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Delete Discussion Intro:
1. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome – better known as AIDS. It is a disease that causes “an inability in the body’s immune system to ward off infections.” It was first brought to National attention in 1978, and is now at epidemic proportions.
In 1990 there was an estimated 8 million people with AIDS, today there are an estimated 38 million people with this incurable disease! There have been more then 25 million who have died of the disease since 1981. There was 2.0 million deaths in 2007 alone.
2. Now there is spiritual AIDS going on among God’s people – an inability to fight off spiritual infections. Many believers have allowed their spiritual immune system to be so broken down that they are defenseless against sin, self, and satanic attacks.
3. The need for Rebuilding our Broken Lives.
Trans: “The Jewish people had been taken into the Babylonian captivity and had been captive to Babylon for 70 years. Then in 530 BC the armies of Persia broke the Babylonian supremacy, and the king of Persia released the Jews and encouraged them to return to Jerusalem. Soon some 50,000 Israelites did return and began to reconstruct the demolished Temple.
But they soon became discouraged by opposition from the people who had settled there during the captivity. They abandoned their task with only the foundation having been built.
A few years later, Haggai and Zechariah appeared on the scene, and point out the people neglect, and challenged them to finish the job. This they did 20 years after their return.
Sixty more years passed, and under Ezra’s leadership more of the Jews returned to Jerusalem. Although the Temple had been rebuilt, the walls of the city were in shambles and the gates burned. It was then that God prepared Nehemiah and called him into service during the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.”
Nehemiah 1:1-3 (NKJV)
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."
I. First, we have a Person. 1:1a
A. His Biography.
Nehemiah – the name Nehemiah means “Yahweh has comforted” and occurs some 8 times in the Bible.
Personal name meaning “Yah comforts or encourages” and name of OT book featuring work of Nehemiah. 1. Leader who was among the first to return with Zerubbabel from exile to Judah in about 538 B.C. (Ezra 2:2; Neh. 7:7). 2. Son of Azbuk, “the ruler of the half part of Bethzur” (Neh. 3:16), one who helped Nehemiah son of Hachaliah with rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. 3. Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah, is the main character in the book that bears his name. He was a contemporary of Ezra and Malachi, Socrates in Greece (470-339 B.C.), and only a few decades later than Gautama Buddha in India (560-480 B.C.) and Confucius in China (551-479 B.C.). Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah (Neh. 1:1)
1. He was the main Character in the Book of Nehemiah.
2. He was the Cupbearer for Artaxerxes Longimanus, the king of Persia (1:11)
3. He was Called to return to Jerusalem, to rebuild the city walls, and was appointed governor of Judah (8:9; 10:1; 12:26).
4. He Challenged God’s people to spiritual renewal.
5. He Concluded his assigned task and then after 12 years returned to Persia (Neh. 13:6)
6. He was eventually Commissioned to go back to Jerusalem where he established needed reforms. (13:6-30)
B. His Family.
the son of Hachaliah – we no nothing about him except for his name (10:1).
Hanani – 7:2 was Nehemiah’s brother, and would be given the duty of governor of Jerusalem.
II. Furthermore, we have the Time and Place. 1b
A. The month of Chislev corresponds to our Nov-Dec.
B. The B.C., year is 445 B.C., the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus I. This is the 20th year of Artaxerxes reign (Neh.2:1). This was 13 years after same king sent Ezra to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:7).
“Artaxerxes I reigned 40 years over Persia, with his reign beginning about 465 BC. This would date the book of Nehemiah at about 445 BC. He was the 6th king to rule Persia since the fall of Babylon to the Persians. Cyrus was the first king. He was followed by Cambyses, Smerdis, Darius I, Xerxes [the Ahasuerus of Esther], and then by Artaxerxes I. Under these Persian kings, some Jews who had been under the Babylonian rule were permitted to return to Israel and reestablish a Jewish settlement.
The first group to return to Israel came about 536 BC under the leadership of Zerubbabel, who led them in building a new Temple at Jerusalem to replace Solomon’s great Temple which had been destroyed by the Babylonians (2 Ki. 25:9).
Then about 75 years after the first group returned, and about 13 years before our text, Ezra lead another group of Jews back to the land and began his ministry there which extended into the time of Nehemiah.” [Butler]
C. The City.
as I was in Shushan – also called Susa. It was located about 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf, in the present day Iran; 250 miles east of ancient Babylon, and 275 miles southeast of modern Baghdad of Iraq.
D. The Citadel.
A fortified palace, what we might call a castle…
“It was first attested as the capital of Elam, in Nehemiah’s day it was reconstructed by the Persian King Darius, and then by Artaxerxes I, Nehemiah’s own contemporary. The citadel refers, most likely, to a castle or stronghold in the city where the king could enjoy protection and security.” [CBL]
Trans: “God put Nehemiah in Shushan, just as, He had put Esther there a generation before; just as, He had put Joseph in Egypt; and Daniel in Babylon. When God wants to accomplish a work, He always prepares His works and puts them in the right place, at the right time.” [Wiersbe]
In 1945 at a General Electric laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut was assigned the task of trying to create synthetic rubber. One day he combined boric acid with silicone oil. The result was weird type substance – it bounced, stretched, could be broken with a hammer.
It was amusing but of no practical value, so it was basically set aside. Some years passed and a marketing man named Peter Hodgson saw a group of adults playing with the stuff at a cocktail party. He was putting together a mail order catalog for a toy store, and decided to include it – he called it “nutty putty.” It outsold everything in the catalog but the crayons
He brought $147 dollars worth from General Electric, and packaged it in little plastic eggs, called it silly putty and within 5 years 32 million containers were sold worldwide. You may feel worthless nutty putty or silly putty, going no where fast, but God has his time-table! This coming week might be the very week God changes your life in a dramatic way…
III. Finally, the Problem. 1:2-3
A. The visit from his Relative. 2
That Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah – this was nearly a thousand mile trip, one way, without an automobile! It is estimated that the trip would take a least 4 months.
