Neh 1
Neh 1:1-2:1
NEHEMIAH, BOOK OF
A historical book of the Old Testament that describes the rebuilding of the city walls around Jerusalem. The book is named for its major personality, a Jewish servant of a Persian king and effective leader, who organized and guided the building project.
Structure of the Book:
Nehemiah was serving as cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes (1:11-2:1) in 444 B.C., when he received distressing news about his native land. Jerusalem's wall was still in ruins, although the project to rebuild the city and its beautiful Temple had been under way for many years As we have been studying in Ezra, the Temple was finished but not the wall.
So Nehemiah went to Jerusalem himself on special assignment from the king to oversee the building project. In spite of harassment by their enemies, Nehemiah rallied the people to the challenge and completed the wall in less than two months.
Nehemiah remained as Persian governor of Jerusalem for the next 12 years, leading the people in several important religious reforms. The priest Ezra assisted Nehemiah in interpreting God's Law for His people. He had accompanied a group of captives back to Jerusalem about 13 years before Nehemiah arrived on the scene.
At the close of this important period of his public life, he returned to Persia to the service of his royal master at Shushan or Ecbatana. Very soon after this the old corrupt state of things returned, showing the worthlessness to a large extent of the professions that had been made at the feast of the dedication of the walls of the city.
Malachi now appeared among the people with words of stern reproof and solemn warning; and Nehemiah again returned from Persia (after an absence of some two years), and was grieved to see the widespread moral degeneracy that had taken place during his absence.
As we read Nehemiah this king Artaxerxes was the step son of Esther the Queen. Esther fits in the order of things before Ezra and Nehemiah.
As we read in Ezra, Ezra was joined with Isaiah and Jeremiah the prophets to help bring the spiritual lives of the people together.
Daniel was before these books as he was taken into captivity as a young boy and was the end of the captivity drew near he began to pray for Jerusalem the city of David, and the people. This is when Daniel was given the prophecy about the Jews 70 weeks and 69 weeks before the Messiah would be cut off and the Great Tribulation or judgment of the Jews, that 70th week which has not taken place yet.
1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah (Hawk a liah). It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel,
2 that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
3 And they said to me, "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire."
4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah was born in captivity and had never seen Jerusalem before.
There is something that is put on the hearts of every Jew about Jerusalem. There is a special desire to return there.
In there Passover feast there is a saying they use at the end “if not this year then next year.”
Nehemiah had that special place in his heart for Jerusalem.
When I talked with one of the travel agents who came over to promote trips to Israel he made a statement of how Jerusalem had an ore about it that you can feel the first time you see it.
Chuck Smith says that you want to weep the first time you see it because of how it make you feel.
Its God’s holy city, He chose it from the very beginning and has never changed His mind about her.
I am looking forward to see her for the first time myself.
This is a of how Nehemiah felt about Jerusalem. Even though he had never been there he had a heart for his home land.
He prays for the people, and the land.
Why Nehemiah didn’t go back to Jerusalem in one of the first couple of trips back it does not say, but God is going to use this man as this man is in a perfect position as a cup bear to the king.
Now here is Nehemiah going to the palace or work and runs into one of his brothers who had just come back form Jerusalem and asked how it was going.
Remember in Ezra how the work was started with a lot of zeal and then was the enemy came against them the work showed down and that went on for a while, the temple finally was finished but the walls were never completed.
The work had stopped because it was long and hard work and the people slowly became discouraged and quick the work.
But God is faithful to complete His work. There is always a time limited set by man in regards to God’s work, We say, “well if God doesn’t do this by this time then it must mean that He doesn’t want it done.” but with God there is no time limit. He will finish what He promises.
The question is: Will we be there when He does? Will we get to see and be apart of the blessing? Not if we set limits to the work of God.
That is somewhat the condition of the people as we enter the story here in the first chapter.
In Haggai
Hag 1:2-10
2 "Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying: 'This people says, "The time has not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built." ' "
3 Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?" 5 Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider your ways!
6 "You have sown much, and bring in little;
You eat, but do not have enough;
You drink, but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
And he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes."
7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider your ways! 8 Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," says the LORD. 9 You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says the LORD of hosts. "Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.
Notice that Nehemiah prays to the Lord and confesses sin for himself and his people.
So in verse 5 he says:
5 And I said: "I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments,
6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have sinned.
What do you notice here?
1. The place God holds in Nehemiah’s heart, “great and awesome God.”
2. Nehemiah knows God’s faithfulness.
He knows that God keeps His word.
3. He understands how God’s ears work. “what?”
Yeah, God hears the prayers of those who confess their sins.
Notice he doesn’t pray like the Pharisees did.
“God thank you that I am not like those people.”
His prayers are about a sinful nation and he is including himself as part of the problem.
“Both my fathers house and I have sinned.”
What was the sin? What had his fathers and Nehemiah done that was so sinful?
1. they had become complacent, how do we know that? They had stopped the building project.
And? Not only did they stop the building, but they neglected what was already finished. The Temple!
Remember? Haggai said you have left the Temple in ruins and Malachi said that they had stopped worshipping with their tithes and offerings.
They had become more concerned with their daily lives than they were with their church and they were ignoring God.
7 We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.
8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,
9 but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.'
I see the grace of God here in a big way. But there are conditions to the grace. If you keep my commandments and do them!
I believe that there are those who have nothing because they don’t follow God’s commandments, they don’t fear God, they don’t tithe and they are always in trouble financially.
6 "You have sown much, and bring in little;
You eat, but do not have enough;
You drink, but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
And he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes."
When you don’t have a handle on who your God is, and you have no fear of Him, then you will find yourself just like the Jews here.
But God is not finished with you even if you are in that boat.
If you will begin to do what God has asked of you, you have hope. He is willing to bring you back to Him.
10 "Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand.
11 O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your
servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name;
and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I was the king's cupbearer.
Here I am Lord, I want to be used by you. I want to fear your name, Or I do fear your name.
Please use me this day.
The great thing about the Lord is He is always looking for ways to forgive us. He is always trying to hook us back up to Him. He is not in the business of destroying even thought that must happen because sin has to be dealt with.
He wants your whole person to worship Him. Follow in His path. Do as he asks of you.
Set your hearts to do what it is that God tells you.
God is talking to us, to His people, not someone who is not a believer here.
What are the conditions once again?
1. People were complacent
2. People became more interested in themselves than the place they worshipped and because the work was hard and was taking a long time they quit.
3. They had no fear of their God and what He had just done to them and what He can do again. No fear.
4. They were stale and what they didn’t realize was that they were as run down as their place of worship spiritually.
The great thing is God always makes a way for us to come back to Him in the form of repentance which leads to forgiveness.
The love of the Lord is a beautiful thing. We need only to come to Him on our knees to find full forgiveness and blessings.
