Nehemiah 1:1-11
Nehemiah Prays for His People
1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.
It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, 2 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. 3 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.”
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.
5 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, 6 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, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ’If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; 9 but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’ 10 Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. 11 O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
For I was the king’s cupbearer.
Nehemiah, meaning ‘Comfort of Yahweh,’ was a contemporary of Ezra and offers a different perspective on the events of the return of God’s people to rebuild Jerusalem. It begins as he was in Shushan (Susa), the winter residence of Persian kings, and heard from a fellow countryman who was just in Judah and Nehemiah asked for news about the Jews who survived captivity and were in Jerusalem now. The man Hanani told of the trying times of adversity of their distress and taunting shame of the people and the broken down city walls as a testimony against God’s people in their previous defeat and exile to Babylon. Nehemiah was broken by the news and prayed fervently with extremely sorrowful tears as he fasted and sought answers from the God of heaven. He prayed for the great and awesome God to remember His covenant with His people and to continue to show more mercy as they tried to keep His word through all these calamities. He begged God to be attentive to his heart request and see what the people suffered and how His name was left low among the onlookers for the destruction of the city because of their corporate sins of rejecting Him for dead gods of man’s creation instead of worshipping and obeying the living Creator who made all things. Nehemiah sought comfort of Yahweh in spite of their failure to keep His word as delivered to them through Moses and reminded himself as he spoke as if to God to remember the promises of curses for disobedience and blessings for repentance to keep His commandments once more. He spoke of how God said that even if they were exiled to the far corners of the earth that He promised to gather them back together where His name dwelt in the house in Jerusalem that Je chose to meet with them and accept their atoning sacrifices there. He offered himself and his people to be redeemed by God’s great power and omnipotent hand and asked Him to hear his prayer along with the others who also feared His name that they might be shown mercy as a witness of God’s grace and promises fulfilled and success for him before the king to allow his return to help restore what was broken by sin in Jerusalem. He prayed to catch God’s ear of grace to allow him to be part of that work of the kingdom of God restored in the place God had set aside for worship and atoning sacrifices of grace. May we who are in Christ also pray to catch God’s ear of grace in being effective to build God’s house (1 Corinthians 3:10, 1 Peter 2:5) in the grace promised through the gospel that redeems us from the bondage of sin that exiles us from God from birth as we inherited from Adam and are returned through repentance and faith to be worthy in the Son’s righteousness alone to worship the Father in the power of His Spirit in us. The comfort of Yahweh is in His Son who builds the house of worship from those exiled by sin and held in bondage until released forever by Him to build a house of worship which we are, founded on the solid foundation (Isaiah 28:16, Matthew 7:24, 1 Corinthians 3:11, Ephesians 2:20, 2 Timothy 2:19) of Christ by we who are known by Him and promised much, being delivered out of the enslavement of the world and brought into His presence of grace to worship as we promise in return to choose to live in holiness in honor and worship of our Lord.
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