Nehemiah 1:1
May 22, 2022 · Pastor Miles DeBenedictis
In this teaching
A contextual introduction to the book of Nehemiah that traces Israel's history through the Deuteronomic principle of conditional blessing—obedience leading to blessing, disobedience to exile—and arrives at Nehemiah's grief-stricken, prayerful response to the ruin of Jerusalem as a model for God's people in distressing times.
- Deuteronomy is the primer for the entire Old Testament, establishing the "Deuteronomic principle"—God's conditional, if-then framework of blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience.
- Israel's history from Joshua through the exile illustrates this pattern: faithfulness under godly leaders, drift toward idolatry once they were gone, and eventual exile to Babylon.
- God delivered His people through the Persian king Cyrus, prophesied by name in Isaiah some 200 years earlier, leading to the rebuilding of the temple under Ezra and others.
- When Nehemiah hears that Jerusalem's walls are broken down and its people are in distress, he is positioned "for such a time as this," in the same palace where Esther had reigned 30 years before.
- The pressing question for God's people then and now is how to respond to ruin, division, and distress.
- Nehemiah's response—stopping, weeping, fasting, confessing sin as his own, and seeking God—models how every great work of God begins.
Readable is a lightly edited reading copy; Verbatim stays close to the spoken words. The audio and video are the record of what was said.
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, 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. 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." ()
How should the people of God respond when their world lies in ruin? Nehemiah shows us where every great work of God begins.
Returning to the Old Testament Through Nehemiah
For most of the last two years, our studies have been in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. We've taken detours along the way—most recently a month in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in , 6, and 7—but each time we've returned to Deuteronomy and worked our way slowly up to chapter 16. This summer we take another detour, into the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.
When we began our study in Deuteronomy back in January of 2020—which now feels like a lifetime ago—I shared with the church that Deuteronomy is something of a primer to everything in the Old Testament following the Torah. The Torah, also called the Pentateuch, is the first five books of the Bible, and Deuteronomy is the last of them. Everything that follows reaches back to the teaching of Moses in Deuteronomy.
The historic books—Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles—play upon the teachings of Moses found in Deuteronomy. And the prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the minor prophets—preach to the people of their day using the teaching of Deuteronomy. All of the Old Testament dealing with Israel's life in the land, their exile from it, and their return to it falls under what scholars call the Deuteronomic literature.
The Deuteronomic Principle
What is the Deuteronomic principle? It's quite simple: a conditional framework of blessing. I've described it before as God's algorithm for blessing—the if-this-then-that of how God deals with His people. If Israel is faithful to God and obeys His commandments, they reap long life and blessing in the promised land. But if Israel is unfaithful and disobedient, they experience the curses of disobedience.
This is summed up at the end of Moses' teaching in Deuteronomy 28:
Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you... Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country... The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face.
But Moses continues at verse 15:
But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God... that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country... The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.
How the Pattern Plays Out
Throughout the historic books we watch this pattern unfold. For a time Israel is faithful—especially when they have good and godly leaders. Then, after those leaders are gone, the people drift, spiral into idolatry, and come under bondage to their enemies. When they're faithful, the nation flourishes; when they're unfaithful, they slide toward defeat and bondage.
This is where the prophets come in. As Israel slides downward, the prophets show up to call the people and their leaders back to faith and faithfulness. They use Deuteronomy as their playbook. In many ways the prophets were experts in Deuteronomy who looked at the sinful conditions of their day and prophesied what was going to happen, especially based on . Deuteronomy is the key to understanding the Old Testament.
Last summer we detoured from Deuteronomy to study Esther, which seemed to me and the other pastors like just the right book for just the right time. This summer we detour again to study Nehemiah—a book close to Esther both in the Bible and on the historical timeline—because for the season we are in as a church, as the Church in the West, and as people in this nation, Nehemiah is just the right book for such a time as this.
Moses' Warning and Promise
It's hard to jump into Nehemiah without context, so let's build some. Go back to , where Moses begins his message to Israel as they prepare to enter the land:
Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you.
Skipping to verse 23:
Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God... For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image... you will soon utterly perish from the land... And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples... But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul... for the LORD your God is a merciful God, He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers.
The pattern is direct and clear. Follow the Lord and be blessed; turn away and be exiled to serve false gods until you cry out to Him. Moses closes the same way in Deuteronomy 30:
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil... I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.
