all this talk about how we must prepare and we must get all of our stuff together even while we are praying and fasting to do our part, what would be really easy is for us to get to this place where we think we are a big somebody as my friends used to say, or we might think we are something special because we got so much accomplished on our own, but look at what Nehemiah says at the end of verse 8
8 …. And the king granted them(the letters) to me because the good hand of my God was on me.
See, even Nehemiah knew that he wasn’t doing it on his own strength. It was all because the hand of God was on him. It is almost as if Nehemiah knew what James wrote to us in James 1:17
17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
So what are you praying for? What is it you need to do to prepare for God to move in your life?
