A BROKEN HEART FOR A BROKEN PEOPLE

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 24, 2019 under PM Bible Study |

PM Bible Study Group: July 24, 2019 from Nehemiah

Theme: God used the bad news about the broken walls of Jerusalem to raise up a faithful rebuilder.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Today, we begin to study what might best be described as a ‘diary’. It’s not any ol’ diary though. It happens to be the diary of a great man of God, who was raised up by God to perform an amazing task for His chosen people. This ‘diary’ is what we have come to know in our Bible as the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.

The man who wrote this Holy Spirit-inspired diary is the one that it is named after. His name—Nehemiah—meant “The Comfort of Yahweh”; and he certainly proved to be the active comfort of God to His broken and needy people. He was a Jewish man who held an important position in a foreign land. He was the ‘cupbearer’ of King Artaxerxes—the king of the Persian empire. Nehemiah would have been a man of significant influence to the king in this role; because as cupbearer, he was responsible for ensuring that the king’s food and drink were safe to be consumed. He most likely would have been much more than merely a ‘cupbearer’ or a ‘butler’, however (see Genesis 40:13). He would have, most likely, served as a valued adviser and confidant to the king. The king—quite literally—trusted his life to Nehemiah.

How it could be that he—a Jewish man—was placed in such an important position isn’t told to us. But the story of other such Jewish servants to foreign kings (such as Joseph or Daniel) suggest to us that he must have been a man of manifest character. And the story we find in the Book of Nehemiah certainly bears this out.

Nehemiah truly was a godly and trustworthy man that God had providentially raised to serve his needy people at an important turning-point in their history.

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Now; let’s consider something of that history.

The Babylonian empire had taken the people of Jerusalem into captivity in 605 B.C.; and then, the Persian empire later conquered Babylon. The city of Jerusalem and the land of Judah had laid in ruins for the 70 years of captivity that God brought upon His people in judgment. But when the years of captivity were completed, God put it on the heart of the Persian king Cyrus to return the Jewish people to their land. There were three great Jewish persons involved in this restoration. Zerubbabel was sent to begin the process of rebuilding the temple (538-515 B.C.) You can read about his work in the Old Testament books of Haggai and Zechariah. Then—after 57 years, King Artaxerxes sent the scribe Ezra to help reform the people’s spiritual life (458-456 B. C.). You can read about his story in the Old Testament book that bears his name. And then after another twelve years or so, in the year 444 B.C. in the 20th year of Artaxerxes’ reign (see Nehemiah 1:1), Nehemiah was sent to help rebuild the city wall. He ministered twice in Jerusalem—the first time from the years 444-432 B.C.; and the second time from the year 430 B.C. and beyond.

In the Bible, the Book of Nehemiah falls in the section we call ‘the historical books’ of the Old Testament. It is closely associated with the Book of Ezra; and also, the Book of Esther. The last book of the Old Testament—the Book of Malachi—was written around the time that Nehemiah ministered in Jerusalem in order to exhort the people to holiness before the coming of the Lord Jesus as the promised Messiah.

The Book of Nehemiah is a portion of God’s word to us that teaches us many things. It shows us how God, in His providence, is able to raise up a man for His people at a time when they need a leader—reminding us that God never forgets His people even in a time of terrible discouragement and despondency. It also teaches us about the way that a godly leader works in rousing his people to God’s appointed task for the times. It’s a book that is deeply personal—and in which Nehemiah shares his heart and writes down his prayers. It is a lot like the Book of Ezra; but unlike quiet Ezra, Nehemiah boldly leaps from the pages in a very personal way.

You can divide this Old Testament ‘diary’ into three main divisions:

1. THE REBUILDING OF THE WALL (chaps. 1-7).

2. THE REVIVAL OF THE HEART (chaps. 8-10).

3. THE REFORMATION OF THE LIFE (chaps. 11-13).

All of these things were necessary in getting God’s broken people back to where He wanted them to be. The key verse of this book is 2:17; where we find the words of Nehemiah to the people of Jerusalem;

Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach” (2:17).

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Now; the first chapter of this diary tells us how God brought the need of His people to the attention of this great man Nehemiah—and how the news of broken people had broken Nehemiah’s own heart and motivated him to the work. The book opens with this introduction in verse 1;

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah (v. 1a).

And the story begins with …

1. SOME DISTRESSING NEWS (vv. 1-3).

Nehemiah began his ‘diary’ by sharing with us how he was simply minding his appointed business in the palace of the king—doing his duty in the capital city of Susa (here called ‘Shushan’); when a simple question that he asked of a relative set his heart in turmoil. He wrote,

“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” (vv. 1b-2).

