baldtheologian Nehemiah: When Fear collides with Faith

Working Together for God’s Glory

nehemiah wall_final

 

They consecrated the wall…Nehemiah 3:1b NASB

 

When we first read through chapter three it seems pretty dry, doesn’t it? There are lists of names and assignments. For some I’m sure it appears to be nothing more than a list of jobs and those who do those jobs. Not very exciting stuff. But there are some beautiful nuggets here if we’ll just take the time to mine them.

Before we find those nuggets, I’d like to make a couple of observations.

First this chapter reveals that Nehemiah was both an extraordinary administrator and leader. He was able to not only mobilize a large group of people but also he led them to undertake an enormous task with vigor. Achieving that requires great vision, organization and motivational skills. So Nehemiah demonstrated that he could both organize and lead.

The second observation I’d like to make here is this passage demonstrates what a group of folks can do when working together for a common goal. While their goal – rebuilding the wall – the particular job that they performed varied. Not everyone did the same thing. But they all worked together and in working together they achieved more than they could have working alone. I am reminded of a truth I learned in the Marine Corps: my part of a mission – be it big or small, visible or not-so-visible, attention getting or forgettable – did not matter. What mattered was that we accomplished the mission. If we accomplished the mission, then my contribution – no matter what it was – was significant.

This concept we see at work in Nehemiah is so very important for the Church to learn and practice today. Whether your particular gift puts you in front of people or behind the scenes, it is important to achieving the goal we have been called to accomplish.

For the rest of today’s article, I’d like to view the purpose of the work we see taking pace here in chapter three.

Man’s Ultimate Purpose

The big question is why am I here? What is my purpose in life? To those who reject Christ, their purpose has to be self-fulfillment. We see it all around us. The various acts of selfishness – from selfish acts of hoarding resources to the selfish act of abortion-on-demand – mankind is just so “ME” oriented. Some in the church have bought into the empty philosophy of the world and created little social cubs called a “church”. Sadly this will always fail because it builds on the shifting foundation of man.

What we need to do is build on the rock foundation of Christ.

But what does that mean for man’s purpose in life. What should we do?

If we truly are God oriented then we will seek to bring Him glory rather than serve our appetites. Instead of being “ME” oriented, I need to be “HE” oriented. If I am oriented towards God, then I will seek to glorify Him and not me. Understanding this is of paramount importance if we are to serve God with a pure heart and pure motives. If my ultimate aim is to glorify God, then the way that comes about – my job or your job – isn’t as important as the goal.

 If I am focused on glorifying God, then I can see my part – whether big or small – as integral to the mission.

So what the purpose of Nehemiah’s work? Lets take a look.

 

The Purpose of the Work

Nehemiah was able to build his team around a central rallying point. He pointed them to the purpose of the work – the glory of God. They weren’t just working on walls, they were worshipping their worthy God. The workers were discourage about the conditions of the city and disgraced in the presence of their enemies. It was difficult for them to sing out the truth of Psalm 48:2, which describes Jerusalem as “beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth.” They probably longed to see God’s city regain its splendor and be a showplace for God for all the nations to see. They were concerned with God’s glory, not the nature of their work.

We can easily see the rallying cry of Nehemiah – the central purpose of the work at hand – was to glorify God. The priority was on God, not them.

Take a look at verse 1:

Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel Nehemiah 3:1 NASB

We could easily classify this as placing the priority on God and not themselves. Why? Well, close to the wall’s northeast corner, the Sheep Gate provided easy access to the Temple. The reason for the name of this gate is because the sheep used in the worship of God entered through this gate. do you see their priority? It was as if they were saying “Take care of God first, then we’ll think of ourselves. They established that God is central to their mission and their life together as a people. It’s another way of saying, “Put God first.” Close to the wall’s northeast corner, this gate provided easy access to the Temple, and was given this name because of all the sheep that entered through it to be sacrificed. By beginning here, Nehemiah is establishing that their relationship with God was central. This was the most important place to start.

The purpose of all ministry, and really of life itself is the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 puts it succinctly: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” In your life, are you doing everything to the glory of God? Are you looking to draw attention to Him or to yourself? Do you see your part of kingdom work important to be viewed and approved of by others or do you seek to bring glory to God?

God is not so interested in your part of ministry – your part in kingdom work as much as He is interested in the learning of your heart to bring glory to Him.

Next week we’ll continue in chapter three and see some important principles we must follow as we work together to bring Glory to God.

baldtheologian Nehemiah: When Fear collides with Faith

Seeing beyond the Rubble

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In the mid 1970’s my parents bought a house in my hometown. We had lived on our street for a number of years and in two different houses. The house we were renting at the time was a two-story house with a bit of land. The house my dad was interested in buying was also a two-story house with a bit more land than what we currently had. Sounds good, right? Well what I have yet to tell you is that the condition of the house and land. It was…well, it was in bad shape. And by bad shape I mean really not good shape. It was really old, the grounds had been overgrown with weeds, briars, and other such things. I thought my dad had lost his mind. But the problem was that I was seeing the present condition and my dad was seeing the finished product. My dad saw beyond the rubble. So did Nehemiah. So does God.

We see the present situation while God sees the finished product.

