That the Word of the Lord Might be Fulfilled… | Sunday, May 22, 2022

Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God... that the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God... 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. (Deuteronomy 28:1–2, 15)

How God's people should respond when their nation lies in distress, reproach, and ruin.

From Deuteronomy to Nehemiah

For most of the last two years our studies have been in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. We've taken some detours along the way—most recently through Jesus's Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6, and 7—but each time we've returned to Deuteronomy, slowly working our way to chapter 16, where we left off about a month ago. Now we're going to take another detour through this summer into the book of Nehemiah.

When we began our study in Deuteronomy back in January of 2020—which seems like a lifetime ago—I shared that Deuteronomy is something of a primer to everything in the Old Testament. The Torah, also called the Pentateuch, is the first five books of the Bible, and Deuteronomy is the fifth and last. Everything that follows reaches back to the teaching of Moses in Deuteronomy.

The Deuteronomic Principle

The historic books—Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 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 Deuteronomy. All of the Old Testament dealing with Israel's life in the land, their exile, and their return falls under what scholars call the deuteronomic literature, governed by the deuteronomic principle.

What is that principle? It's a conditional framework of blessing—God's algorithm for blessing, the "if this, then that" of how God will bless His people. If the children of Israel are faithful to God and keep His commandments, they reap long life and blessing in the promised land. But if they are unfaithful and disobey, they experience the curses of disobedience.

This is summed up at the end of Moses's teaching in Deuteronomy 28. The first fourteen verses promise blessing: blessed in the city, blessed in the country, blessed in the fruit of the body and the produce of the ground, with enemies defeated before them—"if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways." But beginning at verse 15, Moses turns to the curses: cursed in the city, cursed in the country, cursed in basket and kneading bowl, with confusion and rebuke "until you are destroyed... because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me."

The Pattern Played Out in Israel's History

Following Deuteronomy, the historic books let us watch this play out. For a time Israel is faithful—when they have good and godly leaders. Then, after their leaders are gone, the people drift, spiral into idolatry, and fall under bondage to their enemies. When faithful, the nation flourishes; when unfaithful, it slides toward defeat, destruction, and bondage.

That's where the prophets come in. As Israel slides downward, the prophets arrive 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 simply prophesied what would happen based on Deuteronomy 28.

So Deuteronomy is a key for understanding the Old Testament. Last summer we detoured from Deuteronomy to study Esther, which seemed like just the right book for just the right time—for us as a church, as a people, and as a nation. This summer we detour again to Nehemiah, a book that is close to Esther both in the Bible and on the historical timeline. Like Esther, Nehemiah is "for such a time as this."

Building the Historical Context

It's hard to jump into Nehemiah without context, so let me build some. We need to go back to Deuteronomy 4, where Moses begins his message to the children of 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 to possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you. (Deuteronomy 4:1)

He continues:

Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen... and teach them to your children and your grandchildren. (Deuteronomy 4:9)

Then in verses 23 and following, Moses warns that if they grow old in the land, act corruptly, and make carved images, "you will soon utterly perish from the land." The LORD will scatter them among the peoples, where they will serve gods of wood and stone. "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."

The pattern is simple and direct: follow the Lord and be blessed; turn away and be exiled into slavery until you cry out to Him. As Moses closes in Deuteronomy 30, he says:

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. (Deuteronomy 30:15, 19)

Joshua, Judges, and the Drift Toward Idolatry

So what happened? After Moses's death, Joshua led the people across the Jordan on dry ground by a miracle, and they conquered and found rest in the land. But nearly as soon as they had peace, they began to drift back toward idolatry—the default in each of us.

While Joshua was still alive, he gathered the people and charged them: "Fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and truth... choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:14–15). The people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD." They reaffirmed it a second time: "No, but we will serve the LORD." Joshua said, "You are witnesses against yourselves." And they said, "We are witnesses."

But the book that follows is Judges, and now Joshua and Caleb are gone. Judges 2 records 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... they forsook the LORD God of their fathers... and they followed other gods... and they provoked the LORD to anger. (Judges 2:10–12)

This begins a storyline that continues nearly a thousand years. During the time of the judges, Israel served God only when godly judges like Barak, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, and Samson rose up. The last of these was Samuel.

