Nehemiah 1 - The story continues some 15 years later (after the close of Ezra). Nehemiah (a Jewish man having grown up in Babylon) inquires about the remnant that has returned to Jerusalem and the progress they are making. Reports of a broken down wall and a city left open to attack deeply troubles Nehemiah. So he goes and eats a bowl of ice cream to calm his nerves, meets his friends at the gym to work out his stress, stops off at the mall to do a little stress shopping. He jumps on Facebook and reads every article and every post that has the word “wall” in it. Oh waits… that was me (minus the gym part). Nehemiah, on the other hand, sits down and weeps, for days he mourned, fasted and prayed before God. Why? Because Nehemiah actually knew where to renew his strength (Is 40:31), waiting on the LORD! He reminds himself who God is, and who he is through confession and then powerfully pleads the promises of God not to make things better but for the the Lord to grant him success and use him to fix this problem. God brought Nehemiah to a powerful position in Babylon, he is cupbearer to the King of Persia (what??? is a Jew doing in a such a influential position? The Lord put him there!) this combined with Nehemiah’s heart for God, the Jewish people and Jerusalem, God would now be able to use this man to accomplish His will. God raises one man up and puts another down FOR HIS PURPOSES. Where does God have you today? Look around, he has put you in this place for a reason. He has work to be done here. Is your heart concerned with the things of God, today? Are you ready to ask God to grant YOU success today as YOU do what He is calling you to DO? Does that scare the bahgeezers out of you? I ask cause it does me! Sure there is a part of me, maybe even a big part of me that says “Yes! I want to be used by God!” but then there is another part of me that screams NO!!! I am scared something bad will happen. Praise God! He isn’t finished with me yet.
Nehemiah 2 - Let’s just say that it is a very good thing that Nehemiah was tasked with building the wall and not me. Already 9:00 AM and I haven’t been able to focus on my Bible study at all. My mind darting here and there, stopping real quick to do this and that. Open my Bible, Deposit a check, start reading, Oh crap! Not as much work in first quarter better review the budget for February, resume reading, answer an email, I mean it’s an inquiry for a photoshoot, I better jump on that right now! Read a little more, (kids are up) respond to a text (don’t want to be rude), try to finish reading, update the calendar before I forget (I’m getting old!). READ CIJA!! But there is breakfast to be made, devotions with the girls, and we NEED to get school started! ACK! Sometimes this is reality of trying to spend time in the Word. It isn’t all sun filled windows, cozy chairs and the perfect cup of coffee to accompany your time with Jesus. Is it perfect, No! There will be days like these, but we press on, we try again tomorrow. We take some time to go out, ride around the broken down wall and survey the problem. Examine where things fell apart, I stayed up to late, I over slept this morning, I looked at my phone (email, facebook, instagram, texts) while still in bed. I sat down at my computer to do my Bible study instead of the kitchen table. After taking careful notes of what areas need attention, I told myself… “Come on Cija, let’s rebuild the wall!” Opposition comes but… “The God of heaven will give us success, we His servants will start rebuilding!”
Nehemiah 3 - This chapter meticulously lists the names of the workers and the location of their work on the wall. The one that struck me personally was the perfume maker but it also listed, the High Priests, priests, rulers, goldsmiths, daughters etc. The point being that regardless of background, gender or occupation they all became temporary construction workers to do what the Lord had asked them to do. No excuses, “but I’m the Ruler”, “I’m just a girl” or “I don’t know how”. A group of believers coming together to do what God has called them to do, well… can you imagine? Just think for a moment, if each and every believer out there, read their Bible every day, really spent time studying the Word, really loved their neighbors, really put nothing before God, really went into all the world sharing the Gospel. Just think about what would happen! It starts with us. You. Me. Let’s follow this example!! Let’s RISE UP and DO!
Nehemiah 4 - It shouldn’t come as a surprise that as soon as the Jews got to work doing what the Lord had asked them to do, another wave of opposition came. Angry, red faced opposition, they were ridiculed and made fun of. They prayed and kept on working. The opposition grew angrier and began to plot together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble. They prayed and posted a guard to meet the rising threat. But their resolve began to waiver, they looked around saw the rubble still stacked high around them and turned their focus to the opposition they faced. This was the moment their enemies were waiting for. With their heads downcast, the enemy could sneak into the very city “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.” Life can get us down sometimes, even knock us down. Can I encourage you today with the words of Nehemiah “Don’t be afraid of ______. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” Do as these Jews did and return to “the work”. Nehemiah had another vital part of the plan to overcome their enemies. The Jews were spread out, all around the perimeter of the wall, they needed to be together to encourage one another in the Lord so he said, “Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!” There will be great opposition, but we must continue the work, we need to keep our eyes focused on God, remember the Lord who is great and awesome and gather together with other believers on a regular basis to be encouraged.