We see spiritual things much like I saw that old house. We see the present situation while God sees the finished product. We need more than ever to see the finished product in spite of the present condition. Nehemiah did this when he saw the walls. He was able to communicate his vision of the finished product to those around him. Lets take a look at Nehemiah, the wall, and the people.

Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach.” I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they put their hands to the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard it, they mocked us and despised us and said, “What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” So I answered them and said to them, “The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem.”         – Nehemiah 2:17-20 NASB

 

Nehemiah was faced with a massive undertaking. The walls of Jerusalem had been toppled. The gates were burned. Complicating things was that Jerusalem was surrounded by folks who hated them. Nehemiah had to perform many tasks just to get to the point of beginning the rebuilding effort.

Recruiting

After replenishing his resources and assessing the need, Nehemiah now recruited workers in verse 17. In some way not mentioned in the narrative, Nehemiah gathered together a large group of prospective partners. Let’s look and see how he put his work force together:

First, he identifies with the workers: “Then I said to them, ‘You see the trouble we are in.” Nehemiah is passionately involved in the city’s welfare and feels its need as acutely as though he had been living in the desolate city all his life.

Next, he presents spiritual perspectives. They are in trouble – and its not just because Jerusalem is in ruins. He sees their spiritual disgrace. The sight of those collapsed walls for well over a century has created the impression in the pagan mind that the God of Israel has abandoned his people. He recognizes that there are always spiritual issues involved – a building project is more than just brick and mortar. As His people, we have to be aware of the spiritual opportunities and challenges as they present themselves to us.

Then, he invites immediate action. Everybody knows exactly what is required, “Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace,” and everyone realizes that the task must begin without further delay. Nehemiah is asking a lot of the people. He’s not afraid to ask them to step up to the plate. The sacrifices will be huge. They will have to take time off from work in order to rebuild the walls. Who will protect their families? Before people can respond they need to know that there is someone greater than Nehemiah behind this project.

 

Inspiring

That leads to the next task – Nehemiah inspired confidence in the people in verse 18. While rebuilding the walls is an important job, the central theme in the book is the sufficiency of God. His mind dwells on the greatness of God and he wants his workers to do the same.

Our growth is important, but the central thrust must be the sufficiency of God.

Listen to Nehemiah’s testimony: “I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me.” He didn’t reach Jerusalem because he was a skillful persuader, or because the queen was possibly a compliant helper, or because the king was a generous benefactor, but only because God was a sovereign provider. Since God had done all that, He would certainly help them to complete the task of rebuilding the walls.
By telling the people what God had already done, he was firing them up for what He was about to do. His appeal was positive as He focused on the glory and greatness of God. When you think about it, it’s amazing that the people said, “Let us start rebuilding.” Think about what they could have said. They could have been apathetic – they had been living in the rubble for a long time and could have just stayed there. They could have reminded Nehemiah that the Jews had “already tried that” before in Ezra 4 and were stopped by the authorities.
We often face those same two obstacles within the church. Either “we’re content with the way things are” or, “we tried that before and it didn’t work!”

  Someone has defined leadership as “the art of getting people to do what they ought to do because they want to do it.”   I want to do all I can to help us do the things we ought to do because we want to do them – because the gracious hand of our God is upon us.

 

Protecting

The fifth task comes almost immediately after the decision to make an impact takes place: He Handled opposition. Whenever we get serious about kingdom work, Satan will oppose us. The first two enemies have already been identified in verse 10. Now Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite are joined by Geshem the Arab. In verse 10, the opponents are “very much disturbed,” now this troublesome trio becomes highly vocal in their attacks on Nehemiah and his work crew.

Let’s look at their tactics:

First, they derided the efforts of the workers. Verse 19 says that they “mocked and ridiculed” them. Verbal onslaughts have always been part of the enemy’s demoralizing tactics. They laughed at the workers and belittled both their resources and their plans.

Next, they suggested that they were rebelling against the king – that weapon had worked once before in Ezra 4: “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” This was a cutting allegation to the timid workers.
I love how Nehemiah deals with these bad guys. He doesn’t answer their lies or engage in a conversation with them. Nor does he just ignore them. He first exalts the God who called him to do the work in verse 20: “The God of heaven will give us success.” He wasn’t concerned about their fictitious insinuations – he was concerned that God would get the glory in the project.

Whenever we get serious about kingdom work, Satan will oppose us.

 
Nehemiah wanted his people to know that God had everything in control. Even though Geshem controlled the southern approach to the city, and the other two thugs patrolled the north and east, Nehemiah was not ruffled. In his reply, he made three things clear:

· Rebuilding the wall was God’s work
· The Jews were God’s servants
· Their opponents had no part in the matter.

 

Involvement

The last part of verse 20 says it rather strongly: “We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.” Their opponents had no past right, not present prerogative to be there, and no future role in the city.
Let me just say that as believers we should expect spiritual opposition and even be thankful for it. It’s a sign that we’ve angered the enemy and encroached on some territory that He thinks is his. If there’s no conflict or opposition, then we’re probably not disturbing the enemy enough. Remember, Satan only shoots at moving targets!