Drifting From the Beginning
What happened? In Joshua, the people cross the Jordan by a miracle and begin to conquer and find rest in the land. And nearly as soon as they have rest, they begin to drift back toward idolatry—the default in each of us. Even while godly Joshua was still alive, he had to gather them and warn them:
Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth... choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD," and twice more affirmed, "The LORD our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey." But how did they do? The book of Judges follows, and once Joshua and Caleb are gone we read these sad words:
When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals... and they provoked the LORD to anger.
From Judges to a Divided Kingdom
That verse begins a storyline that continues for nearly a thousand years. During the judges, Israel served God only when godly judges rose up—Barak, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Samson, and finally Samuel. When Samuel's sons proved to be poor leaders, the people demanded a king, thinking it would help them live better.
Saul didn't work out well. Under David, and for a time under Solomon, things seemed better—peace, prosperity, and a newly built temple. It was nearly the best of times. But Solomon also introduced much idolatry, and after his death his son Rehoboam came to the throne. In Rehoboam's case the apple fell about as far from the tree as it could—wisdom did not pass down genetically. His foolishness split the nation into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom, called Israel or Ephraim, and the southern kingdom of Judah, which held Jerusalem and the temple.
Exile and a Promised Deliverer
The northern kingdom never had a good king; all were horrible idolaters who led the people deeply astray. Judah did slightly better but remained carnal. This was the great time of the prophets like Isaiah. And just as God promised in , the consequences came. In about 722 BC the northern tribes were defeated and removed by the Assyrians. Then, beginning in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem persistently, until in 586 BC he destroyed the temple and Judah was exiled in Babylon for nearly seventy years.
There they had idolatry to their full, and in their oppression they cried out:
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. ()
Remember Deuteronomy 4: "from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him." God in His grace would deliver them by an unlikely method that He had already prophesied. In through 45, nearly 200 years beforehand, God named the deliverer—Cyrus, a Persian king from the east.
In 539 BC, Cyrus of Persia defeated Babylon at the battle of Opis and took over the empire. I have a feeling that there was an old man in the palace named Daniel who came to Cyrus and showed him the ancient writings of Jeremiah and Isaiah, where the prophet had named him 200 years earlier. And so we read:
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom... "Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him! Now let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel."
Rebuilding—and Sixty Years of Languishing
Two years later, in 537 BC, Ezra led the first wave of refugees back, and by about 535 BC they laid the foundation of the new temple. It wasn't like the former temple, and those who remembered the old glory wept. Almost immediately Israel's enemies opposed the work, and by the decree of a king named Ahasuerus the building stopped for fifteen years.
Then King Darius came along around 520 BC. When the people asked him to search the records of Cyrus, he confirmed the decree and the work resumed. In only four years it was finished:
So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah... Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.
It wasn't the best of times, but it wasn't the worst either—and there it stayed for nearly sixty years. The temple stood, but the city remained in ruins from Nebuchadnezzar's destruction. The walls were broken down, the city languished. In 458 BC Ezra returned to Babylon and called the people to return; a second wave came back with a heart to rebuild. But still the city languished for another fourteen years.
Arriving at Nehemiah's Distress
That brings us to the end of 444 BC, to :
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah... I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped... and concerning Jerusalem. 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."
That was a long path to reach , but it's important preface. Nehemiah is in Shushan, the capital of the Medo-Persian Empire, when family members report that they've been trying to rebuild Jerusalem for a decade and a half without success. The walls are broken, the gates burned, the people in great distress. And this fills Nehemiah with grief.
Why does all of this matter? Because we, too, are living in distressing times. The story of Nehemiah gives us insight into how the people of God ought to respond when things are run down, in ruin, and the people of God are divided and scattered. At this point Israel was not united—many stayed in Babylon and Persia and never returned. In a situation of ruin, chaos, disaster, and division, how shall we then live?
For Such a Time as This
Notice that Nehemiah is in the same city where Esther sat as queen thirty years before this point—indeed, in the same citadel in Shushan. If it had not been for Esther and her cousin Mordecai, Nehemiah might never have been born or come of age. Because God worked through Esther, now thirty years later Nehemiah is set up for such a time as this.
The question presses: how do you respond when confronted with distress, reproach, and ruin in your nation and among your people? Many Christians have been wrestling with that for the last two and a half years. I happened to teach at a Scandinavian church leaders' camp in Sweden on July 25th, 2018. Looking back at my notes this week, I had said: these certainly are not the worst of times—there is no imminent war, no apparent disaster, no looming famine. We have it pretty good. But is it really the best of times?
