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October 20, 2013 |
| What One Person Can Do | ||
The Bible is full of stories of great leaders, great kings, and great prophets. But we often miss the point that most of these people started out as ordinary people. Moses began life under orders that he be killed and became the person God would use to free Israel from the Egyptians. David was only a humble shepherd boy but would become Israel's greatest king. The great prophets like Elijah, Elisha, and Isaiah were also ordinary people until God put them to work. And so it was with many of the great people of the Bible.
This is especially true in the stories of the period when Israel was enslaved in a faraway country. Daniel and his friends were from nobility but now they found themselves slaves in a foreign country. But from this humbled start God positioned them for the work he had for them. We first see Esther as an adopted daughter but God will use her to save his people.
Probably the best example of this comes from a person who is less well known to us. When Israel was allowed to return to Judea after the captivity they started well but did not thrive. They needed someone special, a leader, a motivator, and a man of God. That man was Nehemiah.
During the time that Israel was captive it became less popular among the Medes and Persians to bring conquered peoples to their cities as slaves. It made more sense to them that the conquered peoples should stay in their lands and should profit their conquerors through taxation.
Thus it was that the remnant of Israel was allowed to return to Judea. The first two of these great migrations back to Judea had been completed when the Book of Nehemiah begins. The trips would have taken about four months1 and most people would have traveled on foot. The people were exited to return to the land that God had promised them and immediately began to rebuild the temple and restart the sacrifices. But there were people who had moved into the land while Israel was gone. Soon they conspired against Israel to slow them down and soon the rebuilding of the temple and the wall was stopped.
The book of Nehemiah begins with Nehemiah as the servant of the king. He hadn't returned with the rest of his people though at least one of his brothers has. Nehemiah may have stayed behind because he was in a respected position with Cyrus the Great, the king. Nehemiah is called a cup-bearer which probably meant that he was in charge of the food services for the royal family.
One of his brothers had returned to the capital city, called Susa, with news for Nehemiah. Although Israel had been allowed to return to their homeland they were still the subjects of the Medo-Persian empire. There were likely many Israelites who stayed behind and it wouldn't have been uncommon for people to travel back and forth between Israel and Susa.
But Nehemiah's brother has brought bad news. The Israelites were suffering at the hand of their enemies. They were unprotected because they have not been able to rebuild the wall or the gates of the city. The wall and gates are still in the same condition they were after the battle that destroyed Jerusalem 70 years before. This hits Nehemiah hard and his instinctive reaction, which will be a pattern for his life, is to pray to God. By only the 5th verse of the first chapter we find Nehemiah in prayer and we will see him in prayer in many of the following chapters. He confesses the sins of himself and his people.
6 […] I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's family, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.
God had promised that if he ever had to throw Israel out of the land because they disobeyed him that he would restore Israel. In his prayer, Nehemiah goes on to remind God of his promise. And he reminds God that these are God's own people whom God had chosen and redeemed before. And finally he prays that God will have the king show favor on him. Although he is in a position of authority, Nehemiah is not allowed to speak to the king anytime he wants to and make requests. The king must ask him first.
But Nehemiah is deeply saddened and fasting and this is seen by the king, who asks him what the trouble is. This provides the opportunity Nehemiah needs to make a request of the king – that he be allowed to return to Jerusalem to help rebuild the wall. The king allows this and gives him large amounts of supplies with which to rebuild.
Who was Nehemiah that the king should think that he could be trusted with such a task. God had placed Nehemiah in a management position in the Royal Court. He had gained experience in managing people and supplies and was prepared for this task.
So Nehemiah returns to the land of Israel with all these supplies and with officers and soldiers for protection. In Chapter 2 it says
2 10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.
These two people plus another, called Geshem the Arab, are going to be a problem for Nehemiah for a long time to come.
Nehemiah's first act is to survey the situation before the people know who he is and why he is there. In this he displays wisdom by gaining knowledge and preparing a plan so he will not be seen as an outsider who knows nothing. Then he explains to the people who he is and that he plans to rebuild the walls and the gates.
