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Nehemiah: Walking by Faith in a Hostile World Chapter Two Welcome and Opening Prayer Review of chapter one • The book of Nehemiah is a first-person account of the memorable episodes in Nehemiah’s life, beginning with him as King Artaxerxes’ cupbearer. • Cupbearer – a significant position and a place of great influence. The king entrusted his life to Nehemiah—to keep him safe from being poisoned. The king trusted in him for his very life. • Amazing, considering that Nehemiah was Jew—one from a conquered people. It was a display of a god-fearing man’s character and integrity—his Christlikeness in being a servant in a godless Persian court. • The year was 446BC. Thirteen years have passed from the last chapter of Ezra to now. He is visited by a group of men from Jerusalem, one of whom may very well be his brother. After being asked how the people of God and the city were doing to learn that the people were “in great trouble and shame” and the wall “broken down and its gates destroyed by fire” (v. 3). • Nehemiah’s immediate response: shock and grief, which expressed itself in mourning and fast—and the inauguration of what ends up being a lengthy prayer vigil—praying continuously ‘day and night.’ • His prayer here and certainly in the others recorded in this book shows him to be an outstanding example of a life in which prayer is the platform for effective action. • Though Nehemiah shows himself to be vigorous, gifted, organizationally meticulous, an administratively efficient leader and man of action, he was a man who prayed first. Prayer wasn’t his last resort but his first. Before taking action for God’s kingdom work, he prayed. For him, prayer was his action—that, then, turned into action. • Nehemiah’s prayer had structure, similar to The Lord’s Prayer. Bookended with God of Heaven bringing His kingdom in heaven to earth. There was confession, repentance, and requests—all of which was framed by God’s words. He was offering back to God His own handwriting and asking God to make good his Word—that if He doesn’t do something and soon, the whole situation is going to reflect badly on Him. • His prayer was bold. It was an audacious move! • In reference to Nehemiah’s prayer here, the Puritan Thomas Brooks speaks of Nehemiah’s prayer as recorded to encourage believers not to fear praying so boldly when God’s glory, the glory of His name, the glory of Christ is at stake. Brooks quotes the the words of Father Basil of Caesarea to support him: “Let us with holy impudence (not to mean disrespect of rudeness but boldness—audacity) make God ashamed that he cannot look us in the face if He does deny our importunity (request).” • During those months, the Lord had been teaching Nehemiah patience even though his prayer was daring enough to say that God’s reputation was on the line. He was learning to wait, and learning that God’s “today” is quite often on another timetable from ours. • That is something we need to remember and why waiting on the Lord is a characteristic of believers—befitting of who we are—that fretful anxiety accomplishes nothing and is a sign of distrust and unbelief. • And before we move onto chapter two, I want you to notice that Nehemiah is not only asking God to intervene and do something about the situation in Jerusalem, but he was also asking that God might use him in some way, although he didn’t see how that would even be possible under his current circumstances. • On a human level, his prayer was pointless. Nehemiah was a servant to the most powerful man in the world. To ask to be released from this position would signal disloyalty and could result in him being imprisoned or killed. • Question: Have you ever wanted—and maybe even now want to be useful for God but you don’t see how you can in your present circumstances? Your desire is strong but there is no opportunity; you are hemmed in on every side —and unable to do anything beyond prayer. • Well, if you are, chapter two is an excellent example of what every Christian can do regardless of his or her constraints and circumstances when “the good hand of God is upon them”—when God exercises His power in our circumstances and brings to pass certain events that do nothing less than baffle our imagination. • Nehemiah 2:1-8 – God’s “today” has arrived in answer to Nehemiah’s sustained praying. • The king was dining with the queen and was in a very good mood, but notices Nehemiah’s sad face. • Some suggest this was intentional on Nehemiah’s part-that he looked this way deliberately. Maybe we are meant to see that. • And maybe not. I think the text shows us that Nehemiah was approaching this day like every day, honoring the king and being careful not to offend his majesty without realizing that his countenance reflected something different that the king had not seen before—that he wasn’t using the good mood of the king to advance his purposes. • His constant burden for the people of God and the state of the city of which he had faithfully presented to the Lord “day and night” in prayer with no response, had taken its toll on him without him realizing it. • Whether premeditated or not, is that by God’s providence, Nehemiah finds himself in a tough, tense—heart-pounding situation. All that he longed for hung in the balance. • When the king takes notice of his downcast face and asks why it is so, stating it was “nothing but sadness of heart,” this might have been a reflection of King Artaxerxes human character—that he cared about his cupbearer. • Or as some commentators believe, it might be an accusation of him have an evil heart with bad intentions—that the king may well have been saying “You’re plotting something evil.” • Either way, Nehemiah is “very much afraid,” without Scripture telling us specifically why. We can speculate. First, Nehemiah’s sad countenance in festive circumstances might have angered the king. It was a festive occasion, a fun party, and Nehemiah was spoiling it with his sad countenance. There was a book of etiquette for cupbearers, and its No. 1 rule was: You never look sad in the king’s presence without the certainty of severe and even fatal consequences. The second reason was that Nehemiah was afraid that the king would act unfavorably to his requests, which in essence would reverse the king’s original edict to stop all building activities in Jerusalem. • All to say, whether premeditated or not, Providence has led Nehemiah into an alarmingly difficult, tense, situation where he was very much afraid. • What Nehemiah did here was fire off an arrow-like prayer that could have taken a brief second or two at the most, before answering the king. • Here is what I call a ‘food for thought’ moment. We might be inclined to think that if we found ourselves in a similar circumstance, we do as Nehemiah did, shoot up a quick prayer like before opening our mouths. • But in truth, that probably would not be the case unless we had an established life of prayer. Nehemiah had. He, like Daniel before him, lived his life with an awareness of God’s presence—and had made prayer a habit. It was second nature to him, so that when he encountered something like what we are now considered, it was an involuntary response—almost like a burp. • Turn that around for a minute. If you and I have not established the discipline of prayer, so that it has become a habit, we have no guarantee that in any given moment of crisis our instinct is going to be one of prayer. Instead, it will most likely be a response of panic, disordered thinking and wrong actions. • So, here, there are two things that we need to be said here by way of application: The first is obvious. Short prayers can be effective. It’s an example of what the earlier prophet Isaiah had written: “Before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Is. 65:24). Secondly, it says something about the necessity of prayer. Doesn’t this underline Paul’s words to the Philippians that “the Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God”? (4:6) • Verse 4. After praying, Nehemiah’s quickly and courageously responds by saying, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my father’s graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire!” That is a very bold statement, though true. What Nehemiah is saying is that Jerusalem was a mess because of the King’s decree to stop the rebuilding of the walls. Both Nehemiah and the king knew it. It had to be a heart-stopping moment. • Here in verse 4, we are given another glimpse into the tolerant attitude of Artaxerxes—an attitude that had at its center God’s sovereign grace, which made him willing to listen to Nehemiah’s requests. • Beginning in verse 5, we see that Nehemiah had given some thought how to answer given the right set of circumstances, especially in terms of his own responsibilities to accomplish a successful outcome.

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