This man Hanani—who is presented to us as one of Nehemiah’s brothers (and who may have been a relative rather than strictly a brother; since the word in Hebrew can mean either)—must have, himself, been a remarkable man. We find that later on in the story—after Nehemiah had assumed leadership over his people—that Hanani was given the position of leadership over Jerusalem after the wall was completed (see 7:2). He was a trustworthy man from whom Nehemiah could get the latest and most reliable news about his people.

Nehemiah would naturally have wanted such news. Many years prior (under the 1st wave of their return), the people of Judah had been released from their 70 years of captivity in Babylon; and the work of rebuilding the temple had been ordered by the Persian king Cyrus and had begun. Nehemiah would have been very concerned for the condition of his people since the time that the order had been given—how they were all doing, and how the holy city fared. The work of restoring the city had been brought to a halt by the enemies of Israel some time before (in Ezra 4:7-28); and the condition of the city was still in ruins. Hanani must have hung his head—along with the other Jewish men who were traveling with him—when he gave the sad report:

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” (v. 3).

There are two pieces of bad news in this. The first had to do with the condition of the people themselves. Though they had been returned to their land, they suffered harassment from the surrounding enemies of Israel who sought to bring an end to the rebuilding of the city. The people in all the surrounding province were “there in great distress and reproach”. It was a very dishonorable condition for the chosen people of God to be in. And more, it was a dangerous condition because of the hostile enemies around them. And also the city itself was dishonored because the city wall—which was considered an important part of a city’s defense and respectability in those days—was broken down. It’s city gates were burned—which means that they were still in the condition that they were in when the Babylonian captivity had begun.

What a sad condition for God’s people to be in!

There is a spiritual parallel to our own lives in this, by the way. The Bible teaches that, as followers of Jesus, we are to be a distinct people from the unbelieving people of this world—not distant from them, of course; but distinct while living among them. As the Bible teaches, in terms of the way we live, we are to “come out from among them and be separate” unto the Lord (2 Corinthians 6:17). The church of our Lord is at its very best—and at its most useful to Him—when there is a ‘wall’ that distinguishes it from this world. But the church is at its most weakest—and is least effective as a witness for its Lord to this world—when that wall of distinction is broken down.

May God help us to build that wall of distinction again in our time!

Now; the Book of Nehemiah is a book about the revival of God’s people. And before revival can really occur, there needs to be a realistic look at the condition of things. That’s what Hanani gave to Nehemiah. And it broke Nehemiah’s heart. And so, we next read of …

2. A MOURNFUL PRAYER (vv. 4-9).

Nehemiah writes in verse 4,

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 (v. 4).

His first reaction to this news was to sit down and weep and mourn “for many days”. The condition of his people troubled him greatly. As we read on, we see that it was not just the condition of his people that troubled him, but also the dishonor that their condition brought to the God who had given the land to them. The broken condition of the people of God reflected on the God who had called them to Himself.

But note that he turned this trouble of heart into expressions of prayer to God. One of the things that we find throughout the Book of Nehemiah is that Nehemiah was—himself—a man of great prayer. This ‘diary’ contains many of his prayers—prayers that he actually put down in written form as a part of the record. Upon hearing this news, he immediately fasted and prayed. That’s always the beginning point of revival—when God’s faithful people not only see the condition of things, but also are moved to pray earnestly. The beginning rumblings of revival occur when God uses the desperate condition of things to set His people a-praying.

Look carefully at how Nehemiah prayed. His prayer is an exemplary prayer that establishes a good pattern for us to follow. Note first that he sought God’s honor and exalted Him:

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 which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants …” (vv. 5-7a).

Note very carefully that Nehemiah did not lay any blame whatsoever upon God for the distressing condition of his people. He affirmed in this prayer that God is faithful to those who observe His commandments. God keeps His promises and is always faithful to His own word to them. The problem was that the people—not God—had been unfaithful. They had disobeyed Him; and just as He had warned them, they went into captivity for 70 years because of their sin.

And note also another very important element in Nehemiah’s prayer. When he mentioned the sin of his people, he didn’t separate himself from their sin. He himself confessed and owned the unfaithfulness of his fellow Jewish people. He went on to say;

“… 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” (v. 7b).

In this prayer, Nehemiah—himself a very holy and faithful man—is following the pattern of some great ‘revival’ prayers in the Bible such as we find in Daniel 9, or Ezra 9, or Nehemiah 9. They were prayers in which holy leaders of revival did not simply point fingers at others; but themselves owned the blame for the condition of things. That’s a great pattern for us to follow!

Nehemiah also justified God’s actions by remembering God’s warning. But he also remembered God’s promises. He prayed;