Have you ever looked on a situation as hopeless? Have you ever been intimidated by the task ahead. Sometimes – perhaps oftentimes – we do this because we use only our eyes when looking at problems or issues. When we are faced with obstacles that look insurmountable, we need to see with God’s eyes as much as possible. We need to see beyond the struggle – beyond the problems – and see the goal, the finished product that God sees.

baldtheologian Nehemiah: When Fear collides with Faith

Treckin’ n Checkin’

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Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel. Nehemiah 2:9-10 NASB

 

Faith in Motion

Nehemiah, with the King’s approval, protection and with supplies in hand, begins his task. He begins by leaving the only home he has known for a land a good bit away. Lets not lose the significance of this. Nehemiah left all he knew in order to go somewhere he had never been in order to obey God. Wow. That is faith in motion.

Now we notice in v.9 that he met with some opposition. We know this because he gave the letters the King had given him so that he could have safe passage. When we journey according to God’s plan, we don’t always find that the road is paved and smooth. We also often find that there is opposition to what we are doing. But God always provides for us! Here, God provided for Nehemiah through the King who gave letters and some soldiers. For us, God gives us HIs protection through His plan for us.

No matter who opposes our journey into God’s will, when we are traveling with His letters, no one can deny our passage because God has already determined that we should pass. 

Enemies Arrive

Now we are introduced to the main nemeses of Nehemiah: Sanballat and Tobiah. We’ll get to know these two characters throughout tNehemiah’s work in and around Jerusalem. They were displeased with Nehemiah. In fact, as we will see later, this “displeasure” was more like hatred. Now why would anyone hate a man sent by the Kingt of Persia, protected by the King’s own letters and soldiers, ostensibly doing the King’s work. The King of persia was the mightiest King on earth at this time. Seems to me that people would get out of Nehemiah’s way and seek to help, not hurt him.

Well the answer is rather simple. Sanballat and Tobiah hated the sons of Israel. They hated them. Racism was alive and well all the way back in Nehemiah’s time. Scripture states they were displeased because Nehemiah had come to “seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.” Wow. Do we see that today? Well, yep we sure do. What did Nehemiah do? What should we do when faced with opposition? Lets take a look.

So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. And I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my mind to do for Jerusalem and there was no animal with me except the animal on which I was riding. So I went out at night by the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon’s Well and on to the Refuse Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were consumed by fire. Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was no place for my mount to pass. So I went up at night by the ravine and inspected the wall. Then I entered the Valley Gate again and returned. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; nor had I as yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials or the rest who did the work.                                                                   – Nehemiah 2:11-16 NASB

 

Chillaxing in the Rubble

The first thing Nehemiah did when he arrived at his destination was to take a break. Yep, that is what he did. Look at v. 11. When he arrived, he was there for three days before he did any evaluation of the wall or the work that lay ahead for himself and those with him. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he could appreciate why his brother Hanani was so bummed out. As he looked at the city’s shattered walls and useless gates, he was overwhelmed. But, before he could examine them more closely, there was a greater priority. Nehemiah needed a nap. The journey of four months took its toll on Nehemiah. Take a look at Ezra 8:32 – Ezra did the same thing when he arrived in Jerusalem.

Everyone needs to take a rest from time-to-time: Nehemiah in Jerusalem, Ezra in Jerusalem, Elijah needed rest under the juniper tree, and Jesus withdrew with his disciples for rest. We need to make sure we Chillax – rest and recuperate -on a regular basis. I know folks who think rest and relaxation is wrong. these folks work and work and work. They have no time for rest. Most of these folks have the mistaken idea that their worth in God’s sight is somehow diminished if they take some time off. How wrong can a person be! Take time off from time-to-time. If Nehemiah, Ezra, Elijah and Jesus all did it…well, lets just commit to chillaxing every once in awhile.

 

Scoping out the Situation

Nehemiah, after getting himself recharged by rest, takes a look at the situation he is facing. We see this in verses 12-16. Nehemiah knew that in order to lead this project, he would need a firsthand picture of what needed to be done. He then scoped out the damage to the walls one dark night. With the moonlight showing the mounds of broken stone and demolished gates, Nehemiah made some notes to himself. Seeing all this damage to Jerusalem had to be discouraging.

Look at what he found: broken walls, burned up gates, piles and piles of rubble, so much so that his mount could not pass through. Wow, that is some kind of rubble. Now he did this all at night, I think, so that others would not get discouraged. This is great leadership. The leader of the people must know the situation and formulate a plan in order to motivate those he leads.

We really need to pay attention to Nehemiah here and learn some great leadership: always know what your up against before you try to motivate others to join you.

 

– Nehemiah discovered this was going to be a demanding job. The wall would be at least a mile long and at least three to four feet thick and fifteen to twenty feet high. That is a lot of rock to move. Remember, no hydraulic lifts existed back then. My back aches just thinking about this.

– Nehemiah discovered the work was going to be dangerous. One reason he went was because Nehemiah knew there were enemies lurking about. If they saw him scoping out the damage during the day they may have attacked and tried to scatter his workforce. Nehemiah, knowing there was opposition, wisely chose to perform a recon mission under the cover of darkness.
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· Nehemiah discovered he couldn’t do this himself. This may go without saying, but i’m going to say it anyway: the work Nehemiah faced was monumental – and he could not do it by himself. He discovered that for sure when he surveyed the damage. I wonder what was flying through his mind as he saw the destruction all around him.