Four years later, much has changed. For those in Scandinavia, war with Russia is on their doorstep; Finland and Sweden are petitioning for NATO entrance even as I give this message. We are coming out of more than two years of global pandemic; the economy is in shambles and teetering toward recession; there are potential food shortages coming in the fall. And the Church throughout the world, especially in the West, is in some ways like the temple in Ezra's day—a shell of its former glory, surrounded by ruin, exposed with little defense. After the pandemic only about two-thirds of those who attended before have returned—much as only a third of the children of Israel had returned from exile. It sounds a great deal like the day we are living in.
Nehemiah's Response
How does someone respond to all of this? Nehemiah's response in chapter 1 is instructive:
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. 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... I confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments... Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them... yet I will gather them from there...' O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant... and let Your servant prosper this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I was the king's cupbearer.
This is so important: every great work of God for His kingdom always begins this way. Nehemiah stopped. He sat down. He wept and mourned for many days. He fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. He confessed the sin of his people—but as his own sin. He repented, he lamented, he remembered the words of Moses from . And then he recognized that he might be just the right person, in just the right place, for just the right time: "grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer."
Where the Real Work Begins
Many Christians in our culture are trying to figure out how best to respond to the chaos and ruin of our times. There are all kinds of ideas about what policies to push and what politicians we need to fix the woes of our nation and the world. I'm sure there are good ideas, and many people working hard. But it is crucial that we consider Nehemiah's response.
Do not miss this. There was a ton of work to be done in Jerusalem—a city in turmoil and ruin, no walls, countless problems needing practical solutions. But none of it would be truly addressable without the mighty hand of God. For nearly a hundred years people had labored to rebuild Jerusalem without success. You could pour in all the workers and all the money you could find—they had been doing exactly that for a century—and it still would not work.
So how did Nehemiah deal with it? He stopped. He sat down. He wept and mourned for many days. He fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, and he confessed the sin of his people as his own. And then what happened? You'll have to come back next time, because we have no time today for chapter 2—that's where we go next week.
These are important words for such a time as this. You look at the world around you and you are distressed, just as Nehemiah was. Maybe you have a whole bunch of ideas—if they only did this, if they only fixed that. But first and foremost, the most important thing we as the people of God can do is to stop and confess and pray and fast and ask God to move—and to recognize that, like Nehemiah, you might be specially placed by the Lord for such a time as this. We need to stop, pray, and seek the God of heaven to work mightily.
Closing Prayer
Father God, I pray that You would speak these things to our hearts, that we would remember them and hold on to them, and that You would help us throughout this week to do what Nehemiah did—to stop, to pray, perhaps even to fast, and to set aside time to focus our attention upon You. All the issues we see in this world are not fixable without You and Your mighty hand. So God, would You work in and through Your people just as You did through ,400 years ago. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
For most of the last two years, our studies in the scriptures have been in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. We have certainly taken some detours along the way, as we did over the last month, going through some passages in the New Testament in Jesus' teaching during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. Each time, we have returned to the book of Deuteronomy, and slowly we have worked our way up to chapter 16. I mean, we are not moving very quickly through the book of Deuteronomy. That's where we left off about a month ago, in .
Now, we are going to take another detour from Deuteronomy again this summer, and we will be going to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. When we began our study in Deuteronomy back in January of 2020, which seems at this moment kind of like a lifetime ago, I shared with the church at that time that Deuteronomy is something of a primer to everything in the Old Testament following the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Bible and is also referred to as the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy is the fifth book; it is the last book in the Torah and the last book in the Pentateuch.
Everything following the book of Deuteronomy looks back to it. Everything that follows this book that we have been studying reaches back to the teaching of Moses in Deuteronomy to understand the different things happening among the children of Israel. The historic books of the Old Testament, such as Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, and 1st and 2nd Chronicles, play upon the teachings of Moses found in Deuteronomy.
When we get to the prophets, in books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, as well as the minor prophets like Obadiah, Zechariah, and Zephaniah, all these different books, both major and minor, preach to the people of their day in the land of Israel using the teachings of the book of Deuteronomy. Thus, all of the Old Testament dealing with Israel's life in, their exile from, and their return to the promised land falls into what is called by...
Bible commentators, teachers, and scholars refer to this as the Deuteronomic literature, which falls under the idea of the Deuteronomic principle. So, what exactly is the Deuteronomic principle? It comes from the word "Deuteronomy," and it is essentially a conditional framework of blessing. As I have described it before here at Cross Connection, it is God's algorithm for blessing. It follows the idea that if Israel, the children of Israel, are faithful to God and adhere to His commandments, then they will reap the benefits of long life and blessing in the promised land.
