Pray And Act

During the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes ...

The events began back in 1:1 in Chislev, November/December, and now we pick the story up in Nisan, March/April. Nehemiah has been praying for four months or so, and from the way things play out in chapter 2 we will see that he has also been making preparations.

Nehemiah continues,

Wine was before him, and I took up the wine and I gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, and you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” And I was exceedingly, very much, afraid. (1b-2; my trans.)

Nehemiah is afraid because these kings are absolute dictators and he is in a precarious position, so he quickly affirms his loyalty for the king in104 the first words of verse 3, then goes on to state his reason for sadness in the rest of the verse: “And I said to the king, ‘May the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad when the city of the tombs of my fathers is desolate, and its gates are consumed with fire?’” (my trans.).

I don’t think the exclamation “May the king live forever!” is a throwaway line. Nehemiah is asserting his desire for the king to live, and then he gives a valid reason for his sadness. These words assure the king that Nehemiah is not sad because he is hiding some plot against the king, and they give the true reason for his sadness, prompting the king to ask what Nehemiah desires in verse 4: “Then the king asked me, ‘What is your request?’”

Evidently something in Nehemiah’s words or manner has communicated that Nehemiah would like to do something about his city, and the king has apparently picked up on it. The situation is unfolding quickly, but not too quickly for Nehemiah’s instincts to kick into gear—look at what he does next: “So I prayed to the God of heaven.”

In the midst of this intense situation, Nehemiah’s thoughts go to God. This shows us how reliant on God Nehemiah really is. He instinctively calls on God. The kind of prayer that we saw in 1:5-11 will give rise to the kind of prayer that we see here in 2:4. The Scripture-saturated, God-focused prayer for God to do what God has promised in Nehemiah 1:5-11 has produced in Nehemiah a heart that longs to see God’s Word fulfilled. Nehemiah’s private prayer has spilled into his daily life. We want our own Bible study, prayer, and fasting to produce this in us for the advance of the gospel. Nehemiah relates in verse 5 how he

answered the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, send me to Judah and to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I may rebuild it.”

From what we see in verse 6, we know that this is not a spontaneous, on-the-spot, spur-of-the-moment request:

The king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So I gave him a definite time, and it pleased the king to send me.

Nehemiah is not flying by the seat of his pants, making this up as he goes along, as we see from what he adds in verses 7-8:

I also said to the king: “If it pleases the king, let me have letters written to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that they 105will grant me safe passage until I reach Judah. And let me have a letter written to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to rebuild the gates of the temple’s fortress, the city wall, and the home where I will live.”

Consider these facts: Nehemiah can give the king an amount of time that the journey and rebuilding will take (v. 6); he knows exactly what kind of authorization he needs west of the Euphrates (v. 7); and he knows exactly what materials he will need for temple, wall, city, and his own dwelling (v. 8). From these facts it appears that Nehemiah has been praying and planning. Nehemiah has been asking the Lord to “have compassion on him in the presence of this man” (1:11), and so when the opportunity arises before Artaxerxes he is prepared to make his requests and unfold his plan.

Let me encourage you to follow in Nehemiah’s footsteps on this point. He seeks to be used of God to see his own prayers answered. Study the Bible. Pray for God to do what He has promised to do in the Bible. And give thought to how and what you can do to be used of the Lord to bring His promises to pass.

At several points in Ezra we read of the hand of God on him (Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31), and this is also true of Nehemiah at the end of Nehemiah 2:8:

And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. (ESV; cf. 2:18)

The hand of God is a way to refer to His power, so the benevolent power of God is on Nehemiah. God brought Israel out of Egypt with a strong hand, and now He brings them out of Babylon to rebuild city and wall under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. The good hand of God is on them both.

Nehemiah 2:9-20

Nehemiah prayed, and he made preparations to be used of the Lord in answer to his own prayers. And Nehemiah’s prayers were based on the strong foundation of what God had promised to do. His requests are granted, but not everyone is on the Lord’s side. We see enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent in verses 9-10:

106I went to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent officers of the infantry and cavalry with me. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard that someone had come to seek the well-being of the Israelites, they were greatly displeased.

Whereas Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for an escort (Ezra 8:22), Nehemiah made use of one. Both men are trusting God, but their trust is expressed in different ways. There is an important point of application for us here: if we choose Ezra’s path, we should not condemn those who take Nehemiah’s, and vice versa. It is not our place to judge the servant of another (Rom 14:4).

We are not told whether Sanballat and Tobiah were the officials to whom the king’s letters were delivered, but after the letters are delivered in verse 9 they hear of it in verse 10. They are opposed to God’s people, and they do not respond favorably to those who seek God’s will for God’s people. Nehemiah’s awareness of this reality probably informs his acceptance of the escort provided by the king in verse 9, and it probably also informs his caution in verses 11-16:

After I arrived in Jerusalem and had been there three days, I got up at night and took a few men with me. I didn’t tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the one I was riding. I went out at night through the Valley Gate toward the Serpent’s Well and the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. I went on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but farther down it became too narrow for my animal to go through. So I went up at night by way of the valley and inspected the wall. Then heading back, I entered through the Valley Gate and returned. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for I had not yet told the Jews, priests, nobles, officials, or the rest of those who would be doing the work.

