expository meditations on the book of nehemiah

WHEN we find our heart and mind burdened as Nehemiah was for the state of Israel, we begin to pray as Nehemiah did. We can’t help ourselves because we have been made to care by the Holy Spirit. Necessarily our prayers at the beginning are of a general character. Nehemiah would have brought the terrible state of Jerusalem and the spiritual declension of the people of Israel to the Lord, and pleaded with God to bring blessing and revival to the people and their land. Nehemiah prayed for a long time in this way.

In our passage this month, and particularly in the words I have specially chosen as our text, we find the prayer to become focused on one thing. Nehemiah has come to a point when he is contemplating action, and he brings this action particularly to the Lord and asks him for his help and for success to this initiative.

When we begin praying, as God burdens our heart with the state of his church, or some other condition of people or organisations, we necessarily commence prayer in a general way. However a time will come when by the Holy Spirit we will be given specific thoughts as to what God would have us do. At this time our prayer becomes more specific, and this is right.

Our purpose in this month’s meditation is to see how Nehemiah brought this specific prayer to God so that we may learn for ourselves more of how to pray in such circumstances. Nehemiah’s prayer was successful. God answered his prayer, so we have an example of a prayer that was approved by God. This is why we need to consider it.

GENERAL OBSERVATION

Straight away, as we come to Nehemiah’s prayer, we see that he did not come to his petition and specific request right away. In fact the specific prayer comes at the end, and occupies the smallest part of the prayer. Most of the prayer is a preparation for the request. This is so important for us to appreciate. We tend to come into God’s presence and pour out our requests and needs.

The picture that we could use is of a Prime Minister suddenly getting an idea which needed royal assent, getting into his car, driving to the palace, hastily ringing the door bell, and when the door is opened pushing past the one opening the door and rushing into the presence of the sovereign without ceremony, and then pouring out the request immediately.

We can see that such an approach is not right or good, and that proper ceremony and protocol needs to be observed. We know that we have free access into the presence of God through the blood of Jesus, and that we can come into the presence of God at anytime, because through Christ God is our Father. In times of great anguish and need we can do nothing else than pour out our need without preparation or ceremony, and we know God will understand. But usually there is a need for a prepared approach in prayer, and this is right and reverent.

RECOLLECTION

The first thing we notice about Nehemiah is that he comes to God with the worship of recollection. He worships God in the remembrance of his majesty and greatness, in the remembrance of his gracious covenant love, and in the remembrance that he is a God who answers prayer.

Jesus taught this approach to God in the Lord’s prayer. We begin with ‘Our Father, who art in heaven’. By this we remember before God our relationship with God through Christ, which is this gracious relationship of being children of God. We remember that God is our Father, and also that he is no ordinary Father, but our Father in heaven - the almighty and merciful God.

Nehemiah recollected God’s greatness; his awesome majesty; his almighty power. He remembered that he was the God of heaven, Lord of all and ruler of all, creator and redeemer. Before this God he bowed down in awe, wonder and submissive worship. There was no presumption in Nehemiah, but humble obeisance.

Nehemiah then remembered that although God was the great and awesome God, he was also the God of mercy and love. Nehemiah remembered the grounds of this knowledge in the sovereign gracious covenant God made with his people to love them if they cleaved to him in obedience and faith.

Nehemiah then remembered that his God was a God who answered prayer. He remembered that God heard the sincere prayers of his people, and remembering this claimed such hearing and answer from God at that point in time.

Such recollection does two things. It causes us to come to God with reverence, humility and faith. It also causes us to come in confidence as we remember God is a God of the impossible who orders all the affairs of mankind, and he also is the God who delights in showing mercy and love. If we spend time in recollection, half our praying is done. We will come to God in faith and humble dependence.

CONFESSION

The next ingredient of Nehemiah’s prayer was confession. By this he acknowledged that neither he or the nation of Israel deserved anything from God because of falling so far short of God’s glory.

