Scripture: Nehemiah 1
Series: His Work, His Way, For His Glory: The Story of Nehemiah
His Work, His Way, For His Glory: The Story of Nehemiah
“Sharing God’s Burden”
Nehemiah 1
Main Idea: God invites His people to share His burden for the spiritual welfare of His church by calling them to lament, confess, pray, and “go” on His behalf.
Introduction: Good morning! I want to invite you to open your bibles to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah… Some of you have probably heard the nomenclature: we want our hearts to break for the things that break the heart of God. What is intended by the meaning is that the things that God cares about, we should care about too. I understand the sentiment, but I have always struggled with the phraseology “break hearts”, partly because it’s not a scriptural image from the bible, and it’s based around cultural phraseology and expressions we use. But there is an important truth here that we do see throughout the bible. There are texts where we find God grieving over the spiritual condition of His people, longing for them turn back to Him, and to trust Him, and to receive the good He intends for them.
Enter the book of Nehemiah… Nehemiah is an amazing account of a critical time in biblical history – full of desperation, drama, and hope! It’s a story about leadership, renewal, God’s guidance and protection, spiritual warfare, the necessity of prayer, team work and what can be accomplished when God’s people come together – unified with the same vision, motive, and purpose. But ultimately, Nehemiah shows us a portrait for how God works through His people to accomplish His purposes for His glory by inviting them to share His burden for the spiritual good and prosperity of His people.
The word “burden” has been defined this way: Burden: Something difficult or unpleasant that you have to deal with or worry about.
Others have defined a spiritual burden this way: Spiritual Burden: A spiritual weight placed on their heart, usually because God wants their attention focused on a certain matter.
What we are going to see through this series is how Nehemiah becomes spiritually burdened for the things that burden the heart of God. My hope is that our time in Nehemiah will give us encouragement and fresh vision for sharing God’s burden in our own day, where the proverbial walls of our culture lay destitute and need serious repair. Let us pray as we begin…
Exposition of Nehemiah 1
As we begin our exposition of Nehemiah, we need to first understand the historical context in which Nehemiah lived. For those of you who may be new to understanding the bible and history, I hope this will be helpful for you. Well, in short, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. At the end of the book of Deuteronomy and before the people of God are led to the promised land under Joshua, Moses lays out the stipulations of God’s covenant with the people: blessings for obedience, cursing for disobedience. In chapter 29, he basically predicts that the people will fail, lose the land, and be taken into exile by a foreign nation.
However, at the beginning of chapter 30, Moses says this: Deuteronomy 30:1-4. And this is exactly what had happened by the time of Nehemiah. So, for those of you who are visual learners, here is the timeline:
Nehemiah’s place in Biblical History
586 – Jews taken into exile
539 – Cyrus defeats Babylon and establishes the great Persian Empire
538 – Cyrus makes a decree for the Jews to come back to their homeland
516 – Temple was reconstructed under the guidance of Zerubbabel and Jeshua
458 – Ezra the Priest goes to Jerusalem to help spiritually lead the community
445 – Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem to help rebuild the walls
Nehemiah becomes burdened for Jerusalem – Neh. 1:1-4
What happened? The walls around the city are not secure, the gates have been burned down by fire and the moral and spiritual morale of the people is at an all-time low. Shouldn’t this have been one of those exciting moments in the history of the people? What happened?
Even though the Jews had gotten to return home…all was not well. They were not welcomed by the inhabitants; they had to rebuild their city, rebuild their lives; and after being there in the land for almost a hundred years, not much was happening. When Ezra the priest came, he found they were intermarrying, and though the temple was complete, it had not been properly dedicated and there was not an active priesthood…the people were not worshipping. They were lethargic, discouraged, and in great danger of simply going into spiritual and moral oblivion. Without the walls they were not only vulnerable to enemy attacks but most of all…simply dying out and ceasing to be a nation.
