Inspecting the wall. Nehemiah 2:1-20 WBC 9.1.05am
At the beginning of a new year, a high school principal decided to post his teachers’ new year’s resolutions on the bulletin board. As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. "Why weren’t my resolutions posted?" She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk. As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This teacher’s first resolution was not to let little things upset her in the New Year.
Contributed by: Frank Houston on www.sermoncentral.com
And here we are, inspecting the wall in Nehemiah. Maybe it will cast some inspection light into our lives at the start of this New Year.
We’re about 445 BC and some of the Jews have returned in different waves from Babylon. Some form of a temple has been constructed
- now Nehemiah is about to deal with the walls
PATIENCE 2:1
I wonder how eager you are to achieve things this year?
- probably that’s good! We’ve got things to do!
But I wonder if we could learn something from Nehemiah. Particularly if we’re restless
- you might miss it on first read: but Nehemiah hears of the state Jerusalem is in in 1:1. … and 2:1 is 4 months later
o he waits 4 months for the right opportunity to say something to Artaxerxes
This time of year…. some phases of our lives can feel a bit wasted
- nothing happening. Holidays a long way off. Post-Christmas slump. Just waiting for better prospects, weather
o but ‘waiting’ does not mean ‘wasted’.
o Doesn’t mean ‘nothing’s happening’
Not from God’s perspective.
And it’s okay to have phases of our lives that seem boring… require patience. Require faith that God is working (behind the scenes)
- because He is
But the day comes. Nehemiah’s day… God’s day, even
- and it’s time for him to say what’s on his heart to the King
- and Nehemiah experiences something common to us
PEUR 2:2 (FEAR)
Sorry- this is the only way I could keep the P’s going!
- 2:2 says “I was very much afraid”
Why was this?
- well: you were in danger of losing your life if you were downcast before the King
o he only wanted PMA’s around himself!
o “and if you’re not happy- I’ll kill you!”
- also: he was intent on asking the King to change a ruling that he had made some years earlier (Ezra 4:21)
o rule of the Medes and Persians was that laws could not be repealed or revoked
It’s a death-wish, actually. So- he’s scared. And he’s melancholy
- (bad hair day)
But here’s what we learn from Nehemiah:
- it doesn’t stop him!
- Fear is part of a life, and part of risk and part of having a purpose
But God is bigger than that. (He is to Nehemiah.) And, ‘fear of the Lord’ carries him through.. and 4 months of considered prayer
- Nehemiah knew: only God can pull this one off, and if it matters to Him He’ll do it
I wonder if fear affects you at the start of this year? It may well do. It’s a part of life and none of us know what this year holds
- Spencer Johnson, in his excellent book ‘who moved my cheese’ asks us to ask the question “What would we do if we weren’t afraid?”
- Christians are better equipped to answer that than anyone else-because they know God is with them. “though I walk through the valley of the shadow….!”
o Yet we can be more conservative and cautious than most!
Nehemiah feels the fear, but is not straight jacketed by it because of his faith in God
PRUDENCE V3
Nehemiah is an example of prudence and how not to lose your job when it’s January, you’re feeling downhearted and you’re tetchy because you’re fearful
- starts of by buttering up the king ‘may the king live forever!’
- notice he doesn’t mention ‘Jerusalem’ at all. Just ‘the city where my fathers lie buried’
o mentioning ‘Jerusalem’ is a red rag to a bull (today, no less!) but particularly to a king who ordered the city not be rebuilt because of its record of sedition and rebellion
- and he milks the old ‘burial of the ancestors’ bit because the Persians were so into honouring their dead as well.
The prudent personal approach is often better than the political…
- … and it works, here:
o “what is it you want” 2:4. Carte blanche!
PRAYER 2:4
I wonder how many of us forget this? There’s an opportunity or a crisis and find ourselves flattened by it because we don’t apply the commendation of Paul to ‘pray continually’ (1 Thess 5:17)
This is an example of it. It doesn’t mean ‘long prayers all the time’
- he fires off an arrow prayer… a ‘popcorn’ prayer. A quick dart of ‘help, help, help God!’
o and then launches in
I’m sure it’s not just because I’m a pastor! I find myself praying all the time ‘help God, help’.
- surely you face similar circumstances and needs?
- How do you expect to cope… make wise choices… come through if you don’t pray?