Kings, the Divided Kingdom, and Exile

Samuel's sons were not good leaders, so the people demanded a king. First came Saul, which didn't work out well; then David, under whom things seemed much better; then Solomon, the son of David. Under Solomon there was peace, prosperity, and a newly constructed temple—the best of times. But the worst of times were coming.

After Solomon, his son Rehoboam came to the throne. Solomon was one of the wisest men who ever lived, but in Rehoboam's case the apple fell about as far from the tree as it could—wisdom did not pass down genetically. Solomon had already introduced much idolatry, and it grew worse under Rehoboam. His foolishness divided the nation into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom (Israel, or Ephraim) and the southern kingdom (Judah), which had Jerusalem and the temple.

The northern kingdom never had a good king; all were horrible idolaters who led the people deep into idolatry. The southern kingdom did slightly better but was still carnal. This was the time of the prophets, like Isaiah. And just as God had promised in Deuteronomy 28, the curses came. In the late eighth century BC (around 722 BC), the northern tribes were defeated and removed from the land by the Assyrians, becoming the lost tribes of Israel. Then in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem, and the assault continued until 586 BC, when he oversaw the destruction of the temple. Judah was exiled to Babylon for nearly seventy years.

Crying Out by the Rivers of Babylon

In Babylon they finally had idolatry "to their full," and they cried out to the Lord. Psalm 137 says, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion." The upside of their exile was that they turned away from idolatry and cried out for mercy and restoration—exactly as Deuteronomy 4 promised: "from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him."

God answered through an unlikely method that He had prophesied. In Isaiah 40 through 45, nearly 200 years before the events, God named the deliverer: Cyrus, the Persian king from the east. In 539 BC, Cyrus brought about the defeat of Babylon at the Battle of Opis and took over the empire, making Medo-Persia the ruling power. And Cyrus released Israel from bondage.

The book of Ezra opens with this—and it's important to mention that in a Hebrew Bible, Ezra and Nehemiah are actually one book, so Nehemiah is like a third section of Ezra:

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... so that he made a proclamation... "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem... Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem... and build the house of the LORD." (Ezra 1:1–3)

I have a feeling—though Scripture doesn't say so—that when Cyrus took over Babylon there was an old man in the palace named Daniel, who came and said, "I want to show you something from our ancient writings." Daniel was there when the Medo-Persians took over, and he likely showed Cyrus the writings of Jeremiah and Isaiah, which named Cyrus by name two hundred years earlier.

The Slow, Frustrated Rebuilding

Two years after Cyrus took Babylon, in 537 BC, the first wave of refugees returned to Jerusalem to begin work on the temple. Around 535 BC they laid the foundation (Ezra 3). It was nothing like the former glory, and those who had seen the previous temple wept. Almost immediately, the enemies of Israel came against the work, and by the decree of a later king (Artaxerxes) the building was stopped for fifteen years.

Then, around 520 BC, King Darius came along. The people in Jerusalem asked him to check the records of Cyrus, and when he found the decree, he allowed them to continue. In only four years they finished:

So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo... according to the command of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. (Ezra 6:14)

The temple was finished in the sixth year of Darius, and they celebrated the dedication with joy. It wasn't the best of times, but it wasn't the worst either—and that's where things stayed for nearly sixty years. The temple stood, but the city was still in ruins from Nebuchadnezzar's destruction in 586 BC: the walls broken down, the city collapsed.

In 458 BC, Ezra—a priest and servant of the Lord, an expert in the Scriptures—returned to Babylon and called the people still there to come home. A second wave returned with him, with a heart to rebuild the city. But the work languished for another fourteen years.

Nehemiah's Distress

That brings us to late 444 BC, where Nehemiah 1 begins:

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." (Nehemiah 1:1–3)

That was a long path to Nehemiah 1, but the context matters. Nehemiah is in Shushan, the capital of the Medo-Persian empire. He receives word from family members that, despite a decade and a half of effort, the rebuilding is failing—walls broken, gates burned. He is filled with grief.