Conversely, if Israel is unfaithful to God and does not follow His commandments or obey Him, they will experience what we might call counter-blessing, or rather, they will face the curses of disobedience and unfaithfulness. This concept is summed up at the end of Moses's teaching in .
In fact, today, we will look at several long sections of scripture. In , beginning at verse one, we read: "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God—notice that, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God—to observe carefully all His commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of the ground, and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
The Lord will cause your enemies, who rise against you, to be defeated before your face. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command a blessing on you in all your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Then the Lord will establish you as His holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His way.
We see it very clearly in that passage: this kind of if-then conditional framework where God will bless His people.
People will be blessed if they keep His commandments. This is the whole if-then principle: if you obey, then you receive blessings. However, Moses continues in , stating in verse 15, "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and all His statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you."
Cursed shall you be in the city; cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of all your cattle and your offspring and your flocks. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send upon you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.
Following Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy and the rest of the historic books of the Old Testament—Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and so on—allow us to see all of this play out in Israel's lives and history. For a time, they will be faithful to the Lord, particularly when they have good and godly leaders. However, after their leaders are gone, the children of Israel will drift. As they drift, they will spiral downwards, falling away from the Lord and into idolatry, ultimately coming under bondage from their enemies.
When they are faithful to the Lord, the nation will flourish. Conversely, when they are unfaithful, they will descend into defeat, destruction, and bondage to their enemies. This is where the prophets come in. The prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and others—appear as Israel is on this downward slide. They come to call the people of Israel and their leaders back to faith and faithfulness to God.
When the prophets show up, they essentially use the book of Deuteronomy as their playbook or message script. They predict events largely based on the teachings of Deuteronomy. In many ways, the prophets were experts in Deuteronomy, observing the sinful conditions of the people of their day and prophesying what would happen based on their understanding of the book, especially . Thus, Deuteronomy serves as a key for understanding the Old Testament and is a primer, which is why our studies in the Old Testament have begun with an examination of Deuteronomy.
For many years here at Cross Connection, we have been on a journey through the New Testament, exploring all of the epistles and other passages. We use the book of Acts as our timeline or primer for the entirety of the New Testament because it serves as a history book that sets the timeline for everything that follows. In the same way, Deuteronomy acts as the key or primer that sets the tone for everything else found in the Old Testament. We have been using Deuteronomy in that way for the last couple of years.
Last year, during the summer, we detoured from Deuteronomy to study the Old Testament book of Esther. Given the season we were in as a church, as well as the state of our nation here in the U.S., Esther seemed to be the right book for the right time. This summer, we are detouring from Deuteronomy once again to study a book that is not only close in the Bible but also close in historical time to the book of Esther. We will be studying through the book of Nehemiah, which, for the season we are in as a church here at Cross Connection Church, as well as for the larger Church in the United States and the West, feels like just the right book for just the right time.
In a sense, Nehemiah resonates with the phrase "for such a time as this," which we read in the book of Esther last summer. For such a time as this, God has a word for us through this book and the book of Deuteronomy. However, it is challenging to jump into a book like Nehemiah without some context. Therefore, today we will build some historical context to understand what is going on, ensuring that our study of Nehemiah over the coming weeks will make more sense.
To get our bearings, we need to return to the book of Deuteronomy, specifically . In this chapter, as Moses begins his message to the children of Israel, who are preparing to enter the promised land, he says this to the people, starting at verse 1: "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in to possess the land." Notice that he emphasizes listening to what he is going to teach them so that they may live and enter the land which the Lord their God is giving to their fathers.
Skipping down to verse 9, we find in a clear instruction: "Only take heed to yourself." Continuing to verse 23, we see a warning: "Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you."
The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. When you beget children and grandchildren, and you have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, doing evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day. You will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days in the land, but will be utterly destroyed.
The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. There, you will serve gods, the works of men's hands—wood and stone—which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there, you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
When you are in distress and all these things come upon you in the latter days, if you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice, for the Lord your God is a merciful God, He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them.
The pattern is very simple. Moses is very direct, straightforward, and clear to the children of Israel. If you do this and follow the Lord, then you will be blessed. But if you don't, you will be removed from the land. You will be exiled to another land that is not your own, and you will be in slavery and bondage. You will serve all kinds of false gods until you cry out to the Lord.
As Moses closes, we see the beginning of his message in Deuteronomy. In , he writes, "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply. The Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess."