You know doing a work from God seems monumental sometimes. Sometimes it seems that the task is too big to be done. It can be discouraging to see how much needs to be done. But we need to know what we need to do to even embark on the work.

We should never be discouraged with the size of the task ahead, the opposition we encounter, or the danger involved. Why? Because our King – THE King of the universe – has given us His letter, His resources and His protection.

baldtheologian Nehemiah: When Fear collides with Faith

The Toolbox

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 God is the Master builder of our lives. We may help a bit, but He is the one who brings us the tools.

 

When I was in the Marine Corps many years ago, I remember a saying we had: the right tool for the job is the tool that does the job. This was a nod to the improvising the Marine Corps had to do just to survive. We rarely had what we needed so we would have to figure out a  way to use something else to get  a job done.

But life with God isn’t that way. And this is especially true when our fear collides with our faith. God has given us every tool necessary to build (or rebuild) our lives, either from the rubble of our sin. Now I have to emphasize that God is the Master builder of our lives. We may help a bit, but He is the one who brings us the tools, the blocks and the mortar to rebuild the broken down walls of our lives. He not only does that, but He takes us by the hand and rebuilds our wall, our hand in His.

Nehemiah’s fear could have led him to be timid. Instead he used the tools very effectively.

 

Tools in Nehemiah’s Toolbox

I like tools. But I have to be careful with them because I have been injured by some. I have burned myself with a soldering iron, cut myself with a jigsaw, smashed my thumb with a hammer and cut my knee open with a chainsaw…but this didn’t happen at the same time! Anyway, just like us now, Nehemiah had the right tools for the job. Lets take a look at Nehemiah’s toolbox in the Nehemiah 2:1-3 (this will continue in my next article as well).

And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, “Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?” Nehemiah 2:1-3 NASB

So what tools do we find in Nehemiah’s toolbox?

 

The Wrench of Waiting

The first tool Nehemiah used was the tool called waiting in verse 1. He was a man of decisive action, and when he prayed it was natural for him to ask God to provide an early, if not immediate, opportunity to speak to the king. Remember the closing verse in chapter one indicates that Nehemiah wanted success today in the presence of the king. But Nehemiah waited patiently on the Lord for an answer, just as we’re urged to do in Hebrews 6:12: “…imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what was promised.” Nehemiah could weep and pray and he could also wait and pray.

Why do I think Nehemiah had to wait? While we don’t know exactly when chapter one ended, we know when it began: the month of Chislev. That month roughly corresponds to our month of November/December. So I think it is safe to say that Nehemiah began his journey to Jerusalem in November/December. But what about when he approached the King? Well, in verse 1 the Bible states that it happened in the Month of Nisan. The month of Nisan corresponds roughly to our time of March/April. So Nehemiah waited for at least three months before he approached the king with this matter.  Did Nehemiah not see the King during this three month period? That is highly unlikely since Nehemiah was the King’s cupbearer. Although it is not stated here, I think Nehemiah waited on the nudging of the Lord before he approached the king.
Have you had to wait for God to answer a prayer? In Nehemiah’s prayer journal, nothing was entered for four months because nothing happened. Waiting time is not wasted time. Quiet reflection may have provided Nehemiah with fresh insight about how to approach the king. God wants each of us to get real familiar with this tool – we’re going to have to use it a lot.

The File of Faith

The second tool he fished out of his toolbox is faith in verses 2-3. Nehemiah was “sad” in the last part of verse 1. This word is used three other times to describe how he looked when he was in the presence of the king. The king asked him a question to find out why Nehemiah was not his chipper self. Nehemiah wigged out when Artaxerxes asked him this question because he knew the king only wanted to be around happy people. In verse 2, Nehemiah says that he was “very much afraid” which can  be translated, “a terrible fear came over me.”

I think he was very much afraid for at least two reasons. He knew that he was expected to be perfectly content just to be in the presence of the king. Subjects who were sad or melancholy around the king were usually executed for “raining on the king’s parade.” Second, he was about to ask the monarch of the Persian Empire to reverse a written policy he had made several years earlier about Jerusalem’s reconstruction. that is recoded in Ezra:

Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order. Ezra 4:21 NASB

Nehemiah knew it would take the power of God to get Artaxerxes to change his mind. I think I’d be afraid too. Here is the most powerful human being on the face of the planet. He wants only happy, happy, happy people around him. He is such a hard man that if your are anything but that happy, happy, happy person, he would execute you. Wow. That would cause some fear to creep into my life. How about you?

 

What are you afraid of this morning? Some of you might be afraid of the past. You’re worried that something you did long ago will catch up to you. Maybe you’re afraid of the present and find yourself crippled by the fear of people, snakes, or confined spaces. Others of you might be fearful about the future and even death.

