Broken-down Walls
Nehemiah • Sermon • Submitted
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These are the memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa.
Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.
They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”
When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.
Ezra-Nehemiah The Setting (1:1–4)
The language of “trouble and disgrace” conjures up the Deuteronomic background of curses (see Deut 28:15–68). In Yahwistic jurisprudence, no one gets into this kind of trouble apart from covenantal disobedience and rebellion.
Ezra-Nehemiah The Setting (1:1–4)
Disloyalty to Yahweh results in foreign invasion and exile.
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.