However, if your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan.
To go in to possess, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. It doesn't get much clearer than that. That is the perpetual message of Moses throughout the book of Deuteronomy. If you follow the Lord faithfully and observe His commandments, then you are going to experience His blessing, and you'll have long life in the land. But if you turn away from Him, turn to other gods, and are unfaithful to the Lord, then you will be exiled from the land. You will experience all kinds of curses that will fall upon you.
This was Moses' message as the children of Israel were preparing to come into the promised land. This is his last word to them before he dies. So what happened with the children of Israel? Well, eventually, here at Cross Connection Church, we are going to study through the book of Joshua, which comes right after Deuteronomy. Someday, when we finish the book of Deuteronomy, we'll go right into the book of Joshua.
In the book of Joshua, the story unfolds of the children of Israel coming into the promised land. After the death of Moses, Joshua becomes the leader of the people. He causes them to cross over the Jordan River into the promised land by a miracle; they cross over on dry ground. Eventually, they begin to conquer the land and experience peace and some measure of rest in the land. However, nearly as soon as the people have rest and peace, they begin to drift. They start to go back towards idolatry, which is the default in each of us. We will find ourselves drifting towards idolatry.
So they begin to return to idolatry, even while Joshua, their good and godly leader, is still alive. In , he gathers all of the people of Israel together and speaks to them. He says, "Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river in Egypt. Serve the Lord." Joshua continues, "And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
The people answered and said, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord."
And serve other gods. For the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. He did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way in which we went among all the people through whom we passed. The Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites, who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is God.
So they said to Moses, "We are going to serve the Lord." They affirmed that they were going to serve the Lord a second time in . At verse 21, we read this: "And the people said to Joshua, 'No, but we will serve the Lord.'" Joshua then said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve Him." They replied, "We are witnesses."
Now, therefore, he said, "Put away the foreign gods which are among you and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel." The people said to Joshua, "The Lord our God, we will serve Him, and His voice we will obey."
So Israel came into the promised land under Joshua, and they had a desire to serve the Lord. However, they started to drift. Joshua, being a good leader, called them back to faith and faithfulness in the Lord, and they reaffirmed their commitment: "We will serve the Lord."
How did they do? The book that follows Joshua is the book of Judges. Joshua and Caleb, who was also a great godly leader of Israel, were gone. The children of Israel no longer had Moses or Joshua. In , we read these sad words in verse 10: "When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work which He had done for Israel."
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They served the Baals, the gods of the people around them. They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. They bowed down to them and provoked the Lord to anger.
With those words in through 12, we have the beginning of the storyline that continues for nearly the next thousand years for the children of Israel. During the time of the judges, Israel would serve God only when they had godly judges who rose up to lead them, individuals like Barak, Ehud, and Deborah.
Gideon and Samson were among the judges of Israel. The last of these judges, although not prominently mentioned in the Book of Judges, is a man named Samuel, who is introduced in First and Second Samuel. During the time of First and Second Samuel, Samuel serves as the leader of the people, but his sons are not good leaders. The people do not want Samuel's sons to lead over them, nor do they want Eli's sons before him. Consequently, they express their desire for a king, believing that having a king might improve their lives and help them serve the Lord.
In First Samuel, we are introduced to the first king, King Saul, but his reign does not work out well. Following Saul, King David comes to power, and for a time, things seem to improve under his leadership. After David's reign, his son Solomon ascends to the throne. Again, for a time, the nation experiences peace and prosperity under Solomon, who constructs a newly built temple. It was a period that could be described as the best of times. However, it is certain that the worst of times were on the horizon.
After Solomon's death, his son Rehoboam takes the throne. Solomon was known as one of the wisest men who ever lived, but in Rehoboam's case, the apple fell far from the tree; wisdom did not pass down genetically. Under Rehoboam, the nation of Israel descends into idolatry. While idolatry had already begun under Solomon, it worsens significantly under Rehoboam, who proves to be neither wise nor a good leader.
As a result of Rehoboam's foolishness, the nation of Israel is divided into two kingdoms. From this point, the nation exists as the northern kingdom of Israel, often referred to in the Old Testament as Israel or the nation of Ephraim, and the southern kingdom called Judah. Judah is the part of the nation that includes Jerusalem and the temple. After the split between the north and the south, the faith of the people declines significantly, a trend that really began under Solomon.