So, what was at stake in Nehemiah’s mind? Nothing less than the great name of Israel’s God being mocked and defamed before the nations. The great promises that were made to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Moses, to David…the great covenant heritage and history which God had blessed Israel with, was in danger of becoming obsolete. For Nehemiah, the broken walls were not only a sign of their physical vulnerability, but their overall spiritual condition. And so he grieves over the precarious state of the people of God…
Nehemiah pleads with God to “remember” His covenant
So, what does Nehemiah do? Well, he prays! Neh. 1:5-10. Note the shape of this prayer – it is a confession, and plea to God to remember His covenant promises based on his character.
First, Nehemiah includes Himself in the sins of the people. Even though Nehemiah himself probably wasn’t guilty of these specific offenses, he realizes that his people’s weaknesses, faults, and failures are also his own.
Second, Nehemiah calls on God to remember His promises and His plans. According to the covenantal plan revealed to Moses, when God’s people turn back to him and seek him with all their heart, there and then they will find him. And that’s what we see Nehemiah doing. Specifically, Nehemiah prays in accordance with God’s character and covenant. Notice how he addresses God:
God’s character: God is all powerful (all-powerful creator, awesome, and good)
God’s covenant: God is all good (trustworthy, faithful, forgiving, and merciful)
We see this same pattern in the Psalms and other prayers throughout the Old Testament – God’s people pleading with Him in accordance with His character, and His covenant promises. Now, watch what happens next…
Nehemiah volunteers himself to “go” Neh. 1:11
In other words, Nehemiah pleads with God to make him part of the solution. Like Isaiah, Nehemiah is saying, “Lord, here I am: send me!” When he concludes by saying that he is the cupbearer of the king, he is telling us that he has a significant yet expendable position before the king; for those of you who may not know what a cupbearer did in the ancient world, they basically tested the food and drink given to the king to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. In other words, the king had to like you enough to trust you and allow you into his presence, but at the same time, not like you so much that he’d actually miss you if you’ve gone away. Very precarious place to be! We will see more next week on how Nehemiah handles all of this, but for now, let’s step back and draw out some of the lessons we learn here in chapter 1.
Main Idea: God invites His people to share His burden for the spiritual welfare of His church by calling them to lament, confess, pray, and “go” on His behalf.
Nehemiah knew that it was not the will of God for the nation to remain unguarded, vulnerable to extinction, and spiritually desolate. He knew God would answer this kind of prayer, because Nehemiah was praying in accordance with God’s revealed character and promises. And Nehemiah trusted that God would give him favor (which we will see next week) because whenever God works, He always works through people – His willing servants. So, as new covenant believers, what can we learn from Nehemiah and the spiritual burden he had for the condition of the people of God at this time in history and apply it to our own day? I want to suggest a few things for us to consider…
Application: Sharing God’s burden by Answering His call
Like Nehemiah, we too live in troubling times, both politically and spiritually. The proverbial walls around us are all breaking down – we see it with the collapse of institutions, leaders we once trusted either falling into grievous sin or just simply falling away. We hear of many professing believers who are leaving evangelicalism (that is, conservative, orthodox, Protestant Christianity) and becoming what some call “exvangelicals”; I know of many Christians and even some Christian organizations who don’t want to even use the label “evangelical” anymore because of the negative connotations it has in some circles. We live in what has certainly been the most politically divisive period at least that I can remember – I’m sure those of you who lived through the 60’s probably feel it as well.
Like Nehemiah, when we look at the current state of the church in America, it very much feels like the walls are broken down, and the gates have been set on fire, and the name of our great God is often put to shame. Paul’s commendation of Timothy, and rebuke of us, continues to haunt me. What is Jesus most “interested in”? The spiritual welfare of His people. Phil. 2:21
How do we respond to the challenges of our day and look after the interests of the Lord Jesus, and share His burden for the spiritual well-being of His people? Well, like Nehemiah, there are 4 key things we can do, all of which come right out of the text and our main idea:
Lament
Confess
Pray
“Go”