Nehemiah - Remember to Get Help

Introduction to the Text: Now we learn in 1:1 that it was the month of Chislev (November/December). In 2:1, we see that it is now Nisan (March/April). So Nehemiah prayed for 4-5 months before stepping out and acting.

Prayer takes patience

Big Idea: Let your heart lead to action…but remember to ask for help.

Nehemiah 2:1–4 ESV

1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.

nehemiah 2:1-4

1. Nehemiah asked God for help (Nehemiah 2:1-4).

Explanation: Now all of last week we got to see a fuller picture of Nehemiah asking God for help. But here we see that Nehemiah understands that he doesn’t just need God before he steps out in faith but even as he steps out in faith and after he steps out in faith.

Nehemiah stepped out in faith by allowing himself to seem sad. For 4 months Nehemiah hides his sadness. But on this day, he is deliberately going to allow himself to be sad…in fact he would use his sadness to get a response from the king. This was risky because this king was known to cut people’s head off for looking at him funny. But he couldn’t ask the king for help unless the king offered. So allowing himself to be sad in the kings presence, but a means to an end. He wanted the king to ask what was wrong. And it works. The king responds to Nehemiah’s sadness giving Nehemiah an opportunities to explain his sadness. And then an opening appears.

Artaxerxes says in verse 4: “What are you requesting?”

Jackpot! But notice that Nehemiah didn’t immediately answer the king. There was a pause. And even that pause was risky. But there was no way that Nehemiah was going to ask the king for anything unless God was involved.

Illustration:

Application: Now often we need to remember that God uses other people to give us the help we need to accomplish His purpose for us. We might wonder why God is not answering our prayers. Is it possible that the answer to our prayer lies in asking someone else for help.

Let’s read what happens next?

Nehemiah 2:5–8 ESV

5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” 6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, 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 of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.

nehemiah 2:5-

2. Nehemiah Asked the king for help ().

Permission

Protection

Provision

“What are you requesting?”

So now that Nehemiah has invoked the name of God in his pursuit to rebuild Jerusalem, Nehemiah gets bold. If you think being sad in the kings presence was risky wait until you see what happens next. Nehemiah boldly asks the king for help. And in asking for help, we see that Nehemiah already had a plan. So he presents this plan in the form of a request.

Nehemiah asks for 3 things:

a. Permission. Nehemiah first asks for permission to go to Jerusalem and permission to rebuild it. Now, the king could have killed him or simply said no. But in this case the king asks a follow up question. “How long will you be gone and when will you return?” now this is a good sign. 1. asking how long you will be gone implies that permission is about to be extended. 2. Asking when you will return implies that the king wants you back. In fact he actually likes you.

Now notice that the king didn’t just grant permission. It PLEASED him to send Nehemiah. It wasn’t begrudgingly.

b. Protection.

The second thing that Nehemiah asks for his protection. This was still a wild world and we are about a few hundred years from the Pax Romana that Caesar brought. To go on this journey was to welcome trouble. So Nehemiah asked for the kings help to get him safely to Jersualem. He asks for letters that would have had the kings seal on them granting him safe passage through the outer territories. Now if you look a little further in verse 9 that the king did him one better. “Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.” The king sent with him bodyguards.

c. Provision. The final thing that Nehemiah asked from the king was the provisions to rebuild the city. He asked for letters to a man named Asaph, who is the keeper of the kings forest that he might give him wood for this rebuilding project.

And then we are told that the King granted him all that he asked for (and apparently more). But look who gets the credit.

“For the good hand of my God was upon me.” Sure the king was generous, but Nehemiah knows what just happened. A pagan king wouldn’t care about the destroyed city of a conquered kingdom. Why would he?

But Nehemiah knows that God cares.

Illustration:

Application: I think it’s also important to know that Nehemiah went in with a plan. He didn’t wing it. He knew what needed to be done and what he needed in order to get int done. So when the opportunity arose he seized on to it.

Come up with a plan.

Now it’s one thing to get help, it’s another thing to inspire people to help themselves. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. Nehemiah had 2 tough tasks: 1) Rebuilding a city and 2) convincing the people in Jerusalem to be rebuild their nation and renew their heart.

Believe it or not, the 2nd task is much harder

Nehemiah 2:17–18 ESV

17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

neh 2:17-

3. Nehemiah inspired the people to help (Nehemiah 2:17-18).

You will be surprised what people will do when they have an inspired leader. Because I think many of us know how hard it is to get people do anything particularly when it involves change and risk. It would be no easy task to get the people of Israel to get moving. So how did he do it?

Reminds them of the past: He reminds them that the city is in ruins. Now by implication we can assume that the people knew why the city was in ruin. And the idea of rebuilding the wall was for the purpose that they would no longer suffer derision. The derision that we’re talking about is that which was promised if the nation was disobedient. And the idea that they might not suffer derision points to a restoration of the national identity. Because the only way to do that is to remember God’s law. But we’ll get to that later on in the book.

Convinces them of God’s presence now. This is important because after a few decades, it might e hard for the Jewish people to believe that their God had not abandoned them. But through personal experience, Nehemiah relayed all that God had done so far. And the fact that Nehemiah had made it this far was strong evidence that God was in fact with them in the present. And that he would be with them as they went about what what God had given them to do. They would know that if God was with them they could do anything…especially knowing that opposition would come.

Inspires them to a better future. By inspiring them to rebuild, he gives them a vision of a better future, one that starts with a rebuilt Jerusalem.

Illustration: Someone once told me, if you want to know if you are a leader, look behind you and see if anyone is following you. Because the truth is we live in an age where everyone is considered a leader. But every now and then we see a leader who not only tells people what to do, but inspires them to greatness. In the case of Nehemian, he inspired a whole new generation to get back to following the God of their fathers. And it restored a new national identity, so much in fact that they never had a problem worshiping other Gods again. It’s truly remarkable that in the years to come and the trials they would face by the Greeks and the Romans, they stayed true to their God. No they weren’t perfect and made lots of mistakes. But polytheism was never a problem for them again.

Application: Your future starts in your past and continues in the present. And what the people needed to be reminded of God’s promises to them.

But know this....when you are in God’s will, you will face opposition. And Nehemiah faced great opposition. But not from where you would expect.

Nehemiah 2:10 ESV

10 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.

Neh

Nehemiah 2:19–20 ESV

19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”

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4. Nehemiah faces opposition (, ).

Explanation: Sometimes when you ask people for help, they will say no. And if you’re lucky it will stop there. But too often their no leads to opposition and they become an outward critic of what you plan to do. Sanballatt and Tobiah were Israelites with good Jewish names. And they opposed Nehemiah’s desire to reestablish the nation of Israel because it would present a challenge to their established authority in the region. Sanballat was governor of Samaria and he was not willing to share power with Nehemiah. It’s amazing how often opposition doesn’t come in the form of a conquering army or outside persecution from within as people refuse to change or to actually follow God’s lead.

Illustration: I’ve seen so many churches close their doors because they can’t stop fighting with each other. Over stuff that doesn’t even matter. People don’t like change.

Reflection: In what areas of your life do you need to ask for help? Who will you ask?

The fi

As we go through the book, we’ll consistently see that it’s not about a rebuilt wall or city. It’s about the restoration of the heart of God’s people. And we’ll see that walls are easy, but a changed heart is pretty difficult.

The first thing we need to ask help from God for is a new heart. A heart that chases after God. A heart that breaks for the things that break God’s heart. And the good news is that Jesus died on the cross to give us that new heart.

We can’t get to heaven on our own. We can’t have a relationship with God on our own. We can’d do anything on our own. We need to ask God for that new heart.