Bridging Ezra and Nehemiah

Stagnant water vs. living water

“Without a vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18)

“Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.” (ESV) Footnote says. “or the people are discouraged.”

These two renderings of the verse show the profound interplay of the Hebrew language. Because all three renderings are true! Let’s start with “are discouraged.” When people do not have a direction in which to go, it is a very discouraging thing. It hurts the people of God to not have a purpose to which they are working toward. Some of you have been anxious for the vision and direction of the church. You may even be battling a little bit of discouragement with the church body because we don’t have a path to trod and walk down. I’ve spent intentional time building relationships with all of us before going to the Lord about a vision for the church body.

The next rendering says that the people “cast off restraint.” Think about that. Being discouraged in your faith causes you to grow apathetic toward God. Apathetic toward His call on your life. Apathetic to your purpose and growth. Where there is no vision, the people loosen their morals. It allows sin to creep in. Listen, if you have no purpose in life, it’s easy, SO easy to slip into spiritual stagnancy. Sometimes, even when you have purpose, it’s easy to slip into spiritual stagnancy. Listen, last week I mentioned Ravi Zacharias and a few others. People who said and taught all the right things, but they forgot that integrity comes before ministry. Their lives became a stagnant body of water. The bacteria of sin and apathy settled in and ruined the interior of their lives, left them unaffected, hardened to the grace of God.

Finally, the last rendering of this verse is, “the people perish.” A people of God without the Word of God is anemic and malnourished at best… Dead at worst. Believer, do you have a healthy diet of the Word of God in your life? Do you truly believe your life will be changed for the better when you feast on the Word? Do you see how the Word of God pours over you like the rains and snows over the mountains and highlands, which flow down to the river of your spiritual life, reducing stagnancy and increasing the rush of the glories of God in you. If not… You’ll perish! The people of God are sustained by the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit’s work in the midst of all of that. Don’t settle for being a spoon-fed Christian, unless you’re picking up the spoon and feeding yourself.

I chose this verse because it so aptly bridges the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. When we look at the lives of these two men and what they set out to achieve and accomplish, we see a strong interconnection of holiness and purpose.

Ezra taught the people the purpose of their holiness. Nehemiah taught the people the holiness in their purpose.

The interconnection of holiness and purpose:

The ultimate question: As we head into a new day, new vision, new year, new work of God… Are you ready to do your part in the mission and in your personal growth/holiness?

Growth isn’t natural, unless you’re a child. When you grow as an adult, it’s a conscious choice.

Who was Ezra?

Ezra was an official in Persian royalty. 

Ezra was a person of the Word of God. He treasured God’s Word in his heart so much that it caused him to orient his entire life around it. And not only that, he wanted to teach others! He saw God’s Word as a gift that could shake and change the world. Believer, do you trust that God will fulfill the purpose of His Word in you? And that that purpose will flow out of you into your families, your neighborhoods, your city, and your world? Ezra certainly believed it. And he was called by God to do great things. Not because he was great, but because of God’s great purpose in him.

He saw God provide every step of the way as he sought to fulfill God’s Word. He knew that the one who was called by God would always be provided for by God. God’s always seeking our good. We can trust that. As we go boldly into obedience and ministry and life, we can trust that God will always work things according to the good of those who are called according to His purpose!

In other words, our own personal good- My good. The good that serves me… Is not for me to seek. It is for me to trust that God will provide. This is a different way of going about life, a radical way to live, but it’s the kind of obedience that shakes and changes the world around us, because it tells the world that God is our ultimate provider. We don’t pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, but we trust God to carry us through self-sacrificial Christian obedience.

Then, finally, we saw from Ezra an all-encompassing love for the Lord that would cause them to purify themselves before him before engaging in the next work. They rid themselves of those things that were competing for their affections toward God.

Ezra led his people to see their identity as the people of God, and the importance of living up to that identity.

In the Old Testament, the living up to the identity WAS the identity.

In the New Testament, Jesus is our identity, and He enables us to follow Him into obedience. He sees our need and wants, endlessly, to meet that and bridge the gap of our needs on our behalf.

Ezra’s ability to help the people see their need for righteousness and obedience encouraged them to remember who their God was and who they were. They were not to be a double-minded people, but a people set apart for the holy and living God.

Not only were they reminded of who they are, but whose they are. Ezra set into motion the returned Israel who would set the scene and build the Temple that would make it all the way up until Jesus’ day.

Who was Nehemiah?

A success story (Cupbearer to the king)

The cupbearer’s main responsibility was to deliver drink to the king. Why? To keep the king from being poisoned! So you can easily deduce that Nehemiah was an honest man, trusted by the king. He climbed the ladder of success not by cheating and stealing. You don’t gain the title of cupbearer as a dishonest person. You gain the title of cupbearer as an honest person!

When we pursue honesty, God goes before us. It may cost us to be honest here on this earth, but being dishonest will cost us eternally.

A leader, unafraid to get his hands dirty.

Nehemiah, as we will see, was not just a governor sitting behind his desk calling all the shots. Nehemiah was right there on the building site laying bricks and carrying his sword, so as to keep the foreign countries at bay.

A mentor of mine remembers a World War 2 Commanding Officer named Richard Winter’s leadership style this way: “Go first and make good decisions.” You want to be a strong leader? Go first. When it’s time to do the hard work, go first. When there’s something out there that no one wants to do, go first. Before you ask anyone to do something… Go first.

And make good decisions. Don’t make decisions to the detriment of your people but to the progress of your people. Some of you are employers. Do you work to the support and betterment of those who work under you, or do you use them to make yourself look good? A good leader is one who makes good decisions to the betterment of his people. This is the kind of leader we see in Nehemiah. His purpose was not his own gain, but Israel’s gain.

A man of prayer.

Nehemiah did nothing without the favor of God on his plans. He sought God and His leading before ever committing to a way in which he would go. He was a man of prayer, and he knew his life depended on prayer.

Here’s a question for you: What do you believe… truly believe accomplishes more? Your hard work? Or prayer?

I can tell you in my life, I too often trust my hard work over and above the prayers I offer to God. As we’ll see in Nehemiah, we are called to be a people of prayer, as it shows and reminds us consistently of our dependence upon God.

And that constant dependency is reflected in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We never outgrow our need for God. We never outgrow our need for grace! There’s not a one of us who is perfect. Not a one of us who doesn’t need God!

You ever come across someone who’s just super needy? It’s like all they do when you’re around them is talk about their needs. It’s like they’re trying to come up with new ways of making you feel bad for them or get something out of you. It’s almost extortion! It’s maddening, right? Hey man, I’m just going about my business, trying to do what’s right and trying to get