Humble confession and penitence before God is essential. We are debtors to mercy alone. We can claim no merit from God. Our deserving is condemnation. Confession humbles ourselves before God acknowledging this, and shows we come dependent only on the grace and mercy of God. We should also understand that penitence is not just a matter of making confession, but must represent the humble repentance which comes from the heart.

Such repentance in no way denies our faith and confidence that we are forgiven fully through faith and trust in the doing and dying of Jesus for us. Rather such penitence shows that all our trust and confidence is on the merits of Christ as we come to God, and in no way in anything that we do. Only a penitent heart before God can expect to be heard.

ARGUMENT AND PLEA

In verses 8 and 9 Nehemiah brings to God the basis of his hope that God will be gracious to him and answer his prayer. Here is a very important truth. Our confidence before God is not, and never can be, in ourselves or in anything that we do or say. Our confidence in God is in God himself, his promises, and his gracious love towards us.

Nehemiah reminds God in his prayer of the covenant promise of God. In this remembrance before God he first acknowledges the justice and rightness of God’s action in the exile of the Jews in Babylon and in Persia. He remembers that God had promised that his continued goodness was dependent on the faithfulness of his people in their trust of God and in their living for him. By this he acknowledges that Israel had failed to cleave to the Lord. He owns too the fact that Israel had ceased to love God and walk in his ways, and that their present state of disgrace and misery was the just deserving of their rejection of the Lord.

Nehemiah also remembers before God that God promised that if his people returned to him in repentance and loving obedience, that he would return to them, and that God would bless them again by restoring to them all the blessings they had lost by their folly and disobedience.

By this Nehemiah shows his faith in the word of promise, and in the almighty power of God to be able to keep his word. However there is another very important aspect of this part of Nehemiah’s prayer. Nehemiah was bringing an argument before God that God could not deny, and had to uphold. Nehemiah was reminding God of his covenant promise, and holding God to his word. This was not coercion nor irreverence, but sure and deep trust that God could not lie, and that God’s word was sacrosanct, and that as Nehemiah came on behalf of Israel in penitent and faithful return, then God would honour his promise and restore Israel to their former glory, and would return to bless them.

Nehemiah also pleaded the honour of God. If God did not answer his prayer then the honour of God was at stake. God had promised to restore Israel when they returned to him, and they were his people by sovereign and gracious choice. The honour of God’s name depended on his blessing them when they returned to him.

When we pray, we must come to God according to the promise and will of God recorded for us in the Bible. This is to pray in the will of God. This is to submit ourselves to the will of God alone. No other praying will be right.

INTERCESSION

It was only after Nehemiah had engaged in remembering who God is, in humbling himself before this awesome God in penitence and confession, and in calling upon God to honour his promise of grace, and by putting his trust in the word of promise from God, that Nehemiah came to his request.

The request was no selfish one. The request was for the honour and glory of God in the first place, and only in the second place was it a request for God’s blessing on his people. The request, however, was very specific. Nehemiah had determined to approach King Artaxerxes in order to get his permission and help to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city. Although Nehemiah had risen to high office in the realm, he knew that his request was a very dangerous request to ask, and that humanly speaking there was no hope of it being granted. Nehemiah also knew that to ask such a thing of the king placed his position and life in jeopardy.

In the light of all this Nehemiah asked God for this specific thing - that Artaxerxes would be favourable to him and grant his request. It was a prayer of tremendous faith, because there was no way in ordinary circumstances that this prayer would have been answered. God had led him to such a procedure and action, and so Nehemiah prayed to God that God would do the impossible for him. His prayer was answered

CONCLUSION

Here we have an example of prayer that prevailed. Nehemiah was granted his request in a most amazing and spectacular way.

Let us learn from this the power in prayer, because it puts us into the power of God and brings the power of God down for us. Let us be encouraged to pray, and when we are led by the Holy Spirit to a particular course of action, let us learn from Nehemiah to pray with confidence, expecting God to answer, and so causing his work to go forward.

However let us also learn how we should pray. Not everything about prayer is to be found in the example of Nehemiah’s prayer, but what there is to learn that is true, let us learn and emulate in our prayers and spiritual life.