“This seemed like just another visit, but it turned out to be a turning point in Nehemiah’s life. It was just another day, when Moses went out to care for his sheep, but on that very day, he heard the Lord’s call and become a prophet; It was just an ordinary day when David was called home from shepherding his flock, but on that day, he was anointed king; It was just an ordinary day when Peter, Andrew, James, and John were mending their nets after a night of failure, but that was the day Jesus called them to become fishers of men. You never know what God has in store.”
B. The Request. 2
1. About his fellow Jews.
and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity – who had escaped is “remnant.”
The first group that returned with Zerubbabel happened about 75 yrs earlier, surely most of them had died by this time. So the focus is on their offspring, and the group that had come with Ezra some 13 years before this.
2. About Jerusalem.
concerning Jerusalem – David had conquered Jerusalem and made it the capital of Israel. It was the place where king Solomon built the Temple, and was and is the central focus of Israel. Psa.87:2-3; 137:5
Application Bible, “Nehemiah was concerned about Jerusalem because it was the Jews Holy City. As Judah’s capital city, it represented Jewish national identity, and it was blessed with God’s special presence in the Temple. Jewish history was connected with the city from the time of Abraham gifts to Melchizedek, king of Salem (Gen. 14:17-20), to the days when Solomon built the glorious Temple (I Ki. 7:51) and throughout the history of the kings. Nehemiah loved his homeland even though he had lived his whole life in Babylon.”
This will be the city of Jesus Christ’s reign during the Millennial Kingdom.
C. The Reproach. V. 3
1. The Size of the Jewish influence.
And he said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity…” – Centuries earlier Israel was a nation with a population in the millions. Now reduced to a small remnant of some 50,000 men (7:66-67). Deut. 28:62
2. The Status.
“…in the province” – no longer a mighty independent nation but a mere providence.
During the time of Esther, over 40 years before this, the providences in Persia numbered 127 (Est.1:1), now they were just one among many.
Ulysses S. Grant father was so convinced that his son would never amount to anything that instead of calling him Ulysses, he called him Useless! But that useless boy would one day become the President of the United States!
3. They were in bad Shape.
are their in great distress – this Hebrew word has a broad range of meaning, it denotes “evil, disaster, trouble, etc.” For example look how it is used in the book of Nehemiah, distress (1:2); disturbed (2:10); harm (6:2); evil (13:7,27); and disaster (13:18).
4. They were Scorned.
and reproach – this noun means “to reproach, to abuse, to revile, to taunt, to scorn.” The people who had settled there after the Jews were removed, did not appreciate them moving back. They opposed them greatly. Neh. 4:4/I Sam.17:26
5. The lack of Safety.
The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire – in ancient times the walls around a city gave the city its protection.
“New about the collapse of the walls could not refer to the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC, 140 years earlier, for surely Nehemiah was well aware of that catastrophe…That Nehemiah is merely lamenting the indifference of the Jews in leaving them unconstructed makes no sense. In fact, Ezra had returned to Jerusalem 13 years earlier and found the walls rebuilt in the days of the prophet Haggai and Zachariah (Ezra 4:12). In prayer Ezra made reference to the fact that they still stood in his time (Ezra 9:9). Hanani seems to be reporting on a recent destruction of the walls.” [CBL]
Charles Bridges, “A city without walls is used as an illustration of a person who does not control his passions well (Prov. 25:28). A person who does not control his passions well is an easy prey to the invader. Anyone may irritate and torment him…He yields himself to the first assault of his ungoverned passions, offering no resistance.”
“We need, through the brick and mortar of the Word of God, prayer, worship, and strong convictions to build spiritual and moral walls of great strength around our lives to keep our passions in check. But building such walls will, like the rebuilding of the walls in Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day, be much opposed; for the world seems bent on destroying all the walls that would keep passions in check.”
This is an honest evaluation of the situation – the problem with many of us is that we don’t take an honest look at our lives!
Reminds me of Johnny Kerr who was coach of the Chicago Bulls. They had lost 7 games in a row and were about to play the Boston Celtics. He said to Bob Boozer, “Go out and pretend you are the best scorer in the league.”
He then told Guy Rogers, “Guy, I want you to pretend you can run an offense better than any point guard who has ever played the game.” He said to Erwin Mueller, “Pretend that you are the best rebounding, shot-blocking, slam-dunking center in the game.”
That night they lost by 17 points to the Boston Celtics. After the game, the coach was pacing back and forth in the locker room, Erwin Mueller came up and put his arms around him and said, “Don’t worry about it coach, just pretend we won!”
God doesn’t want us to pretend; he wants us to face our falling short head on – and then run to Jesus Christ!
Con:
1. The very first step to rebuilding our broken wall is to realize that our walls are broken! Revival never comes to any person until they realize the dire need of it… Do we have spiritual AIDS?
2. Keith Green wrote:
“My eyes are dry,
My faith is old,
My heart is hard,
My prayers are cold,
And you know how I ought to be,
Alive to You, and dead to me.
Oh, what can be done for an old heart, like mine?
Soften it up, with oil and wine.
The oil is You,
Your Spirit of love.
Please wash me anew in the wind of Your love.”
Admitting our inner walls are broken down is not the solution – but it is the first step, because without this first step, we will never experience God’s cure.
Johnny Palmer Jr.
www.strugglingthruscriptures.ning.com
www.blogtalkradio.com/strugglingthruscriptures