Immediately these three problem people start ridiculing him and suggesting that he is rebuilding the city to rebel against the king. Nehemiah assures his people that God is on their side but to the three he says
2 20 […] but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.
What Nehemiah says here (2500 years ago) also speaks to our time because he is speaking to the ancestors of those people who still insist they have some claim or right to the land. Only Israel has a claim and historic right to the land.
Work begins on the gates and walls of the city. Immediately their enemies hear of it and are angry and news of this reaches Nehemiah. His first response is to take it in prayer to God. He says
4 4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
Their enemies decide to work together to attack Jerusalem and news of this plot gets back to Nehemiah. The people are working so hard on restoring the wall that they would not have the strength to fight back if they were attacked. The people are alarmed at the reports of possible attacks. Nehemiah posts armed men at the weak spots and gaps in the wall but these are not trained soldiers and they are a small force.
4 14 When I saw their fear, I rose and spoke to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people: "Do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses."
Over and over Nehemiah will be required to manage the fears and weaknesses of his people, as he does here. When their enemies see that guards are now posted they give up their plan. The enemies seem to be more like bullies, cowards who use violence or intimidation to get what they want. They likely understood that if they were to actually do anything the king and his armies would appear on their doorstep and there would be trouble for them.
But in doing this, Nehemiah's enemies had succeeded in slowing things down. Now half of the manpower that could have gone into reconstruction had to go into protection. Even those who worked at reconstruction had to keep weapons with them in case of attack.
Nehemiah was also called on to deal with internal problems. A dispute between the wealthy and the poor broke out because the wealthy were charging too much interest for the poor to survive. In some cases this was so bad that people had sold their land and even sold themselves into slavery to pay their debts. These were Judeans enslaving Judeans.
Nehemiah had to convince the wealthy that what they were doing was wrong. He did this both by word and example. By this time he had been appointed governor of the province of Judea and with that came certain rights. But Nehemiah had not taken advantage of these rights so that he would not be a burden on others.
Their enemies continued to try to stop the work with various plots directed personally at Nehemiah, to either kill him or to scare him into stopping. Wise and fearing only God he continues on with the effort.
In only 52 days, work on the gates and the wall was complete. Israel was then protected from her enemies who realized that this had been made possible by God. Even so, their enemies used friends inside the walls to act as spies to look for opportunities they might use.
With the wall and the gates restored, Nehemiah turned to internal matters such as guarding the city, controlling access to the city, registering the people and setting up a treasury to pay bills. (Men of God do mundane things too.)
Nehemiah began to restore the religious fabric of their lives and the people turned to learn from the scriptures again. It was that the wall was completed just prior to the seventh month. So on the first day of the seventh month, which is the Feast of Trumpets that begins the most holy time of the Jewish year, Ezra the Priest read from the Law of Moses to the people from day break until noon. As they heard and the Levites explained the law the people were sad for how they and all of Israel had acted toward God. But Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites instructed them that this was a Holy Day and they were not to mourn. It was a day for joy.
On the following day the people returned to hear more of the law and they were instructed that God had said that during this holy period they were to live outside in small huts. These 7 days (Feast of Booths) are a remembrance of their time in the desert after leaving Egypt and the fragile shelters they lived in and how God lived with them.
8 16 So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves temporary shelters on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. 17 The whole company that had returned from exile built temporary shelters and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great.
And when the people had heard all the law they repented of their sins and the sins of their fathers and made a vow that they would uphold the law.
After this Nehemiah returned to Susa to see the king. The Bible doesn't say it but likely his purpose was to tell the king of the success they had had in restoring the gates, walls, and the people. After a time he was allowed to return to Judea. When he does he finds that things are not in order.
10 31 "When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.
In a very short time the people of Israel had broken their vow to God, just as their fathers had before them. And the very people who had suffered in captivity for breaking his laws were again turning their backs on God. All these problems had to be dealt with by Nehemiah on his return.
This is where the book of Nehemiah ends. The chief of the king's food services has been used by God to restore Israel. The slave from a foreign country is now the governor in his own country. The holy city of Jerusalem is now protected by walls and gates. The people are again practicing God's laws.
Nehemiah shows us many things: