#1 in the Nehemiah series: Nehemiah Chapters 1-2
"Passing the Torch"
Castle Hills Christian Church: May 4, 2008
INTRODUCTION:
The picture on the screen shows the Olympic Torch being carried in Europe on its way to China. (The Olympic Flame or Olympic Torch is a symbol of the Olympic Games.[1] Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, when a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. The torch relay of modern times which transports the flame from Greece to the various designated sites of the games had no ancient precedent… (Source, Wikipedia))
This next picture shows the torch being passed from one athlete to another.
Today we’re looking at a part of the Bible that makes me think of the passing of a torch. In fact, it occurs to me that the Old Testament is one long account of torch passing. From Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Joseph and on to Moses to Joshua and so on through the Kings of united Israel: from Saul to David to Solomon and so on to the time of Jewish exile in Babylon. What we’re looking at today is passing of the torch from Ezra to Nehemiah.
You may remember that before Christmas we had a series on the short book of Ezra. The timeline for the events of Ezra and Nehemiah is as follows:
• The Fall of Babylon and beginning of the Reign of King Cyrus of the Medo-Persian empire over the area of Babylon was 539 b.c.
• The next year (538 b.c.) Cyrus allowed Sheshbazzar, prince of Judah, to take nearly 50,000 Jewish captives back to the Holy Land to repopulate it with God-fearing Jews wanting to recreate a nation dedicated to God’s law.
• The altar of sacrifice was completed in 537 b.c. (1 year after arrival)
• The temple was completed in 515 b.c. (23 years after the Jews re-established a homeland in Palestine)
• Ezra and about 3000 Jews arrived in Jerusalem to restore proper temple worship and adherence to the Law of God in 458 b.c. (about 80 years after the first group had arrived, and 57 years after completion of the temple.
• Nehemiah arrived in 445 b.c. to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (13 years after Ezra’s arrival there, and 92 years after the arrival of the first group under Shesbazzar.
92 years is enough lapse of time for a lot of torch passing to take place. This amounts to at least 4 or 5 generations in the lives of the Jews we are studying. All of us know what it means to pass the torch in life. Parents pass the torch to their children. When someone retires from a job, they pass the torch to the person that takes on their job. In the church, we pass the torch from one generation to the next. (At least, any congregation that survives and thrives must pass the torch on from one generation to another.)
Today I want to look at some lessons we can learn from Ezra and Nehemiah about the right way to pass the torch.
1. When you pass the torch
The time lapse between Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem and Nehemiah’s arrival is about 13 years. Ezra didn’t complain about this young upstart coming to take over plans in Jerusalem. When you pass the torch you have to be willing to LET GO!
• Let go of YOUR plan
When it’s time to pass the torch, it’s a common mistake to try to somehow pass the torch but still hold on to it and run along side (micro-manage) the new leader who is going to take your place. That’s something like the parent who fails to launch their child into adulthood by attempting to make all their decisions for them, and trying to protect them from the results of actions they take and decisions they make. In the end, the child becomes a cripple of a well intentioned parent.
This brings up the reason it is so necessary to be willing to pass the torch. Anyone who’s been around a while in the same place doing the same things is going to naturally run in to a problem. You get used to things the way they are. And eventually, you stop really SEEING the way things are.
In Jerusalem, they had lived without a WALL for 92 years. Some had decided that they could just make do without a wall and gates for protection. Never mind the fact that in that day fortified walls and strong gates were the main defense cities had against foreign aggression or marauding thieves.
It took fresh eyes to SEE what a problem this was. The long tenured folk were so used to it, they couldn’t get motivated to try to fix the problem.
The same kind of thing happens in any Church Congregation. That’s why new members are so important to the life of our church. It takes fresh eyes to be able to see things as they really are, and as newcomers would tend to see them. Old-timers get used to the status quo, and begin to ignore what ever has lost it’s luster. Things in Jerusalem were a huge mess! In fact the mess was so overwhelming many had assumed that what was broken could never hope to be fixed, so why pay attention to it any more. It took a man living 900 miles away who had never even visited Jerusalem during his lifetime, to bring a fresh perspective on what needed to be done by the citizens of Jerusalem.
You’ve got to expect some CHANGES when you pass the torch. And CHANGE is hard for anyone who’s been carrying a torch for a long time. It’s hard to see the new kid on the block grab that torch and take off down some road you didn’t even know was there!
What kind of attitude should you have when you pass the torch? Be happy!
• Be happy about GOD’S plan
It’s always been part of God’s plan that you would eventually pass that torch along. We need to keep looking at the BIG picture. You weren’t meant to work in that Career forever. You aren’t meant to be a parent forever (if you let go for a while you might get to be a Grandparent!) All of life comes in phases. Your jobs and ministries will change from one time to the next.
We aren’t working to build our OWN Kingdoms … we’re working together to build God’s Kingdom. And God’s plan is for the torch to pass from person to person and from generation to generation.
Don’t look back on what you did and think your work was somehow inferior, or a failure, just because it’s time to let the next person take charge. God is able to custom design the right person to fit the right situation for the right time, and then when their time is up, he is able to raise up a replacement, who is different from his predecessor, and will not do things exactly like his predecessor did, but for the new time, the new way done by the new person is just what the Master ordered. Organizations often turn corners and change their paradigm to fit a new era. That doesn’t mean that what happened before was wrong; it just means it is time to do it differently.
