Introduction: The Book of Nehemiah has a number of Nehemiah’s prayers, but certainly not all. Some, like the first, were several verses long; others, a little shorter, and then there were a number of one-sentence prayers. This outline cites the half-dozen or so of these very brief, very terse, prayers; all given as a plea to God on Nehemiah’s behalf.
1 Sentence prayer #1:
Text: Nehemiah 5:19, KJV: 19Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.
Thoughts:
--He promoted reforms, such as outlawing the taking of usury (interest) on money loaned to fellow Jews. This was prohibited under the Law (Exodus 22:25, Deut. 23:19-20; Lev. 25:35-37) but some had done this anyway.
-- He never took advantage of anyone by purchasing his own land.
-- He had also been generous in providing food for over 150 people. Definitely a good example. Chances are, he knew that eventually he and his good deeds would be forgotten by people, so he prayed—using the knowledge of God he had at the time—that God would remember his deeds.
2 Sentence prayer #2:
Text, Nehemiah 6:9, KJV: 9 For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
Thoughts:
-- There’s another enemy in the mix: Geshem/Gashmu, an Arabian. Geshem and Sanballat sent Nehemiah a request to meet, which Nehemiah refused. Nehemiah realized they wanted to do “mischief” to him.
--This was repeated four times, and at try #5, Sanballat wrote a letter in which he accused Nehemiah of rebelling against the king!
-- The wall around Jerusalem was in place but the doors and gates had not yet been restored. Nehemiah wanted to make sure the work didn’t stop because for any reason.
--If anybody needed extra strength to stand up to all of that, it was certainly Nehemiah!
Sentence prayer #3
Text, Nehemiah 6:14, KJV: 14 My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.
--Tobiah and Sanballat never seemed to give up on attacking Nehemiah by at least one means or another. They seemed to hate Nehemiah from the moment he arrived in Jerusalem (see chapters 1 and 2)/ They hired a so-called prophet named Shemaiah to attempt to strike fear into Nehemiah’s heart. It didn’t work.
--Tobiah and Sanballat added a new wrinkle into their attack by recruiting Noadiah, a so-called prophetess, in order to put Nehemiah in fear.
--Nehemiah, let it be remembered, was not living under the teachings of Jesus in this age of grace. He lived under the Law of Moses and had every right to remember God’s promise to Abraham, “I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curseth thee (Genesis 12:9)”
Sentence prayer #4
Text, Nehemiah 13:14, KJV: 14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.
--Several things had taken place since Nehemiah had been called back to the king’s palace. He was now able to return to Jerusalem (verses 6-7).
--A number of Israelites had married women of other nations. This is also mentioned in the last few chapters of Ezra. The “mixed multitude (verse 3)” was then separated from Israel.
--Eliashib the priest had become allied with Tobiah. That was bad enough, but Eliashib had also converted part of the Temple’s storage chamber for various offerings into a warehouse for some, at least, of Tobiah’s property! Nehemiah gave command, got the area cleaned, and restored the place to hold the correct items.
--Nehemiah also found that the people were not bringing in tithes of produce, etc., to support the priests and Levites. He called the rulers together and told them what they were doing was wrong. Judah took the lead, it seems, by bringing in the tithes of grain and other things.
--A note of caution in Nehemiah’s prayer: he was aware that God could reward him for his “good deeds”. He was afraid that he might lose the reward for those good deeds. A parallel of this is written in 2 John, verse 8: “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.”
Sentence prayer #5
Text, Nehemiah 13:22, KJV: 22 And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy.
--There were still some issues affecting Jerusalem. One was that people were ignoring and outright breaking the Sabbath. Some trod grapes, others were handling various merchandise, and some people of Tyre had even brought fish to sell (one can imagine the smell of those fish!).
--Nehemiah contended with the nobles of Judah because they were allowing this to happen. Their response to Nehemiah’s words is not recorded.
--Even though it was the Sabbath, that didn’t stop merchants from camping near the city gates and wall. Nehemiah threatened them by “laying hands on them”. This term has various meanings: e.g, per Matthew Poole’s commentary, “I will punish you and take your goods (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/poole/nehemiah/13.htm); likewise, according to Benson (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/benson/nehemiah/13.htm); or, per Keil and Delitzch, “drive you away by force (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/benson/nehemiah/13.htm)”
--Nehemiah also commanded the Levites to cleanse themselves in order to keep the gates and sanctify the Sabbath day. Just what these duties entailed is not mentioned here but the Levites would have known exactly what to do, and when.
--The sentence prayer here speaks of Nehemiah’s longing for God to spare him “according to the greatness of thy mercy”.
Sentence prayer #6
Text, Nehemiah 13:29, KJV: 29 Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.
--Incredibly, Eliashib, was by now the high priest, but his grandson was son-in-law to Sanballat, the Horonite! This was adding insult to injury because of all the problems Sanballat had caused Nehemiah ever since Nehemiah had arrived from Persia.
--Verses 23-27 also list other problems affecting Jerusalem, if not all of returned Israel, such as intermarriage with foreign women (whose children didn’t speak Hebrew or Aramaic but the language of the mother)/ Nehemiah took some very direct action against the husbands/
--This sentence prayer asked God to remember them because “they have defiled the priesthood (by intermarriage with a non-Israelite)”. Even though Nehemiah was from the tribe of Judah, he knew the importance of a pure bloodline for the priests and Levites. Some priests could not trace their genealogy so they were removed from the priesthood (Neh. 7:63-65).
Sentence prayer #7
Text, Nehemiah 13:30-31, KJV: 30 Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business; 31 And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
--These last couple of verses serve as a summary of Nehemiah’s deeds as he supervised the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall.
--The “wood offering” was mentioned in Neh. 10:34. Wood was required for just about every, if not every, offering according to the Law (specifically Leviticus). Abraham had also brought wood, laying it on Isaac’s back, when Abraham was commanded to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. (see Genesis 22).
--“Firstfruits” might refer to the tithes of grain and other things mentioned in the text.
--This last prayer, as well, summarizes Nehemiah’s request to be remembered for the good that he had done. And, indeed, he did do a lot of good. We’re still reading about his deeds over two thousand years later!
Conclusion: Nehemiah may have wondered why he had been chosen to be the king’s cupbearer. At the least, he had acquired a working knowledge of government bureaucracy and who did what. He may not have known at the time, but this knowledge was a tremendous help later on. He also had developed a good reputation with the king—not everyone, clearly, could do this. When Nehemiah had a concern, the king listened, and allowed him to take care of it.
Not many of us will ever reach the level or heights that Nehemiah or other men and women achieved. Still, the God of Nehemiah is still the One And The Only God, the Only True God, and He gives each one of us the opportunity to do something for him.
May our prayer, like Nehemiah, be, “Remember me, O my God, for good”, too!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
