When The Going Gets Tough. Nehemiah 1
Jonathan Gardner
There was a song some time ago, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going….’. I’m not sure about the rest of the words, but the tune was catchy. But is does beg the question: What do we do when the going gets tough?
We all encounter problems or ‘challenges’. Maybe friends have let us down, or bad news arrives, maybe we’re about to be made redundant, or perhaps an illness strikes us or a loved one, a bereavement perhaps, or something else happens and we feel bewildered or helpless. It’s common to us all. If it hasn’t happened to you yet…it will. I’m not wishing the worst for you, but it is the world we live in. It’s a fallen world and calamity falls unequally. But fall, it does! Some time ago, it happened to Nehemiah.
You may ask yourself if it happened to him, and he lived several thousand years ago, how relevant is that to you and I? I would say that we can learn a lot from Nehemiah, and his Godly reaction to bad news.
(1) Problems! (Neh 1:3)
Nehemiah was a man of some importance. Very close to the King. He would have had a lot of influence. He would have been one of the King’s most trusted advisors. Living a comfortable life, many in his position would have rested on their laurels, thought that they had made it through their own efforts, but the Nehemiah we read about is a very humble, devout Believer. Someone who has his feet firmly on the ground.
It seems the ransacked walls of Jerusalem were being rebuilt. This would not only restore some pride in that once great city, but would have been of paramount importance to the remnants of those that had escaped exile – the wall was a matter of life and death. Without it, the remnant were easy prey for their enemies. Things seemed to be going well after a long gloomy period. Now, presumably, for those in Jerusalem, and Nehemiah, the tide was turning. Good news surely? But bad news had arrived at Nehemiah’s doorstep.
In Neh 1:3 we read that the walls, perhaps recently rebuilt walls, were once again broken down (and this may probably have been the result of King Artaxerxes action as mentioned in Ezra 4:17-23). The city was completely vulnerable.
How bad was that news for Nehemiah? He was ‘gutted’, bewildered, he must have felt that he had gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. We’re told that he ‘sat down and wept’. For some days I mourned and fasted…’, he said. (Neh 1:4).
His reaction was entirely understandable. He wasn’t a stoic and neither should we be. He wasn’t able to dismiss the bad news and cover it over in the hope that it would go away. There are some people today like that. They believe If they don’t think about it, it will go away. Nehemiah was distressed by this awful news, but he believed and trusted in God, and in his hour of need his attention was focused firmly on God. He mourned and fasted.
God was at the centre of Nehemiah’s life.
Jesus told a parable in Matt 7:24-27. It’s about two builders. One wise, one foolish. The wise builder built his house on solid rock. Strong, tough, firm foundations. When the terrible storm came his house, though battered, endured the storm and survived.
The foolish builder built his house shifting sand. When that storm came his house didn’t stand a chance. It fell.
You see, the storm, whatever it may be for us, is going to come – the only choice we have is whether we’re going to build our lives (our marriage, our job, our children’s upbringing, our lives etc) on the rock or the sand; on God’s word and obey Him, or do our own thing.
The only safe place for us and our lives is when we build our lives on God’s ‘solid rock’. But it is interesting….the wise and foolish builders both had to endure the storm.
We, as believers, are not immune from bad news or bad events. Sometimes people have to endure bad things. And sometimes good people have to endure awful things. Wasn’t that what Good Friday was all about.
What about us? What about our lives? Today? Have you and I endured a problem? I’m sure many of us have? Perhaps we’re living in dread of some impending problem. If not us, there are people in this City, our neighbours or friends and family, who are worrying about some kind of problem.
What is the response of the man or women in the street, of those without Jesus? To calamity, their response maybe to swear or curse, maybe to lash out verbally or physically, maybe get drunk, maybe to become reclusive, maybe to deny the problem. There are many responses, but Nehemiah shows us the way. He sets us a Godly example.
Not immune to bad events, when Nehemiah got that bad news he mourned and fasted. There’s our example: Mourning and fasting. Both of these will focus our minds, put things into perspective, and in the case of fasting it is also an act of denying self.
But it didn’t stop there. He mourned for days, he fasted for days, and Nehemiah did something else
(2) Prayer
It’s something that we’re all probably guilty of not doing as much as we should. It’s something we know we should do more, but seldom do. Nehemiah prayed.
Nehemiah’s prayer (Neh 1:5-11) puts things into perspective. Through prayer the bad news he had received was no longer an ‘ogre’ to be feared.