Once again we see Nehemiah preparing himself for the task at hand. He goes on this night ride, this secret reconnaissance, and he keeps to himself what God put into his heart to do for Jerusalem. That phrase in verse 12 about God giving him these ideas sheds light on the relationship between Nehemiah’s prayers and his plans. Nehemiah understood God’s will, and here he indicates that he is doing what the Lord has led him to do.

107Nehemiah’s statement in verse 16 about the people “who would be doing the work” shows that he does not expect to accomplish this great task alone. Nehemiah knows that he needs the people of God to accomplish the will of God. So having studied the Bible, prayed, and acted, now Nehemiah will summon others to join him in pursuing God’s kingdom.

Nehemiah calls his kinsmen to the task in verses 17-18. He begins with the sorry state of God’s kingdom on earth in verse 17:

So I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned down.”

God’s name is at stake in Jerusalem! And Jerusalem is rubble. For those who love God’s name, this is intolerable. Nehemiah is compelled to act, and he is compelled to call others to join him, so he continues in verse 17,

Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.

Today, God’s name is no longer at stake in a city with walls and gates. God’s name is now at stake in the lives of His people, who are the new temple of the Holy Spirit. What walls and gates need work in your life? Your marriage? Your children? Does your eye-gate need attention? Do you need to put guards over your eyes and ears and be more strict about what kind of music you listen to or what movies or shows you watch?

Maybe you recognize that just as Jerusalem lay in ruins with gates burned in Nehemiah’s day, so your life is in ruins today. Your gates are burned down, and you are helpless to put out the flames destroying you. The message you need to hear is that there is a greater leader than Nehemiah who can deliver you from all the danger facing you. There is One who is more zealous for God’s name to be hallowed, for God’s kingdom to come, and for God’s will to be done. That zeal led Jesus to give His life so that all who trust Him will be saved. Hear the good news that God has worked salvation in Christ, and this day trust in Jesus in order to be saved from God’s wrath over your sin.

The derision of God’s enemies Nehemiah refers to in verse 17 will be stated in verse 19. It may look like the mockers have good points against Christians, but just as Nehemiah will overcome the slander of the enemies in this book, so Jesus will answer all this scorn when He comes to set all things right.

If you’re a Christian, let me invite you to consider the derision God’s enemies heap on the broken-down walls and fire-burned gates of108 the lives of God’s people today: Do they know we’re Christians by our love? Do they see the gospel in our marriages? Do they marvel at the behavior of our children? Do they see in us the love than which there is none greater, our being willing to lay down our lives for our friends? Brothers and sisters in Christ, “Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace!”

Nehemiah reports on God’s favor to him in verse 18a (ESV),

And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me.

The people who hallow God’s name, who want to see His kingdom come and His will be done, on earth as in heaven, respond to Nehemiah’s call, as verse 18b describes (ESV):

And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

Brothers and sisters, the work of the gospel is a better work than the one for which the people strengthened their hands in Nehemiah 2:18. Let us strengthen our hands for it. Let us study our Bibles, pray for God to do what He has promised to do in the Bible, and ask for guidance as to how we can be used of the Lord in answer to our prayers. Pray and act!

If you do this, there will be opposition, on the order of what we see in verse 19:

When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, “What is this you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

Look at the content of what they say here. They insinuate that pursuing the kingdom of God could be perceived as rebellion against the reigning power on earth. For a long time Christians in the United States have lived in a culture that, at least on the surface, valued Christianity. More and more, however, we are living in a culture that will interpret faithfulness to God and Christ as rebellion against the governing authorities.

Nehemiah answers boldly in verse 20,

I gave them this reply, “The God of heaven is the One who will grant us success. We, His servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.”

109When Nehemiah says that God will “grant us success,” he uses that word from Psalm 1:3 and Joshua 1:8 that speaks of the one who meditates day and night on Torah prospering. These words also show what Nehemiah fears. He does not fear the king, and he does not fear these nasty insinuations. Nehemiah fears God. Nehemiah’s character has been made strong by the study of the Bible. He is confident as he calls on God to do what He has promised. And Nehemiah’s boldness and the blessing of answered prayer he has experienced make him a powerful leader for God’s people.

We left Alfred facing the onslaught of the Vikings. As they came, the shieldwall held, largely due to Alfred’s courageous example. Then almost without explanation, the Vikings began to flee in panic, as Merkle writes, “King Æthelred had finished his prayers” (The White Horse King, 60). The other half of the army not only removed the Viking numerical advantage, they were also “perfectly poised to attack the unprotected flank of the Viking shieldwall” (ibid., 61). The Battle of Ashdown soon was won.

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done: Jesus who died shall be satisfied, And earth and heav’n be one. (Maltbie D. Babcock, public domain)