Fear is a natural human emotion. To deny one’s fear is to deny one’s humanness. But though we experience fear, we must not succumb to it. Fear can paralyze us. It can make us not move forward with what God has for us. Fear can intimidate. Fear can be a real bummer! But what happens when our fear collides with our faith? Look at our example from Nehemiah.
Nehemiah’s faith was greater than his fear. He did the right thing because he believed the promises of God. Notice what happened, “I was very much afraid, but I said…” Instead of paralyzing him, fear propelled Nehemiah to action. Months of prayer had prepared him for these crucial minutes. Courage filled him when he realized it was no longer possible to hide his grief.

The Hammer of Honesty

Then, using wisdom, he affirms his boss by saying, “Long live the king!” He honestly explains why he was sad in verse 3:

“Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried                      lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” Nehemiah 2:3 NASB

Did you notice that Nehemiah never mentions the name of the city? Jerusalem’s history of independence might have turned the king’s thoughts toward questions of politics and national security. Instead of going political, he chose the personal route – that’s usually the better choice. What Nehemiah did say was, “I want to honor the burial place of my fathers.” This made a lot of sense to the King because the Persians honored their dead as well.

Nehemiah’s fear could have led him to be timid. Instead he used the tool of trusting very effectively. He wielded these tools effectively but doesn’t stop with these three. No, next week we’ll continue in Chapter Two and discover more tools in the toolbox we can use as our fear collides with our faith and we rebuild from the rubble that is our lives.

How are you doing using the tools God has given you to build the wall of your life? Are you using them effectively? At all? Do you even know you have these tools at your disposal? I sure hope so. While a stone mason can have all the knowledge in the world regarding his craft, that knowledge is useless if he doesn’t use his tools.

Nehemiah’s faith was greater than his fear, and propelled Nehemiah to action.

baldtheologian Nehemiah: When Fear collides with Faith

Laying Brick with Mortar and Prayer

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“Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you.”  –Martin Luther

 

We should never ask God to use us then make ourselves unavailable. If we do that, then our prayers are mere words, devoid of conviction. We should always present ourselves for God’s use to answer prayers if He chooses to so use us. That is what Nehemiah did here in chapter one. This attitude should permeate us in our sanctification.

Do you see the progression in Nehemiah’s prayer? His concern about the problem led him to brokenness. While he was weeping and fasting, he expressed his conviction about God’s character. As he focused on the greatness and awesomeness of His holy God, he was quickly reminded of his own wickedness and therefore cried out in confession. After owning his role in the nation’s depravity, he prayed boldly and with confidence in God’s promises. This then leads him to a commitment to get involved. We see this in verse 11:

“O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. I was cupbearer to the king.”

While Nehemiah was praying, his burden for Jerusalem became greater and his vision of what needed to be done became clearer. He didn’t pray for God to send someone else – he simply said, “Here am I, send me!” He knew that he would have to approach the king and request a 3-year leave of absence and so asked God for “success,” in his request to the king. He wanted to see God break out on his behalf when he goes in front of the king to make his request. Proverbs 21:1 states “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse where He pleases.” Nehemiah was committed to get involved and not just sit on the sidelines and lament the condition of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah was a different type of guy. We should be like him. He saw a problem with Jerusalem, was burdened by it, asked God to bless him with a plan, and then acted on the plan. How often do we follow these steps in our prayer time. Far too often we treat prayer as a one-way device: we summon God to listen to us but we fail to listen to Him. We lay our requests at His feet and then walk away. Instead of waiting and listening, we just move on as if God is constrained to do as we please.

God is not at our call. We are at His.

And this is how we should approach our responsibility in our progressive sanctification. As we saw in the last article, God has promised to fully sanctify every person He calls to salvation. We can count on His promise to do that. But we do have a responsibility to participate in our sanctification. God’s plan for each of us may vary greatly. The trials we face may be different – well, they WILL be different. Their difference may be in the nature, depth, intensity, or length of the trial. But there will be differences. All trials make us more like Christ and we need to embrace them fully…wait, I’m getting ahead of myself!

In our prayer life we must be willing to commit to God’s plan for our sanctification, rely on His promises, be very honest with God, understand our problem and ask God to bless us with a plan rather than for Him to bless our plan.

Where are you in this prayer process right now? Are you concerned about your requests? Do you have a conviction about God’s holy character? Are you ready to confess your sins? Do you have confidence in God’s promises? Are you ready to make a commitment to get involved in God’s kingdom work?

The walls of our lives have been toppled by our sin nature, deafness to God’s voice, selfishness, and arrogance. We are confronted with only two choices now:

1. To learn to live in the rubble of our lives

2. To be bold enough to admit our sins, ask God for His plan for our sanctification, and then commit to be  involved in that plan.

Which way are you going to proceed? The choice you make will affect you in a monumental way.

baldtheologian Nehemiah: When Fear collides with Faith

Promises, Promises

nehemiah wall_final

 

If God said it in His Word, you can believe it and rely on it.

