Where to begin seeking revival Nehemiah 1:1-11

Introduction

The Book of Nehemiah is an autobiography written by Nehemiah which records the part he played in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, and the spiritual revival which took place. It was written during the time of the exile, roughly 450 years before the coming of Christ.

Nehemiah was a cup bearer for Artaxerxes who was king of Persia. The cup bearer was responsible for tasting the wine before the king would drink it in order to ensure it was not poisoned. It was a very prestigious and high ranking role in the Persian empire.

Nehemiah was a servant of king Artaxerxes but more importantly we was servant of the LORD. The Name Nehemiah means “The LORD comforts” this book records for us how the LORD comforted the remnant in Jerusalem through his servant Nehemiah.

Through out the book we see the characteristics needed for a spiritual leader of God’s people. We see the hardships Nehemiah faced, the setbacks he came up against but we also see the LORD’s purposes fulfilled. We see Jerusalem restored as a place where God’s people are, we see God’s people restored to the worship of the one true God.

In our day we need God to revive his church. We need God to have mercy on our nation. We need to see the spiritual restoration that Nehemiah saw in his day, in our own day.

What can Christians do about this?

Ultimately it depends on God’s sovereign will. We cannot cause God to revive his church in our nation, or to awaken our land. But we can seek him and ask him to do so. The LORD answers the prayers of his people. This is where Nehemiah began and this is where we must begin.

In our passage we learn three things that Nehemiah did, which the LORD honoured and used to bring about his good purposes for his people Israel.

Nehemiah Cared and Nehemiah prayed.

I. Nehemiah Cared v.1-4

a) He enquired

We are introduced to Nehemiah in v.1 after we tells us his name He says “And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, 2 That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.”

There are two points that we need to notice from these first two verses firstly Nehemiah was living in comfort. He was in the Palace of Shushan. Shushan was the winter residence of the king of Persia. Nehemiah would have had a very comfortable and luxurious lifestyle.

He was far away from the difficulties of Jerusalem. He didn’t face the same struggles they did. It could have been very easy for Nehemiah to remain in wilful ignorance about his own people in Judah.

Yet we see that he did not choose this path. The second point we must notice in these verses is that although he had an easy life far away from the struggles of Jerusalem. Still he was concerned for their welfare. He wanted to know how the LORD’s people were doing.

So, when his brother Hanani came to him with others from Judah he asked them about those who were in Jerusalem. He wanted to know about those who had escaped from Exile and those who were left over. He wanted to know about the city and what condition it was in.

Nehemiah cared about the LORD’s people. He cared about his own countryman. He cared about the LORD’s temple and his chosen city. He cared and for that reason he asked.

b) He mourned

But, having asked he received an answer he was not ready for.

In v.3 Nehemiah tells us what they said to him. v.3 “And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.”

Here Nehemiah documents their response and it does not paint a hopeful picture. The people were in great affliction and reproach. They were suffering immensely. They probably faced poverty from a lack of resources and hostility due to a lack of security. They were easy pickings for the neighbouring peoples. This was because the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the gates were burned with fire. The people of Jerusalem has no way to defend themselves.

How did Nehemiah respond to such news? Was he sorry to hear it but that was all?

Maybe others may felt like that when the heard about the state of Jerusalem. But not Nehemiah, he cared greatly for the LORD’s people and for the LORD’s glory.

In v.4 we read “ 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 cared and for that reason he mourned. He said he sat down and wept and mourned for days. You can picture his response, he was so grieved at what he heard that he was distraught. This is the kind of grief you feel when you lose a loved one. This was what Nehemiah felt for God’s people and the suffering they were experiencing. This was how he felt about the hardship of his own countrymen.

Not only did he mourn and weep, he also fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Before we look more at the way Nehemiah responded to his people’s suffering, first we must think about how this applies to us.

Application-

The obvious question that comes to mind is do we feel this same kind of concern for the church and for our nation? Do we care like Nehemiah cared?

We should care. If Christ is our example then we should ne concerned for his church and for the lost around us. In many ways Nehemiah is a picture of what Christ did.

Nehemiah was in the palace of Shushan, yet out of care for his people he was willing to leave it to help them. This is what Christ did. He left heaven and came to earth to save us from our sins.

Nehemiah wept for his people. This is what Christ did. In Luke 19:41 we read “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it...” In fact the shortest verse in the Bible is Jesus wept in John 11:35.

Do we share this same kind of compassion for those around us? For the church of Jesus Christ which is not as it ought to be. Or for our nation that sits in spiritual darkness. Do we weep? Have we sat down and wept and mourned many days?

We need God’s Spirit to come don’t we and do a work in us. We need the Lord to give us eyes to see things as he does. So that we might care as Nehemiah cared and greater yet as Jesus cared.

Nehemiah cared for his people and the city God had chosen for his name. He shows this by asking about them and also weeping for them.

That was not all Nehemiah did. Nehemiah cared, but he also prayed.

II. Nehemiah prayed v.4-11

From v.4-11 Nehemiah records that he prayed and he also records the prayer for the reader.