We read:
Firstly, Nehemiah’s prayer was addressed to ‘God of Heaven, the Great and awesome God’. There is no greater power than that of God. All creation is made by God, and everything in it is answerable to God. God cannot be overpowered, out-maneuvered or caught off guard. He knows everything, is everywhere and is all-powerful. Compared to that, problems seem smaller than we see them. Nehemiah knew of God’s place in the universe, and he knew his own lowly position.
Remember the song, ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus’? What happens, according to that song, when we turn our eyes on Jesus?
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Compared to God our seemingly weighty problems pale into insignificance. They maybe not go away immediately, they may still present a challenge, but they grow smaller compared to the greatness of God, and though unsolvable to us, God has the power to deal with them.
Let us remember that nothing in our lives is too complex, too involved or too great for God to deal with it. As the song says, ‘Our God is an awesome God’.
Secondly, Nehemiah has a close relationship with God. He understands His ways, and we know this when Nehemiah acknowledges that God, ‘keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey his commands’.
There are many, sadly some who attend Church on Sunday, who know about Jesus, but don’t know Him. They’re into ‘religion’, but don’t have a relationship with Him. There are others in our community that view God as irrelevant, maybe someone with a long white beard sitting on a cloud just waiting for us to trip up and strike us with a thunderbolt. You see it in cartoons a lot, and it looks funny. I guess if those newspapers were to print a picture of the crucifixion in colour it would cease to be funny. But then it may be too much of a shock to their system for then they might have an inkling into understanding God that much more.
Let us redouble our effort to read God’s word, understand it, and apply it. The Bible contains words of life!
Thirdly, Nehemiah, interceding on behalf of Israel, acknowledges their sin and his. Compared to a Holy and righteous God, Israel had rebelled. But we cannot be smug, because we are sinners too.
The Bible says that ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’. (1 John 1:8). Left like that the outlook for all of us would be grim. There would be no hope, no future, no forgiveness. Thank God, that He took the initiative. That verse goes on to say, ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’.
Nehemiah knew that truth. He and all Israel were in rebellion to the perfect God and he knew it, yet he knew also of God’s forgiveness, love and promises.
There are many people in our society that believe God is fearsome and to be avoided. They would rather not think about Him until they have too. If they leave it that late, it may be too late!
True our God is an awesome God, but He is the God of love – His character is in perfect balance. Let us redouble our efforts to reach people in need of truly knowing God. Their eternal fate depends on it.
Fourthly, Nehemiah petitioned God. ‘Let your ear be attentive…give your servant success today’ (Neh 1:11 part). Someone once said ‘Preaching affects the heart of men, prayer affects the heart of God’. Can you imagine the privilege God has given us – that He wants to hear from us! Nehemiah petition God with the noble need set before him.
When I was twenty years old, and still a fairly new Christian, I once heard a Bishop declare in his sermon how upset he was with evangelical Christians because they believed they had a direct ‘telephone line’ to God when it clearly was not the case. I remember thinking how sad. How sad that this Bishop didn’t know the privilege that every Believer has that ‘telephone line’ directly to God – it’s called prayer! And it’s a two-way process!
Does God answer all our prayers? God hears them. But I do not believe God answers all our prayers. God answers prayers according to His will, and that is made clear in the Bible. How should we prayer then? If we’re not sure, even that can be a topic of prayer and He will guide us. It means that I cannot prayer for a red Porsche and expect it to be outside the Church building at the end of this service because it is not God’s will…it is my desire, maybe, but it is not God’s will. It will not appear, not even if I bargain with God and agree to let the Deacons use it alternate weekends!
But God does answer prayers according to His will, and one of our prayers should be: Lord, show me what is in your mind.
The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not! (J. Hudson Taylor)
Let us redouble our effort in prayer to God.
In James 5: 15-16 it says, ‘And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Prayer is powerful because it affects the heart of God. It is that reason why we should cultivate the habit.
‘God’s child can conquer anything by prayer. Is it any wonder that Satan does his utmost to snatch that weapon from the Christian or to hinder him in the use of it?’ - Andrew Murray
(3) Conclusion
Nehemiah set us an example of what to do when problems appear.
‘Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray—to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight—all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word ‘concern’ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.’ - Robert E. Lee
For Nehemiah it is clear, when the going gets tough, the tough get praying.