 

While Nehemiah spends time in broken confession in vs 6-7, he doesn’t wallow in a prolonged introspective examination of his failures and those of his brothers and sisters. He owns what he did wrong and then he quickly expresses confidence in God’s promises in verses 8-10:

“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and mighty hand.” Nehemiah 1:6-7 NASB

 

The Promises

In this part of his prayer, Nehemiah recalls the words of Moses about the danger of Israel’s apostasy and the promise of divine mercy. His words are a skillful mosaic of great Old Testament warnings and promises, with quotes coming from Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles and Psalm 130. What was the promise Nehemiah was getting at? It was twofold. First, if Israel disobeyed, they would be sent to a foreign land. That had been fulfilled. The second part was that when the captivity was over God would send them back to Jerusalem. They were still waiting for that to be fulfilled. Nehemiah prayed, “Lord, the first part is true. We’ve disobeyed and we’re in captivity. But Lord, you’ve made a promise to bring us back home and protect us there – and that has not happened yet.”

 

The Confidence

Nehemiah is saying that since God kept His promise to scatter Israel because of he apostasy, he has confidence that Israel will be regathered because God promised to do that when Israel repented. So Nehemiah is expressing utmost confidence not only in God’s promises but also in God’s character. If Nehemiah doubted God’s character he would not have prayed the way he did.

But what about us? How does God’s promises to His people Israel relate to the Church today, who is not Israel?

 

The Principle

The principle here is that God keeps His promises when He makes them regardless of the passage of time. Take a look at one of my favorite promises of God found in Romans 8:

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

 

There is great comfort in knowing that the God who makes that promise to me is the One who will keep that promise to me.One day I will be glorified – made perfect – based on what God said through Paul in Romans 8. “How can you be so sure Mr. Bald Theologian?” you may ask.

In Romans 8:28-30, all those things God talks about – HE “called..justified…glorified” are in the aorist tense in Greek. The aorist is the simple past tense. So if I’m not yet glorified (and who among us is!), then why did Paul use a simple past tense here? Well, it is a grammatical thing with Greek. When one wants to guarantee that a future event is going to happen, one uses the simple past tense. This use is called a “proleptic aorist” or “futuristic use of the aorist”.

Since our glorification is yet future and Paul – under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit – uses a past tense to describe it, we can be sure that we will be glorified one day. He who started a work in you will make sure it comes to completion.

 If God said it in His Word, you can believe it and rely on it.

The Conclusion 

Someone has calculated that there are over 7,000 promises in the Bible. The better we know the Word of God, the better we’ll be able to pray with confidence in God’s promises. 1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” Are you as confident of God’s promises as Nehemiah was?

Nehemiah knew God would keep His covenant of love with his people. He also knew that, even though God did not need his help, he was ready to make a commitment to get involved.  So how about us? Do we care about the problems facing the Church today? Are we too fearful to even be aware of these issues? Do we simply ignore these things? Are we aware enough to care? And if we are aware enough to care, do we rely on God’s promises?

You know, when we rely on His promises we honor Him because we are stating quite clearly that our God is of perfect integrity. We honor Him by trusting Him with our fears, our hopes, and our dreams.

baldtheologian Nehemiah: When Fear collides with Faith

Measure Twice, Cut Once

nehemiah wall_final

Nehemiah was broken over the complacency of the people of Jerusalem. They were living in ruins and they accepted it. They were willing to walk around the devastation instead of being concerned enough to do something about their situation.

  

I measure for a living. Yes, people get paid to do that. We’re called Metrologists. We love to measure, to understand how uncertain we are about a measurement. We actually have conferences where bunches of us get together to discuss our measurement issues. Slide rules, scientific calculators, calculus, strange words…It is a regular Nerd-a-palooza! It may sound like strange career, but it is a rewarding one. I’ve been doing this for the past 32 years of my life. I can measure. Well most of the time I can measure.

My dad could build anything out of nearly nothing. He could take scrap lumber and make the Taj Mahal. He was THAT good. Unfortunately that part of him skipped me. I can build stuff but not nearly on the scale or precision that my dad could build. He tried to teach me but it really didn’t stick to well. One thing he taught me that should have stuck but didn’t was the adage “Measure twice, cut once.” The idea behind that is to be sure BEFORE you cut that you want to cut at that point. I should put that into practice sometime.

There is a spiritual aspect to “Measure twice, cut once” that I think is overlooked far too often. It has to do with prayer. So often we rush into prayer for things we have no knowledge of. Now I realize that there are times when we can’t have a lot of knowledge. My thoughts drift to the persecution of the Church in certain parts of the world. We can’t know what exactly is going on but we know we need to pray. But here is the point: we do know SOMETHING about the situation. How often have you prayed without really being burdened about what you are praying about? Have you ever just said some words without a real burden for the reason for your prayer. Yeah, me too. So what is the cure for this lackadaisical attitude towards prayer? Lets take a look at someone and learn from him the importance of being burdened and how being burdened actually positively affects our prayer life.

In Nehemiah we see a wonderful example of a person who had this correct. He didn’t just jump to prayer – vainly reciting words about things for which he wasn’t concerned. No, as we will see today, Nehemiah, before he prayed, would know the situation so well that he would be burdened for that situation. It was out of that burden that Nehemiah’s prayers – and actions – would flow.

 

These are the words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: It so happened that in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year,   I was in Susa   the citadel. 1:2 Hanani, who was one of my relatives,  along with some of the men from Judah, came to me,  and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem. 1:3 They said to me, “The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable  adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!” 1:4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly,  crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 

So who is this Nehemiah guy?