- *** what a friend we have in Jesus
“Let me go back to the city where my fathers are buried so I can rebuild it”
PLANNING 2:5-9
And he’s got it all worked out. If the answer is ‘yes’- he knows just what he’s gonna ask for. And the answer IS yes
Note: prayer and planning go together. It’s not wrong to plan! I do think it’s wrong to not pray
- not that that means God won’t help. He’s far bigger than that!
- But we are to work with Him in partnership and dependence
I guess I think it’s also wrong not to plan!
- plan as best as you can this year for your spiritual life, goals, family world
Nehemiah plans and asks for 3 things, and gets them
- permission
- protection
o Ezra refuses this (Ez 8:21) as he feels it’s a bad witness… and after praying and fasting God answers and protects them
o Nehemiah is different. He wants letters and ends up with Cavalry and a guard
o * I find this helpful, if I’m honest- as I feel uneasy about some who say, for example, that “you shouldn’t take insurance but rather trust God.”
I think it is ‘situational’ and ‘individual’ . I’m cautious of anyone who has a blanket rule for everything
• Basically we need to stick close to God!
- Provisions: he gets them, too! Ask and you shall receive!
And he sets off to Jerusalem.. and we find ourselves at V11
It shows you how different our lives are, now. We miss the significance of V11: “ I stayed three days2, and just think “he’s in no hurry!”
PAUSE V11
But, actually, it’s profound- and there’s wisdom in it. Something I believe God wants to speak to us about
He’s just travelled 900 miles and it’s taken 4 months. He needs to pause. To rest. He’s got camel-lag!
- and if he’s just about to appraise the situation in Jerusalem, and it’s hard to be objective when you’re tired
o Ezra, similarly, rested 3 days. Elijah needed to rest after his encounter 1 Kings 19
In fact: the Bible is filled with such wisdom, and the plain presentation of the need to know your body, look after yourself and be wise!
- maybe we need to take note of this at the start of January!
o So many find it hard. Hard to get back to work. Concentrate. Feel unmotivated. Low. “where is the Lord?”
o Well truth is: it’s January. The weather’s naff and Christmas is no relaxing picnic. And the world had gutted us all these last 2 weeks.
It’s a matter of waiting, recharging, not doing anything rash, realising you may not be objective
And waiting on God. The faithful unchanging God
Doesn’t that make you relax?
So- he’s in Jerusalem, and now there is the ABC of rebuilding, turning the tide of destruction and tumble down walls
- it might apply to us, as well
APPRAISAL V13
Denial is not just de place in Egypt. It’s so easy to be in denial about the reality of circumstances, our spiritual life or the state of the church
- an honest appraisal.. diagnosis.. is key to any solution
So how does Nehemiah get an honest appraisal of the ‘state of the nation’?:
- he doesn’t tell anyone what he’s up to (otherwise they just conform, play Emperor’s New Clothes and say the right things)
- AND > he goes out at night
Wanna appraise your spiritual life, the life of Winchester, this church?
- observe what people do when they think no one is watching
How is your relationship with Jesus when you’re alone? Not in church?
How is our city at night? (puke on the pavement, I reckon)
How can the church be when no one is watching?
- very self centred. Consumerist. Often desperately low in this country, actually
o (and I think that is because they have failed to see that the walls are down)
How does Nehemiah find Jerusalem?
- in a state. To him the issue is not protection, it’s ‘disgrace’ (v17)
BOLDNESS v18, 20
But, thankfully, that isn’t the whole story. It doesn’t end there
- getting honest is the start to real change!
- And there is cause for boldness because God is with us and changes lives. He really does
I believe the church in the UK needs to realise that its walls are down and they can’t be built up by any gimmick or feel-good fad
- they are down because Christians have concentrated on themselves rather than the underprivileged and the lost
o it’s become about me feeling good and my needs
- whereas the church is designed for others. For the lost!
o And when we concentrate on that and cry out for souls and put our energies into that…..
…. JESUS changes lives and saves.
And THAT new life changes US
But it starts with realising how off the track we’ve gone
And if your spiritual life is a wreck… a sham: well done for recognising it! With regard to this and winning the lost we have great cause for boldness
- v20 “the God of heaven will give us success”
- v18 – there’s nothing like a testimony to encourage you and let you know HE CAN DO IT!
and the final thing. The “C”
CHALLENGE V18B
“Let us START rebuilding. So they began the good work” v18b
Make a start. Today. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
- Challenge yourself. Respond.