Why does this background matter? Because we are living in distressing times as well. Nehemiah gives us insight into how the people of God ought to respond when things are run down and in ruin, when God's people are divided and scattered. At this point, many of the Jews had stayed in Babylon and Persia; the people were divided. In a situation of ruin, chaos, disaster, and division, how shall we then live as the people of God? That's what we'll consider this summer.

For Such a Time as This

Notice that Nehemiah is in the very same city—and the same palace, the citadel in Shushan—where Esther sat as queen thirty years earlier. The book of Esther happened about thirty years before Nehemiah. If it had not been for Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai, Nehemiah likely would not 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.

How do you respond when confronted with distress, reproach, and ruin in your nation and among your people? That's the question many Christians have wrestled with over the last two and a half years.

It's interesting—I taught through Nehemiah at a Scandinavian church leaders' family camp in Sweden in July of 2018. Looking back at my notes from that message on July 25, 2018, this stood out: I said that these certainly were not the worst of times. There was no imminent war, no apparent disaster on the horizon, no looming famine. We had it pretty good. But, I asked, was it really the best of times?

Here we are four years later. For Scandinavia, a war with Russia is on their doorstep—Finland and Sweden are petitioning to enter NATO as I give this message. Beyond a looming war in Europe, we are coming out of more than two years of global pandemic chaos, with the economy in shambles, teetering on the edge of recession, and potential food shortages predicted for the fall.

A Shell of Its Former Glory

The church throughout the world, especially in the West, is in some ways just like the temple during the time of Ezra—a shell of its former glory, surrounded by ruin, exposed with little defense. Only about a third of those who worshiped in the temple had returned from exile. After the pandemic, only about two-thirds of the people who attended church before have returned. It feels like the church is experiencing difficulty in a world of chaos with little defense. I don't think that's actually true, but it feels that way.

So how does someone respond to all 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, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant... I confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have sinned... 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... I will gather them from there...'" (Nehemiah 1:4–9)

He continues: "O Lord, I pray, 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; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Then this crucial line: "For I was the king's cupbearer."

How a Great Work of God Begins

This is so important. Every great work of God for His kingdom begins this way. Nehemiah stopped. He sat down, wept, and mourned for many days. He fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. He confessed the sin of his people as his own sin. He repented, lamented, and remembered the words of Moses from Deuteronomy 4. And then he recognized that he might be just the right person, in just the right place, at just the right time—he was cupbearer to the king.

Many Christians today are trying to figure out how to respond to the chaos and ruin around us. There are all kinds of ideas about which policies to push and which politicians can fix our woes, and I'm sure some are great ideas, with many people working hard. But it's crucially important that we consider Nehemiah's response.

Don't miss this: there was a ton of work to be done in Jerusalem—real, practical problems. The city was in turmoil with no walls. But none of it would be truly addressable without the mighty hand of God. For nearly a hundred years before Nehemiah, people had been trying to restore Jerusalem and failing. You could gather all the workers and money in the world, but it wouldn't work—they had been pouring people and money into it for almost a century.

So how did Nehemiah deal with it? He stopped. He sat down, wept, and mourned for many days. He fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, and confessed the sin of his people as his own.

For Such a Time as This—Today

What happened next? You'll have to come back next time, because we have no time for chapter 2 today. But these are important words for such a time as this. We live in times drastically different from Nehemiah's in many ways, yet similar in key ways.

I'm sure you look at the world and are distressed, just as Nehemiah was. Maybe you have a whole list of ideas—if only they did this, said that, fixed this problem. We could try to figure out how to fix those things. But first and foremost, the most important thing the people of God can do is to stop, confess, pray, fast, and ask God to move—and to recognize that, just like Nehemiah, you might be specially placed by the Lord for such a time as this. We need to seek the God of heaven to work mightily.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would speak these things to our hearts, and help us to remember them and hold on to them. Lord, help us throughout this week to do what Nehemiah did—to stop, to pray, maybe even to fast, and to set aside time to focus our attention upon You. All the issues we see all around the 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 Nehemiah 2,400 years ago. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.