We know from verse 11 that Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king. As cupbearer Nehemiah had a great job: he had intimate access to royalty, political standing, and a place to live in the palace. It was a cushy job that provided everything he needed. And yet, when one of his brothers returned from a road trip to Jerusalem, verse 2 says that Nehemiah “questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.” The word, “question” means “to inquire or demand” an answer. Nehemiah was greatly concerned about what  was happening in Jerusalem. He could have insulated himself if he chose to, but he didn’t. He sought them out and wanted to hear the first-hand report. You see Nehemiah was concerned about the problems in Jerusalem.

This is an important starting point. It’s so easy for us to stay not involved and unaware. Some of us don’t want to even think about stuff that’s going on in our own lives much less the lives of others in the Church. Even though Nehemiah had never been to Jerusalem, he had heard stories about it, and knew that his ancestors had been led away in chains when Babylon destroyed it. He was doing what Jeremiah 51:50 instructed the exiles to do: “…Remember the Lord in a distant land, and think on Jerusalem.”

As he thought on Jerusalem, he listened to the report in verse 3 that the survivors were in great trouble and disgrace, that the wall of Jerusalem was in shambles and that its gates had been burned with fire. As he tried to imagine the shame in the city of David, he could barely stand it. The phrase, “great trouble” meant that the people had “broken down and were falling to pieces.” Three words summarize the bad news: remnant, ruin, and reproach.

Nehemiah was broken over the complacency of the people of Jerusalem. They were living in ruins and they accepted it. They were willing to walk around the devastation instead of being concerned enough to do something about their situation.

Friends, nothing is ever going to change in your life, in the life of the church, or for that matter, our nation, until we become concerned about the problem. Some of us have become complacent about the way our lives are going. We’re living with rubble and it doesn’t even bother us any more. We don’t care to pray about our situation. And when we do pray, those prayers lack urgency and passion How sad. When we become so unconcerned with the state of our sanctification that we don’t engage it anymore, we are truly getting a little too comfortable in the rubble of life. This should never be!

Think about this for a moment: have we lost the walls that once surrounded our lives? I’m not speaking about the protective wall God places around us. No I’m talking about the walls that hem in our actions  – the walls that keep us away from the things that we should avoid, and in the things we should be in. How are you doing here? Are you reading things you shouldn’t read? Are you looking at things that that are impure? We do not need to experience immorality to say immorality is wrong.

When Nehemiah heard this report, he hit the ground and began to weep in verse 4,  much like Jesus did when he cried out in painful tears when he observed the hard hearts of those in Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). He also fasted. These are all signs of humility and show his deep concern for the problem of the desolation of Jerusalem.

Are you deeply concerned with your closeness to Christ? Or are you too comfortable in the rubble of your life? Have you taken steps to be more intimate with your Savior? Before you DO anything, pray. You know, its really hard to be intimate with someone when you rarely talk to that person.

Take time to be holy…take time to pray. 

 

 

baldtheologian Nehemiah: When Fear collides with Faith

Fear-n-Faith

 

The Church – not a local expression of it but the universal one true Church – must lock arms and get to work together. We must move forward in both sharing our faith and expressing our faith in ever-increasingly hostile environments.

 

 

 

Fear

Have you ever been afraid? Have you ever feared doing something? I’m not talking abut a fear of heights or a fear of swimming with crocodiles. No, I’m talking abut a fear of answering a call God has on your life. Perhaps that call involves moving somewhere you’re not familiar with or taking a job that you feel you don’t fully understand. You know what I’m talking about: fear of the unknown.

 

Faith

But what about your faith? Shouldn’t that override your fear? Well, yes it should. But sometimes engaging our faith in a time of fear is difficult. We don’t know what that looks like so we often times just give in to fear and wait longer than we should. So what doe it look like when my fear of the unknown (whether it is a job, a call, or where I live or what I do) intersects with my faith in an all-knowing, all-good God? Hmmmm.

 

Fear and Faith

I’m beginning a series of devotionals from the book of Nehemiah. I’ve wanted to do this for some time but kept putting it off for some reason. I’ll blame it on the winter blues. With the first day of spring (in the Northern Hemisphere) fast approaching, I figured I’d better get off my you-know-what and get to writing this devotion. So beginning Monday March 23, 2015, I will begin publishing my devotions from Nehemiah. I hope you profit from my observations. This week I’m focusing on introducing you to the book of Nehemiah and the series of devotionals coming up in the next few weeks and months.

 

nehemiah wall_final

 

The book of Nehemiah is actually titled Ezra-Nehemiah in the Hebrew canon. This is because the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are seen as one in the Hebrew canon. They were first divided in 1448 when a Hebrew manuscript first divided them. Since then that division has been the norm.

 

Nehemiah means “YHWH comforts” and was authored by – you guessed it – Nehemiah! Now there is the possibility that another chronicler worked on this book as well but the majority of the writing belongs to Nehemiah since the vast majority of Nehemiah is in the first person. Ezra appears to have combined his work with Nehemiah’s. Another possibility is the chronicler may have combined Ezra and Nehemiah into one work at a later (but not much later) date. Speaking of dates, the date of writing for Nehemiah is sometime around 433 – 400 BC.

