Nehemiah 1:1-11

 

Introduction

The name Nehemiah means “The LORD comforts.”  The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are closely tied together.  Sometimes Nehemiah is known as the second book of Ezra.  The books of Chronicles, Nehemiah, and Ezra cover an overlapping time frame.  The books of Ezra and Nehemiah cover the time period of 538 to 433 B.C.  The book of Nehemiah is dated from information gathered in Nehemiah 2:1 stating the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes who reigned from 465 B.C. to 425 B.C. dating the book of Nehemiah to about 445 B.C.   Artaxerxes 1 was the ruler Longimanus.  He was the son of Xerxes and the grandson of Darius Hystaspis.  He was friendly toward Jerusalem.  Ezra returned to Jerusalem in 458 B.C. and Nehemiah returned in 445 B.C. and became Governor.  Like Joseph who was raised up from a slave to be Governor of Egypt, Nehemiah was raised from a Cup Bearer to a Governor.  The basic theme of Nehemiah is not only the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem but shows God’s faithfulness in protecting and providing for his people through godly, prayerful, and pro-active leadership.  The book shows God’s trustworthiness in restoring his exiled people. 

 

Ne 1:1

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

 

Nehemiah was the son of Hachaliah whose name means “who waits for the LORD.”  He is only mentioned in the book of Nehemiah twice.  The month Chisleu would correspond to the latter part of November and the early half of December.  Shushan was the winter home of the Persian king and was also a chief city of Persia.   It was located about 740 miles (1191 KM) east of Jerusalem.

 

Ne 1:2

That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

 

Hanani whose name means “my grace or mercy” may have been the actual brother of Nehemiah as we read in Nehemiah 7:2.  Hanani was accompanied by some other brethren who came from Judah.  Nehemiah asks them what the condition was of those who escaped which carries with it the meaning of “delivered” from the captivity they experienced for 70 years.  They were coming back slowly and Nehemiah wanted to know their condition and the conditions which prevailed in Jerusalem at the time.

 

Ne 1:3

And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

 

While the temple was built under the direction of Zerubbabel and Haggai which began about 518 B.C nevertheless the rest of the city was still in need of major repairs.  The people who went back were suffering from bad treatment from the neighboring nations along with disgrace and shame.  Then Hanani told Nehemiah that the walls were still broken down and the gates of the city were still in a condition of being burned from the Babylonian invasion 141 years before in 586 B.C.  Initially the group which returned in 516 B.C. were to rebuild the temple and their own private houses.  This was the message of Haggai that the people rebuilt their own houses and did not rebuild the temple of God.  The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. (Lamentations 1:4) 

 

Ne 1:4

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

 

Then when Nehemiah heard the report he was emotionally devastated.  He had to sit down and his sorrow was so great that he wept.  He was in mourning so badly that he probably mourned in dust and ashes sitting on the ground just as Job did.  And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. (Job 2:8)  It was not only a few hours that he mourned but his mourning lasted several days and he fasted during that time and while he fasted he prayed to the God of Heaven which means Nehemiah knew his scriptures and he was a godly man.  Sometimes this is how God gets the attention of Christians when he wants them to start a specific ministry for a specific purpose.

 

Ne 1:5

And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:

 

This is the first of the nine recorded prayers in the book of Nehemiah.  He addresses God as LORD which means the “self-existent one” and that he is the ruler of Heaven.  Then he describes him as the “great and terrible God” which means he is the great ruler of all Heaven and earth and is one to be feared as the Babylonian captivity would still be well-entrenched in their minds.  Then he speaks about God as a covenant keeping God in that he made many promises within those covenants and he grants true mercy to those who love him and observe his commandments.  The nation of Judah and Israel did not obey the commandments of the LORD although God gave them many chances to return to him and repent of their evil ways.  Nehemiah makes it a verbal fact that those who do love the LORD and keep his commandments will be loved of the LORD.

 

Ne 1:6

Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.

 

Nehemiah now prayed that the LORD would be attentive to his prayers, that is, that God would hearken unto his prayers.  He did not just say a generic prayer one time but he was in constant prayer both day and night which means he was a serious prayer warrior.  He does not pray for himself being in the court of a pagan king but for the nation of Israel which he calls God’s servants.  He confesses the sins of the nation of Israel which got them into the predicament they are now in.  Notice how humble Nehemiah is in that he puts himself among those that have sinned instead of saying “they have sinned” he includes himself by saying “we have sinned” against the LORD.  He states that both he and his father’s house was guilty of sinning before the LORD.  Daniel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah all used the same term that “we have sinned” placing themselves within the group that deserved the judgment of God upon them.  It shows the true humility of these men in that they are not claiming some type of superiority above those who sinned against the LORD. 

 

Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. (Isaiah 42:24)

 

We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God. (Jeremiah 3:25)

 

We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: (Daniel 9:5)

 

Ne 1:7

We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

 

The word “corruptly” is in the Qal stem and means exactly what it says.  Corruptly is a synonym for “sinfully or immorally.”  Nehemiah is continuing to identify himself with the nation of Judah as sinning horribly against the LORD.  They violated the law of God by not keeping the commandments as they went headfirst into idolatry.  They did not just fall into this sin but they voluntarily left the law of God and took up idolatry.  They did not observe the commandments, statutes which were the decrees or laws, and the judgments that were the ordinances which was the law and regulations.  God gave the law to Moses for Israel to obey and they intentionally turned aside from obeying the law and followed after other gods.

 

Ne 1:8

Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:

 

This verse contains the decree that if Israel did not obey the LORD then he would scatter them abroad to all the pagan nations which he did with the northern kingdom to Assyria and the southern kingdom to Babylon.  And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. (Deuteronomy 28:64)

 

Ne 1:9

But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

 

This was the cry of the prophets that Israel and Judah should return to the Lord and he would pardon them.  Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. (Hosea 6:1)  This quote from Hosea is an example of what the prophets were saying that if Judah and Israel would have rejected the idolatry and then returned unto the LORD, then he would have pardoned their sin and returned them to the land which he gave unto the fathers.  At this time God placed his name in Jerusalem where the temple was situated but once the Messiah came, he would place his name in the New Jerusalem which would be the body of believers.

 

Ne 1:10

Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.

 

Now Nehemiah states that the people of Judah are the servants of God plus they are his people whom he has redeemed with his great power and strong hand.  Nehemiah may have the destruction of Egypt in mind when God freed Israel from bondage.  He also may be alluding to the fact that the Babylonian captivity is over and the people will once again return to Judah.

 

Ne 1:11

O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.

 

Now Nehemiah prays that God would be attentive to his prayer, that is, would hearken unto his petition.  Not only was Nehemiah the only one who was praying but there were also others who had the same mindset as Nehemiah.  Then he asks that God grant him  mercy in the sight of King Artaxerxes and refers to him as a man.  That is insightful because many today see the leaders of countries as near deities and fear them as if they will never die.  Nehemiah was the servant of the king but here he elevates his servanthood to that of God, knowing that it is God who has complete control of the heart of the king.  The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. (Proverbs 21:1)  Then Nehemiah mentions the fact that he was the King’s cupbearer.  The office of royal cupbearer was a place of great honor in the Persian court and was in the presence of the king daily.  Cupbearers are often found on Assyrian monuments.  It was also a dangerous job as the cupbearer would drink a little of the wine to test it and make sure that the wine was not poisoned.

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