It has been said that God does nothing without prayer. Nehemiah new the power of prayer. He knew that the LORD is a God who hears the prayers of his people. For that reason after hearing about his people Nehemiah set himself to pray.

a) Fervent prayer

What we see firstly, is that Nehemiah prayed fervently. He was serious about the business of prayer. In verse four we read that wept and mourned, fasted and prayed certain days. Some translations say many days. The point is Nehemiah didn’t say a five minute prayer and leave it at that.

Nehemiah sought the Lord in prayer.

James 5:16 says “The effectual yfervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Nehemiah obviously understood this to be true and so he gave himself to prayer. Nehemiah must have also remembered the words the LORD spoke to King Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Nehemiah gave himself to fervent prayer. We see this in v.4, but we also see this in the prayer he recorded in v.5-11.

b) A model of prayer

In v.5-11 we have a model of prayer. We see how Nehemiah prayed for his people. Four points stand out.

i. Adoration/ humility

First we see his approached God in humility. He begins his prayer saying “I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:”

Nehemiah begins praying with a sense of God’s holiness and awesome majesty. He recognised that God was faithful and just in all his dealings with mankind. He acknowledged that the LORD keeps covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments, he is making it clear that God has acted justly in dealing with his people.

ii. Confession

Next we see that Nehemiah confessed his and their unworthiness. in v.6-7 he says “6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses”

Here we see he confesses his own sins and the sins of his people. If you like he is saying we deserve everything we are experiencing and more. We have sinned against you we have wronged you, you have not wronged us.

iii. Intercession

After praising God in humble adoration and then confessing his and their sins, Nehemiah proceeds to intercede for his people.

He prays on their behalf saying “Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: 9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. 10 Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.”

Here he calls upon the LORD to have mercy on his people. He reminds the LORD that they are his people. He is the one who redeemed them from Egypt. Ultimately Nehemiah is saying have mercy on them for your own names sake. Do this for your own glory. To the praise of your glorious grace.

iv. Consecration

Finally after interceding on behalf of his people Nehemiah prays to be used by God. v.11 “O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

Nehemiah ends his prayer by asking God to give him favour with king Artaxerxes. The obvious reason being that Nehemiah wanted to do something about the plight of Jerusalem. But to do so he would need the permission of the king.

This was a prayer which Nehemiah prayed on behalf of his people. It was made of parts. Humble adoration, confession of sin, intercession for the people and consecration of himself to the LORD’s will.

This was not the only prayer he prayed, we saw in v.4 that he prayed and fasted many days. In the entired book Nehemiah records 9 of his prayers. Nehemiah was a man of prayer. He prayed for his people.

Application-

How can we pray for our nation? Let us take Nehemiah as our example. We need to be fervent in prayer. We need to be serious about prayer. This is not something we can work up in ourselves. We need to ask God to give us a spirit of prayer. We need him to work in us by his Holy Spirit, We need the grace of God. Before we can seek revival in our land we need to seek revival in our own lives. Before we can pray fervently for others we need to pray for ourselves. We need God’s grace.

How should we pray? We must not be too fixed on the form of our prayers. But never the less here we have a good model of how we are to pray for the church and for our nation.

Humble adoration, confession of sin, intercession for others, consecration of ourselves.

Do we long for our nation to be revived? Do we long for the church to be as it should be and for the lost to be saved? Are we praying for it? Are we seeking the LORD to move in our day?

If ever there was a time in living memory where we were ripe for revival surely its in the day we are living in.

What did Nehemiah do? He cared and he prayed.

Do we care? Do we pray?

Conlcusion

The book of Nehemiah records for us the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem and the spiritual revival that took place among the people. Nehemiah was God’s instrument in all of this. In the first chapter before us we have seem how Nehemiah began this great work.

He cared and he prayed.

Nehemiah cared for the LORD’s people, he cared for God’s glory. He prayed fervently and continuously.

What was the outcome? God graciously restored his people.

Where are we to begin? How can we start seeking the Lord to revive his people in our days and awaken the lost in our nation? First we need a heart that cares. We need the love of Christ to be shed abroad in our hearts. We need the Lord to give us grace to remove our stoney hearts and give us hearts of love and compassion. We need him to give us the eyes to see things as he sees them. We cannot work up tears, we need the Lord to give us the heart for the church and for the lost that he has.

We need a heart that cares we also need to be men and women of prayer. Again this is not something we can do in our own strength, but depending upon God’s grace we can seek the Lord in prayer as we ought.

In other words we need to be like Christ in these days. No body cares more than Jesus does. When Jesus was on the earth, he regularly withdrew to pray alone. He was in a constant spirit of prayer, and now he lives to make intercession for us before the Father in heaven.

Nehemiah cared and he prayed and the Lord used him to restore Jerusalem and his people. But Nehemiah pales in comparison with Christ. Let us be inspired by the account of Nehemiah but let us seek to be like Jesus in these days.

With the help of God’s Spirit may we care about the church and the lost and may we seek God to revive his church and awaken the lost in our day.