Introduction: The Book of Nehemiah is one that hasn’t been studied very often, as far as I know. There are some exceptions: Dr. Charles R. Swindoll wrote a book called “Hand Me Another Brick” a number of years ago, focusing on various aspects of Nehemiah’s life, times, and deeds. When I lived in Virginia, in the early 1980’s, one of the pastors in the area there had a series of radio broadcasts on Nehemiah.
These messages will focus on the prayers of Nehemiah himself, not so much on the deeds and other problems or challenges he faced. Speaking of challenges, Nehemiah had plenty of those to deal with during his time as governor of Jerusalem. Now let’s look at his first prayer.
Text: Nehemiah 1:1-11, KJV: 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, 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. 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.
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, 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: 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. 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. 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: 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. 10 Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. 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.
The Background
The Books of Nehemiah, Ezra, and a few others date from what’s called the “Post-Exilic” period of Israel’s history. Years before Nehemiah’s time, the Babylonians had conquered Jerusalem and carried most of the people to Babylon. Jeremiah chapters 39 and following give a detailed and graphic account of what happened during those days. Daniel and Ezekiel had ministered to Israel during those days, in Babylon as well as Persia. Then, Cyrus, king of Persia, made a proclamation where anyone from Israel who wanted to return could do so (Ezra 1).
It’s not certain when Nehemiah received word from Hanani and the others about the condition of Jerusalem. Apparently this was after one of the groups re-settled there but had found the walls still broken down and the gates still damaged by fire. Remember that the Babylonians had set fire to or burned about anything they could while wrecking Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39:1-10) after they had captured the city.
There is no further record of anything else Nehemiah and the others might have talked about, but one thing is for sure: Nehemiah was moved to pray, probably as never before, as well as mourn and even fast. The news about Jerusalem must have gone deep into his heart. Now he was going to share these concerns with the LORD Himself.
The First Prayer
No doubt, we could analyze the words of Nehemiah’s prayer in any number of ways. Some of it seems to reflect parts of Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9, mentioning God as great and either “terrible” or “dreadful (same Hebrew word, per https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3372.htm)” plus confessing personal and national sins.
There is also a plea in Nehemiah’s prayer for the LORD to remember His promise made in Deuteronomy 30 that, even if scattered to the four winds, so to speak, if Israel would repent, the LORD would restore them to the LORD’s chosen place. Nehemiah closed his first prayer by beseeching the LORD to hear and remember this prayer/
Nehemiah adds one detail at the end of verse 11, namely, that he was the “cupbearer” to the king. Among other things, this means Nehemiah had access to one of the most powerful men in the world at that time, and was trusted. This also means Nehemiah was at least somewhat familiar with the (inevitable?) bureaucracy in any government. All this would serve him well—and in the not too distant future!
After this prayer, Nehemiah doesn’t say much about what he did. But what he learned was something that weighed very heavily on his heart. For now, we have his first prayer, and notice he attacked nothing but the sins; asked for nothing but the LORD’s attention; and that, interestingly, appealed for mercy in the sight of “this man”.
The LORD was going to answer this prayer, and very shortly!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