As I mentioned, the people started to drift towards idolatry. Even though Solomon oversaw the construction and consecration of the temple in Jerusalem, he led the people back into idolatry. This idolatry continued to increase after Solomon, especially after the split of the nation. The northern kingdom never had a good king. You can read about them in Kings and Chronicles, but all of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, Ephraim, were horrible idolaters. They led the people deeply into idolatry.
The southern kingdom did slightly better, but they were still a pretty carnal people. This was really the time of the prophets, especially prophets like Isaiah. Isaiah was a great prophet during that period. Just as God had promised back in Deuteronomy, chapter 28, if you follow, honor, obey, and serve God, then you will experience blessing. However, if you depart, dishonor, and disobey God, then you will no longer have His blessing if you turn away from serving Him.
If you study the history of the Bible and also secular history, you will find that in the late 8th century BC, around 720 to 722 BC, the northern tribes of Israel were defeated and removed from the land by the Assyrians. The Assyrians were strong in the 8th century BC. Then, in 605 BC, after the northern ten tribes had been exiled to become the lost tribes of Israel, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem. This attack on Judah continued persistently for about 20 years. By 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar oversaw the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and Israel and Judah were effectively removed from their land for nearly 70 years. They were exiled in Babylon and found themselves fully immersed in idolatry there.
It was in Babylon that, as they were oppressed and removed from their land, they cried out to the Lord. We read in , verse one, "By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion." There they were, exiled in Babylon, remembering their homeland and crying out to the Lord. The upside of their exile to Babylon was that it was there they began to turn away from their idolatry.
To their full, they cry out to the Lord for mercy and restoration. Remember, we read back in that from there, as you're exiled somewhere else, you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, all these things come upon you in the latter days. When you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice, for the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers, which He has sworn to them.
So, the children of Israel, as they are exiled in Babylon by the rivers of Babylon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, sat down and wept. They remembered Zion and cried out to the Lord. In His grace, God is going to deliver them again, using an unlikely method, which is often how God works. This method was prophesied, perhaps one of the clearest and most amazing prophecies of Scripture. You can find it in the book of Isaiah, specifically in Isaiah chapters 40 through 45. Nearly 200 years before they were in Babylon and before their deliverance, God, through the prophet Isaiah, predicted who the deliverer would be. He would be a king from the east, and He actually names him.
Two hundred years before the man even came along, the Persian king Cyrus is mentioned in Isaiah chapters 40 through 45 as the one who would deliver them. In 539 BC, Cyrus, the king of Persia, brought about the defeat of Babylon at the great battle of Opus. You can read about this in secular histories. He took over the empire, and now the Medo-Persian Empire is the ruling empire of the world. When Cyrus took over, he was the one who released Israel from bondage.
We read about this in the book of Ezra. It is important to mention that though we are studying through the book of Nehemiah, if you were to look at a Hebrew Bible, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are actually one book together. This is kind of like the third section of the book of Ezra because Ezra is broken into two sections. Nehemiah is like the third section of it, but we are only going to be studying Nehemiah in our study this summer.
The book of Ezra, chapter one, opens in an amazing way. It says, "Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up..."
The spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, moved him to make a proclamation throughout all of his kingdom, which he also put in writing. He said, "Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given to me, and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is God, which is in Jerusalem. Whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem."
In 539 BC, Cyrus took over Babylon. They came in and took over the city, and he became the king of this great empire. I have a feeling, though we don't know for sure because it's not told to us in the scriptures, that there was an old man in the palace in Babylon when Cyrus took over. This old man's name was Daniel. I believe that Daniel, who was present in Babylon when Cyrus and the Medo-Persians took control, approached Cyrus and said, "I have something I want to show you."
I suspect that Daniel showed him something from their ancient writings, likely the writings of Jeremiah and Isaiah. He probably pointed out that their prophet, who lived a couple of hundred years ago, had said that Cyrus by name would be the one to deliver their people. Thus, in , in fulfillment of Jeremiah's and Isaiah's prophecies, Ezra states that he is releasing the children of Israel to return to their homeland to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.
Following this, two years later, in 537 BC, Ezra led the first wave of refugees back to Babylon. You can read about that in the book of Ezra. They traveled from Babylon to Jerusalem to begin construction on the temple of God. A couple of years after that, around 535 BC, tells us that they laid the foundation of the new temple at Jerusalem. Of course, it wasn't like the previous temple, but it was a start. It was challenging for the people who had seen the former glory of the temple; they wept because they remembered the former glory, and this was nothing like that. Almost immediately after the construction began, the challenges arose.