Nehemiah 5 - We could soak in Nehemiah 5 for a long, long while. There are many topics that could be discussed, rich and poor, ministry and money, taxes, borrowing money etc. But, I want to focus in on verses 6 & 7. Verse 6 “When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry.” I must admit, I can get fired up about things. Just ask my husband, he gets to hear all about it! Over the years, I have learned the importance of what Nehemiah did after he got very angry. Look at verse 7 “After serious thought…”. Nehemiah did not react in his anger, he stopped and gave this issue serious thought. I imagine he prayed, even reviewed the scriptures for God’s direction in this situation, considered the full picture of what was happening and how they got to this place and then acted. This modern age we live in with all our modern technology makes it easy for us to see and hear lots of different things that can make us very angry. We, however, must guard against reacting in that anger, even if it's righteous anger. It is prudent to pause, and give the matter serious thought before you act. Pray, search the scriptures, seek the truth and then move forward. In Nehemiah’s case this proved to be very wise. He ended up rebuking these people after giving the situation much thought and they responded with silence, a realization that what they were doing was wrong and then with the willingness to make it right. We must, as the last chapter said, “Remember the Lord”, take a breath, allow God to have a moment to prepare our hearts and their’s for the work/correction He wants to do.
Nehemiah 7 - With the walls complete, Nehemiah turned his attention to appointing the gatekeepers, singers and priests. This victory of finishing the wall would help to project the jews and give them the safety to worship more freely allowing them to go deeper in their relationships with God. The jews of Jerusalem are not the only one’s that face an enemy who is seeking to harm them. Sin is crouching at our doors looking and waiting for an opportunity to pounce. The wall would act as good protection but with out gatekeepers and someone guarding the wall it would be of little use, one could easily find a way over an unguarded wall. God is capable of leading us to victory over sin in our life, even the one that plagues us, the one that seems impossible to give up. But we would be wise to be like Nehemiah and appoint gatekeepers to keep watch. This could be finding a person that will help you stay accountable, it may also include some housekeeping, getting rid of things that will stumble you, perhaps you will have to put locks on your TV or get rid of certain movie channels, and in extreme cases it might mean quitting a job or ending a relationship. Victory over sin is often very hard work, that includes striping ourselves of things and sometimes people that we hold dear, continued victory over sin requires vigilance, the Bible tells us to be sober and alert. The roots of sin, especially those that have been allowed to grow, dare I say even nurtured, run very deep. We must have guards in place to watch for any signs that root is taking hold again. But praise God there is victory in Jesus!
Nehemiah 9 - I really loved this chapter it shows the contrast between God and man. Personally, I do good to be reminded of the vast contrast between myself and the Creator of everything. It keeps me in a state of awe and humility. Let me see if I can paraphrase a bit of this contrast for you. God, alone is God, He made the heavens, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in it, He gives life to everything, He keeps His promises, He is righteous, He hears our cries and does miraculous signs. He has made a name for Himself which remains to this day. He leads us, has given us His Word and provides for us. Yet we can be stiff-necked, arrogant, disobedient and refuse to listen or pay any attention to Him. We put other things before Him, worship other gods and rebel against Him. We cry out to Him when things get tough but the minute we are at rest, we again do what is evil in His sight. But in His great mercy He does not put an end to us or abandon us, for He is a gracious and merciful God! In all that happens to us, He is just and acts faithfully, while we do wrong. If this doesn’t cause you to want to fall to your knees and thank Him for His grace and His mercy I don’t know what will. He is so worthy of our praise!
Or who may stand in His holy place?He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.”
Then they purified the people, the gates and the wall. They prepared their surroundings for worship as well. It’s like cleaning out your drawers. Over time, junk finds its way back in, sometimes to the point where we can’t even close the drawer with a good shove. Trying to find something just leads to frustration, digging through all the just leaves the drawer even messier than it was before. But… once you have taken the time, to sit down, empty it out, sort through it all, keep what is good and useful and get rid of the rest rest. If we want to truly worship God is spirit and truth, we need to take a moment to make sure our “drawers” are in order, the drawers of our hearts and the drawer of our homes. Make sure there isn’t anything holding us back, causing to us to stumble to hide parts of ourselves from Him and then we can open ourselves up and rejoice as God fills our drawers with great joy!
Nehemiah 13 - I got to honest, I did not see this ending coming. I should have, but I didn’t. So much had happened, God had delivered the Israelites from the grips of slavery with the great exodus from Egypt. He had lead them in conquering the land of Canaan and he had eventually handed them over to captivity so they could see their sin and return to Him… mercy and love. He brought them back to Jerusalem and gave them strength in opposition to rebuild the temple and the wall surrounding the city. Far and near they went in their relationship with Him. At the close of chapter 12, I was anticipating a big finish in chapter 13. But what I found was them back in the “far” position again. Nehemiah had returned the King of Persia as promised and had been gone for some 10-12 years, he returned to find Tobiah, one of their biggest opposers of God’s work actually living in the Temple courts. No tithes were being brought to the temple, so the Levites had returned to their country farms, and worst of all they were again marrying people who served other gods. Nehemiah didn’t give up though, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work setting things right again. He purposed in his heart to do all he could do to not only do right himself but to help his brothers and sisters do right as well. Romans 8:3 says “For what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God DID by sending His Son… to be a sin offering. Rules can't save us. No matter how diligently we purpose in our hearts to do good, we will fail. Our sinful nature makes us weak. We can not save ourselves with a pledge to do good. We will never be able to live up to that pledge. But God (that one’s for Pastor John), does what we and and the law are powerless to do, He sent His Son to cover the cost of our sin and to save all those who want to be saved. If we simply, confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe that He rose from the dead, WE WILL BE SAVED! That doesn’t make us perfect, but it does make us forgiven! We will continue to mess up but compelled by our love for Christ we will choose more often than not to live for Him and not ourselves.
