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| INVEST YOUR HEART Nehemiah 2:1-3 And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid. And said unto the king, Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchers, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? |
REVIEW Nehemiah had prayed for the relief of his countrymen. Nearly four months passed, from November to March before making his application to the king for leave to go to Jerusalem, either because the winter was not a proper time for such a journey, or there was no coming into the king’s presence uncalled. Good men should do what they can by their cheerfulness to convince the world of the pleasantness of religious ways and to roll away the reproach cast upon them as melancholy; but there is a time for all things. Nehemiah now saw cause both to be sad and to appear so. The kind notice which the king took of his sadness and the enquiry he made into the cause of it. Nehemiah assigns the ruins of Jerusalem as the true cause of his grief. |
| SET CLEAR GOALS Nehemiah 2:4-8 Then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may build it. And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? And when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. | REVIEW The king had an affection for him, and was not pleased to see him melancholy. The king asks, “What dost thou make request”. Nehemiah immediately prayed to the God of heaven that he would give him wisdom to ask properly and incline the king’s heart to grant him his request for a commission to go as governor to Judah, to build the wall of Jerusalem. He also asked for a convoy (v.7) and an order upon the governors, not only to permit and suffer him to pass through their respective provinces, but to supply him with what he had occasion for, with another order upon the keeper of the forest of Lebanon to give him timber for the work that he designed. The king’s great favour to him in asking him when he would return, v.6. He intimated that he was unwilling to lose him. He would spare him awhile, and let him have what clauses he pleased inserted in his commission v.8. Here was an immediate answer to his prayer. IN the account he gives of the success of his petition he takes notice, of the presence of the queen; she sat by v.6. This was not usual in the Persian court. He also takes notice of the power and grace of God. He gained his point according to the good hand of his God upon him. |
| ENLIST SUPPORT Nehemiah 2:11-18 So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king’s pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned. And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work. Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. |
REVIEW
Nehemiah was at Jerusalem three days, and it does not appear that any of the great men of the city waited on him. Though they took little notice of him he took great notice of them and their state. He arose in the night, and viewed the ruins of the walls. He wanted to see what was to be done and in what method they must go about it, whether the old foundation would serve, and what there was of the old materials that would be of use. He told them what God had put into his heart (v.12), even to build up the wall of Jerusalem v. 17. “Come, therefore, and let us build up the wall.” In a friendly brotherly way he exhorted and excited them to join with him in this work. He takes not the praise of owning its origin to the praise of it to himself, but acknowledges that God put it into his heart. He produced the king’s commission, told them how readily it was granted and how forward the king was to favour his design, in which he saw the hand of God good upon him. Showing that this was not an uprising, but financed by the king. Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands, their own and one another’s for this good work. Many a good would find hands enough to be laid to it if there were but one good head to lead in it.
Many people attempt to step up and serve who are not adequately prepared for the task. They want to accomplish things for the Lord, but they have not prayed, planned, and researched what God has called them to do. Nehemiah had a passion for the project. He set clear goals. He enlisted support. What are you planning and preparing to do to tell others about Jesus? |