Of the foundation, the enemies of Israel came together to stand against the work. By the decree of another king, Ahasuerus, who came after Cyrus, the work in Jerusalem was halted. For 15 years, as we go through the storyline and examine the history of this period, the rebuilding of the temple, which Cyrus had decreed they could do, was frustrated until the time of a new king.
Another king, Darius, who was king of Persia around 520 BC, came along. The people in Jerusalem asked the king to look at the records of Cyrus the Great, which stated that they could rebuild the temple. Darius reviewed the records and confirmed that they could proceed. With the decree of Darius, they began to rebuild once again, and in only four years, they completed the work.
We read in , that the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Edo. They built and finished the temple according to the commandment of the God of Israel and according to the command of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia. The temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius. The children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the descendants of the captivity celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.
While it wasn't exactly the best of times, it certainly wasn't the worst of times either. This situation remained for nearly the next 60 years. The temple in Jerusalem was built, but the city was still in ruins, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar back in 586 BC. The walls were broken down, the city lay in ruin, and although the temple was built, it languished there for six decades. They had the temple, but everything else was still collapsed, which was far from ideal.
In 458 BC, Ezra, a priest and servant of the Lord, as well as an expert in the Scriptures, returned to Babylon. He called upon the children of Israel who were still there, as most of them had not yet come back to Jerusalem. He urged them to return to the land, and some did, marking a second wave of refugees.
Ezra returns to Jerusalem with a heart to rebuild the city in about 458 BC, but it just languishes. It continues in ruin for the next 14 years. About 14 years later, we come to this period of time, right around the end of the year, November or December of 444 BC. We read these words in : "The words of Nehemiah the son of Hekeliah. It came to pass in the month of Kislev in the 20th year, as I was in Shushan in the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah. I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. They said to me, 'The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and the gates are burned with fire.'"
Now, all of that was a long path to get to , but I know you knew we would get there eventually. It may seem like an awful lot of extra information to reach the book of Nehemiah, but all of this is important preface to help us understand what was going on in Jerusalem at that point in time as Nehemiah hears this message.
Nehemiah is in the capital of the Persian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, in Shushan. He receives word from family members who are trying to rebuild Jerusalem. They say, "Listen, we've been trying to do this for the last decade and a half, and it's just not working out. The walls are broken down, the gates are burned with fire," and he is distressed. It says there was great distress and reproach as the wall was broken down, and this fills Nehemiah with grief.
Why is all this setup important? Because I think you have noticed we are living in distressing times as well. I believe that the story of Nehemiah gives us some insight into how the people of God ought to respond in distressing times. When things are run down and seem to be in ruin, and the people of God are divided and scattered, the children of Israel at this point in time were not united together. A whole bunch of the people stayed in Babylon.
They stayed in Persia and did not come back to Jerusalem. As a result, the people were divided. In that situation, when there is ruin, chaos, disaster, and division, how shall we then live as the people of God? That is something we will think about as we go through the book of Nehemiah this summer.
At this moment, when word comes back to Nehemiah in , he is in the same city where Esther, whom we studied last year, would have sat as queen 30 years before this point in time. The events of the book of Esther occurred about 30 years prior to Nehemiah. Not only is Nehemiah in the same city that Esther ruled over the Persian Empire, but he is also in the same palace. It states that he is in the citadel in Shushan, where she would have sat with the king as the queen over the nation.
If it had not been for Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai, Nehemiah's situation would be quite different. We do not know how old he is, but if he is under 30, he would not have even been born at that time. If he is over 30, he would never have come of age. It is because God worked through Esther in the book we studied last year that Nehemiah is now set up for such a time as this.
In this passage from , I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and survived the captivity regarding Jerusalem. They said to me, "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are all in great distress and reproach because the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and the gates are burned with fire."
How do you respond when confronted with distress, reproach, and ruin in your nation and among your people? That is the question. It is a question that many Christians have been wrestling with over the last two and a half years. Interestingly, I was on a teaching team discussing the book of Nehemiah in July of 2018 in Sweden. I spoke at a Scandinavian church leaders' family camp, where we were teaching through the book of Nehemiah, and I was the one who opened the teaching.
I looked at my notes from when I taught on on July 25th, 2018. As I reviewed my notes this past week, something stuck out to me. Back in 2018, we weren't as much in chaos in the world, but I mentioned in my message that if we look back at history, these certainly were not the worst of times. We had it pretty good then. There was no imminent war, no apparent disaster on the horizon, and no looming famine. Overall, we were doing well.