 

Purpose(s)

From reading the book of Nehemiah, one comes away with multiple purposes for the book. Among these purposes is the historical one of providing a record of the reconstruction of the destroyed city of Jerusalem to the spiritual one of emphasizing of covenant renewal in the restored community in Jerusalem. While there are more purposes we can find in the book of Nehemiah, I want to focus on these two for various reasons.

 

The first reason is to demonstrate God’s faithfulness to His word. We’ll see this early in Nehemiah when Nehemiah recalls the promise of God to restore His people to the Promised Land. The second reason is to demonstrate that even through severe trials God’s plan is always good regardless of the obstacles in the way. The third reason I want to focus on the above two purposes of Nehemiah is because of thir direct application to us today. We need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness in the past as we navigate the treacherous waters of the present and future.

 

Application

I think the title of this series gives away my application of this book: what happens when my fear collides with my faith. Throughout the individual devotions I hope to provide a practical application to what we have just learned. I hope those applications will provide you with encouragement to face the ever increasing difficulties of life in general.

As we stand on and for our faith, we must realize that opposition to us and our faith is mounting. We are facing difficulties now and will continue to face them in the future. The Church – not a local expression of it but the universal one true Church – must lock arms and get to work together. We must move forward in both sharing our faith and expressing our faith in ever-increasingly hostile environments.

I hope you enjoy this series. But more importantly I hope you both profit from and are encouraged by the observation I make. To God be all the glory!

baldtheologian Habits of the Holy

Prayin’ in the Rubble

“we must make prayer our

first course of action rather

than our action of last resort”

 

I remember reading a bumper sticker once. It sounded so spiritual and good. It said “When all else fails, PRAY!” That sounds good doesn’t it? So, when we’re at the end of our rope, we pray. I mean, what else do we have to lose? But is this the right attitude? IF we wait until there is no other way out, is prayer in its proper place? I don’t think so. When confronted with life—meaning each day, every day, no matter the situation  —we must make prayer our first course of action rather than our action of last resort. In other words, am I concerned enough about being holy to pray first?

 

In Nehemiah we see a wonderful example of a person who had this correct. We’ll continue on for the next few posts looking at prayer in Nehemiah 1. By the end of this look at Nehemiah, we should have a handle on having an effective prayer life. Now, on to Nehemiah!

So who is this Nehemiah guy?

We know from verse 11 that Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king. As cupbearer Nehemiah had a great job: he had intimate access to royalty, political standing, and a place to live in the palace. It was a cushy job that provided everything he needed. And yet, when one of his brothers returned from a road trip to Jerusalem, verse 2 says that Nehemiah “questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.” The word, “question” means “to inquire or demand” an answer. Nehemiah was greatly concerned about what  was happening in Jerusalem. He could have insulated himself if he chose to, but he didn’t. He sought them out and wanted to hear the first-hand report. You see Nehemiah was concerned about the problems  in Jerusalem.

This is an important starting point. It’s so easy for us to stay uninvolved and unaware. Some of us don’t want to even think about stuff that’s going on in our own lives. Even though Nehemiah had never been to Jerusalem, he had heard stories about it, and knew that his ancestors had been led away in chains when Babylon destroyed it. He was doing what Jeremiah 51:50 instructed the exiles to do: “…Remember the Lord in a distant land, and think on Jerusalem.”

As he thought on Jerusalem, he listened to the report in verse 3 that the survivors were in great trouble and disgrace, that the wall of Jerusalem was in shambles and that its gates had been burned with fire. As he tried to imagine the shame in the city of David, he could barely stand it. The phrase, “great trouble” meant that the people had “broken down and were falling to pieces.” Three words summarize the bad news: remnant, ruin, and reproach.

Nehemiah was broken over the complacency of the people of Jerusalem. They were living in ruins and they accepted it. They were willing to walk around the devastation instead of being concerned enough to do something about their situation.

Friends, nothing is ever going to change in your life, in the life of the church, or for that matter, our nation, until we become concerned about the problem. Some of us have become complacent about the way our lives are going. We’re living with rubble and it doesn’t even bother us any more. How sad. When we become so unconcerned with the state of our sanctification that we don’t engage it anymore, we are truly getting a little too comfortable in the rubble of life.

Think about this for a moment: have we lost the walls that once surrounded our lives? I’m not speaking about the protective wall God places around us. No I’m talking about the walls that hem in our actions  – the walls that keep us away from the things that we should avoid, and in the things we should be in. How are you doing here? Are you reading things you shouldn’t read? Are you looking at things that that are impure? We do not need to experience immorality to say immorality is wrong.

When Nehemiah heard this report, he hit the ground and began to weep in verse 4,  much like Jesus did when he cried out in painful tears when he observed the hard hearts of those in Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). He also fasted.  These are all signs of humility and show his deep concern for the problem of the desolation of Jerusalem.

Are you deeply concerned with your closeness to Christ? Or are you too comfortable in the rubble of your life? Have you taken steps to be more intimate with your Savior? Before you DO anything, pray. You know, its really hard to be intimate with someone when you rarely talk to that person.

Take time to be holy…take time to pray.