And keep in mind that when you pass along one torch, chances are God is about to ask you to take up the next torch!
Ezra did his part. He brought about 3,000 people out of exile into Jerusalem and finished the temple project. Now it was time for Nehemiah to take up the torch. The WAY Nehemiah took the torch can teach us a lot about what we need to do when we take the torch.
2. When you take up the torch
Here’s how the book of Nehemiah starts:
Nehemiah 1:1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, (Notice how historical this is. Our faith is not based on a bunch of “once upon a time” tales. We may not know much about the month of “Kislev”, but this story is based on actual people … just like you and me … who were used by God to do his work in real places at real times.)
2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.
3 They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
There were a lot of things Nehemiah could have done when he heard this report from his brother. He could have complained, “What’s wrong with the leaders back in Jerusalem? How can they let things get that bad? Somebody had better get down there right away and straighten up the mess they made!” That’s what a lot of people tend to do when they hear about a bad situation. They want to point fingers and blame someone. But Nehemiah was a humble man. Look at his reaction:
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. (You’ve heard the saying, “Don’t just sit there, DO something!” Well maybe we should follow Nehemiah’s example instead, “Don’t just do something, SIT there!”
…For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
• Be humble
Nehemiah’s prayer showed what a humble man he was. Instead of criticizing others, he confessed his own sins and the sins of his own family. That is the right preparation for taking up a torch!
Has God put some new ministry or responsibility on your heart? Don’t just reject the idea because it seems too big or hard for you. And on the other hand, don’t just jump into it. Do what Nehemiah did. Go to God in prayer. Make this decision an opportunity to draw closer to God and ask for his guidance.
Then take the next step Nehemiah took and SEEK CONFIRMATION.
• Seek confirmation
After days of prayer and fasting, Nehemiah gave God a way to confirm his calling to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. 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 the King." Then he explains in kind of an aside, Oh, by the way, I was the King’s cupbearer.
Cupbearer was more than holding the King’s cup. It was a position of great trust and responsibility. The cup bearer was, in essence, the king’s food taster. If someone tried to poison the King’s food, Nehemiah would be the first one to suffer a belly ache. The cup bearer for the king was someone like a chief butler, cook, wine steward, and advisor all rolled up into one job. The cup bearer was a trusted servant, who had great influence with the king. Nehemiah wasn’t about to leave his present responsibilities in order to chase after the dream God had put in his heart. But I’ve seen a lot of people make that kind of mistake.
I’ve seen people who were supporting a family quit their job before they had another job lined up. I’ve seen people move over and over from place to place to place, always chasing another dream. It’s like they keep grabbing torches prematurely and taking off with them only to run over the edge of a cliff. We need to be willing to take risks in order to do whatever God calls us to do. But there’s a difference between risk taking and foolish living.
You can avoid all kinds of mistakes simply by asking advice from someone older and wiser … or even younger and wiser. Give God a way to confirm that you really need to take up the torch before you grab it and run.
Nehemiah knew that if this was really God’s plan for him to travel to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls … then God could and would move the heart of the King to let him go. And that’s exactly what God did. Which brings us to the last lesson we’ll look at today.
After you’ve prayed about taking on a new task … and after you’ve given God a way to confirm that this really is His will for you … then it’s time to take the torch and run. But when you start running, WATCH YOUR STEP!
• Watch your step
Right after the King agreed to send Nehemiah on his way, we read this little tidbit. 2:10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.
Any time God gives you a new torch to carry, the very first thing you need to expect is OPPOSITION! Kind of like what happened in Europe and in Korea this year. (picture) People tried to put out the Olympic torch and actually broke out into riots.
You can count on it that opposition comes whenever we set out to build or rebuild God’s Kingdom. Satan is never content to give up ground to the opposition so he will build up his forces where ever he sees God making advances. He will either oppose directly or else infiltrate spies into enemy troops. His method is often to divide and conquer. In fact we can count on opposition for proof that God has a wonderful plan Satan hopes to corrupt or destroy.
That’s why we need to show the same kind of wisdom Nehemiah had. When you read the end of chapter 2 you’ll see that he went quietly into Jerusalem. He didn’t boast about what he was going to do. Instead he went at night to take inventory of the situation.
In the same way, when you take on a new task, don’t just dive in blindly. It’s smart to carefully assess the current situation. That way you understand where to start.
AFTER he’d done all his homework and had come up with a reasonable plan, THEN Nehemiah talked to the leaders of Israel and presented his plan. 17 Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace."
Notice he said, come, let US rebuild. Even though he was the one God chose to take up the torch, Nehemiah didn’t think he was some kind of one-man-show. Nehemiah was a good leader, which is why the King used him as his personal cup bearer. He revealed the extent of his leadership skills when he arrived in Jerusalem. He was a good delegator and organizer as well as a good motivator. His skills came in handy when he organized the building crews. And as this story unfolds, we will see what a truly great leader he turned out to be.
CONCLUSION:
Then we see the most important thing Nehemiah said: 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me.
They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work.
Carry your torch in a way that gives all the credit and glory to God. We do all we do for HIS honor, not our own…
Prayer
(Sermon #2 of this series from chapters 3-5 was written and preached by my associate, Ronnie Morgan. I preached sermons 3-6. Ed Skidmore)