However, I posed the question: was it really the best of times? Here we are, four years later, and it’s interesting that I was teaching in Scandinavia. For those in Scandinavia, a war with Russia is now on their doorstep. So much so that Finland and Sweden are currently petitioning for entrance into NATO as I give this message. Not only is there a looming war in Europe, but we are also coming out of total global chaos after more than two years of a pandemic. The economy is in shambles and seems to be teetering on the edge of a likely reset, recession, or correction, which will be challenging for many people. Additionally, there are potential food shortages coming this fall, as many news agencies are reporting.
To add to this, the church throughout the world, but especially here in the West, is, in some ways, just like the temple during the time of Ezra. It is a shell of its former glory, surrounded by ruin and exposed with no defense. Only about a third of the people who were part of the children of Israel and worshipped in the temple have returned to the land from exile. This situation sounds remarkably similar to the day we are living in. The church is experiencing difficulty in a world filled with chaos and turmoil, and it seems to have very little in the way of defense against the onslaught of worldly challenges.
It may feel that way, though I don't believe it is entirely true. After the pandemic, only about two-thirds of the people who attended church before the pandemic have returned. So, how does someone...
How do we respond to all of this? Well, I think that Nehemiah's response in is really instructive for us.
Look at . He receives word about the distress that is going on in Jerusalem, and we read this: "So it was when I heard these words," Nehemiah writes, "that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven." He 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, 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. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses."
Now notice this in verse 8: "Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.'" This is from . "But if you return to me and keep my commands 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."
Nehemiah continues, "Now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. O Lord, I pray," Nehemiah says, "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. Let your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man," for Nehemiah says, "I was the king's cupbearer."
Listen, this is so important. Every great work of God and for His kingdom always begins in this way. Nehemiah stopped, he sat down, he wept, and he mourned, the Scriptures say, for many days. He fasted and he prayed before the God of heaven. Nehemiah confessed the sin of his people, but he confessed it as his own sin. He repented, he lamented, and he remembered the words of Moses.
From , we see that in his prayer, Nehemiah recognized that he might just be the right person in the right place at the right time. He says at the end of those words that he prays for God to grant him, the servant of the Lord, mercy in the sight of this man, for he was the cupbearer to the king.
There are many Christians in our culture who are trying to figure out how to best respond to the chaos and ruinous times we are living in. There are all kinds of ideas about what policies need to be pushed forward and what politicians we need to fix the issues and woes in our nation and throughout the world. I'm sure there are some really great ideas, and there are many people working very hard to address the situation we find ourselves in.
However, I think it is crucially important that we consider Nehemiah's response to the distressing circumstances of his time. Do not miss this: there was a tremendous amount of work that needed to be done in Jerusalem. There were numerous issues that needed to be addressed, and the city was in turmoil and ruin. They had no walls around the city, and there were all kinds of problems in Nehemiah's day that required practical solutions. Someone needed to go in and fix these issues, but none of those things would be truly addressable without the mighty hand of God working.
For nearly 100 years before Nehemiah's distress in chapter 1, people had been trying to work to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, and they had not been successful up to that point. So, how do you address that major problem? Sure, you could gather all the workers and money you could find, but it would not work. They had been giving people and money to this effort for nearly a century.
So, how do you deal with it? Nehemiah stopped. He sat down, wept, mourned for many days, fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven. He confessed the sin of his people as his own sin. And then what happened? Well, you will have to come back next time because I have no time today to delve into , but that's where we're going next week. These are important words for such a time as this because we are living in times that are drastically different in many ways, yet similar.
In a number of important key ways, we can relate to the time that Nehemiah lived in. I am sure that you look at the world around you and feel distressed, just like Nehemiah was, by all the things that are going on. Perhaps you have a whole bunch of ideas: if they only did this, if they only said that, if they only fixed that problem. There are all kinds of issues that we could try to figure out how to fix.
However, first and foremost, the most important thing that we, as the people of God, can do is to stop, confess, pray, and fast. We need to ask God to move and to recognize that, just like Nehemiah, you might be in a specially placed position by the Lord for such a time as this. We need to stop, pray, and seek the God of heaven for Him to work mightily.
So, Father God, I pray that You would speak these things to our hearts and help us to remember and hold on to them. Lord, help us throughout this week to do what Nehemiah did: to stop, pray, and maybe even fast. Let us set aside some time to focus our attention upon You, because all the issues that we see in this world are not fixable without You and Your mighty hand.
God, would You work in and through Your people just as You did through ,400 years ago? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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