Book of Nehemiah Series #1
The Christian’s Life and Warfare.
By Pastor Jim May
The book of Nehemiah was written by Nehemiah, between 445-425 BC. Along side the Book of Ezra, it records the fulfillment of God’s promise to restore Israel to her land after the 70-year exile in Babylon. The warnings to Israel as a nation had been around for some time but they came to a head in 605 BC when the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the nation.
Jeremiah 25:1-12, "The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever: And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations."
History records that in 586 BC the prophecy of Israel’s downfall came about exactly as Jeremiah had predicted and for the next 70 years the people of Israel and Judah were in exile and their beloved city, Jerusalem, was destroyed. After this period, some of the exiles returned to Jerusalem, but being a city without walls or protection, the Jewish remnant were always at the mercy of their ever-present enemies. The book of Nehemiah starts at this point, with a Jerusalem without walls and Israel in ruins.
The Types and Players in Nehemiah
I want to give you more than a history lesson through all of this. There’s more to see here than meets the eye at first glance. Since all of the Old Testament is given for an example for us to learn from, then there has to be some pertinent lessons for each of us, and for the church, in the day in which we live and our daily walk with the Lord.
By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit God has placed within the Book of Nehemiah some key characters and events that reveal to us some things concerning our walk and warfare as Christians. What you will find is some very important steps that the Book of Nehemiah teaches us in how to overcome our three deadliest enemies – Satan, the world and our old sinful nature.
The main character is Nehemiah, whose job it was to rebuild the wall and its gates. While he had a lot of enemies, the three most prominent were Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. If we are going to understand what this book is really all about, and how it could possibly relate to us today, we have to start by describing what some of the symbolisms are and what some of the characters stand for.
The Wall
In the natural sense, the wall surrounded Jerusalem, and was broken only by 10 gates. The wall kept the wrong people out, while the gates let the right people in. The walls were for protection and showed the separation between the people of God, and His enemies. The walls represent our salvation, specifically from the power of sin.
Isaiah 60:18, "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise."
When you think of the wall that needed to be rebuilt, it will remind us that there must be a separation between God’s people and the world and that the true separation can only come when our heart is given to the Lord. Until Jesus occupies the heart, that heart is wide open to the ways of the world and the temptations of Satan. We must rebuild the wall first, before anything else can happen.
The Gates
The gates represent entrance into the Lords presence and the experiences of the Lord that the righteous will enter into. As we quoted a moment ago, Isaiah says that the gates represent Praise. We will examine the gates more thoroughly later on, but remember what David wrote in Psalms 100:4, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name."
Jesus is the only way by which we can enter into the presence of God. Listen to what he said in John 10:7 & 9, "Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep… I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."
What about the characters of the Book of Nehemiah; what, or whom do they represent to you and I?
Nehemiah
I believe that Nehemiah is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who gave up his position with the Father to restore and rebuild our walls and become our gate. Nehemiah’s name means ’Yahweh consoles’ or ’Yahweh comforts’ and that is what Jesus does for us. In everything that Nehemiah does, we see the attitude and action of a man alive to God. One that is spiritually reborn, to seek again the rebuilding of God’s chosen people and living by the leading of the Spirit.
The Three Enemies
Sanballat
The name "Sanballat" means "hatred in secret". Sanballat is the main one behind most of the attacks against Nehemiah. He was very wealthy, and had a lot of influence, power and control. Sanballat stands for our biggest enemy, Satan, the one who hates God and hates God’s people.
Geshem
The name Geshem means "Corporealness", which means "Physical, tangible, material, bodily". This second enemy, Geshem, must symbolize the world and its power to tempt us. Even though Geshem is not talked about very much, he is a strong enemy and he is able to succeed where others will fail. He is always working behind the scenes, coming into play almost without notice.
Tobiah
The name Tobiah means, "Jehovah is good". This is a strange name for someone who so vigorously opposes Jehovah’s chosen people! In all of his operations Tobiah will clearly show himself to be symbolic of our third enemy, Old Adam, the flesh. Tobiah represents that old sinful nature that not only does sinful, evil things, but has the ability to also do much good! (Through Tobiah’s influence we shall see that he is able to trick a large percentage of Gods people to rebel against Nehemiah!)
Nehemiah Chapter 1
Understanding the nature of the fall
Nehemiah 1:1-11, "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, 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. 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. 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, 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: 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. 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. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: 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. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. 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 book of Nehemiah begins where any true salvation experience or revival of the Spirit of God in the heart of a man has to start - with a realization of our true spiritual condition.
Nehemiah asked about the Jews, and of Jerusalem’s condition and was told, "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire."
Out of the whole world, God had chosen one nation - Israel. This nation was to be his people, display his glory and bring understanding and light to the other nations of the world. The rest of the world was, and still is under the power of Satan.
1 John 5:19, "And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness."
2 Corinthians 4:4, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
The only hope for a world caught in sin came in the form of a small nation called Israel. They alone had the knowledge of the true God and now this nation was completely destroyed! Broken and burnt to the ground, there was no wall of salvation, no gate to enter Gods presence and no visible sign of the living God on earth! It was Satan’s day as the entire world was in his control.
There is more to this than just a history lesson on Israel from 2500 years ago. It is symbolic of mankind today in his sinful condition; both to those who have not known the Lord and to those who have become Christians, but who have let their walls of salvation get broken down. How far from God did man fall in the Garden?
Like the nation of Israel, we were all created to know, enjoy, and display the glory of God and one act of disobedience left us destitute and void of his Spirit.
Ephesians 2:1-2 says that we, "… were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience…"
Everyone is born into sin because of the fall; spiritually dead, in the power of the evil one, and totally useless for that which we were created for. Like Israel was in Nehemiah’s day, so is the world in which we live today.
Even as Christians, those who have been restored to a normal relationship with God, Nehemiah speaks to us because we too often find ourselves failing god miserably.
We now are the light and salt of the earth – a visible witness of the living God to the world, and Satan will do all he can to destroy that witness.
How are your walls today? Is there a clear separation between how you operate and how the world operates? Are your goals, attitudes, and morals any different from those in the world around you? If not then look again at how restoration of those walls began through Nehemiah.
Rebuilding the wall it starts with a realization of your actual condition but then must progress on to action concerning that condition. When Nehemiah learned of the true state of Jerusalem he "sat down and wept and mourned for days." This is a symbol of a man coming to God on Gods terms. Not for money, power, or the latest buzz, but for forgiveness and the restoration of life. Not offering God his good works as if that could impress God, but with repentance and faith in the character of God, he sought God that this condition would not remain! Nehemiah saw that because of the state of His people, God no longer had a visible witness on earth.
Nehemiah’s prayer was powerful and heartfelt. He began by reminding God of both His character and covenant promises to Israel if they loved Him. He then correctly confesses their sins as a nation, not in any way trying to hide from the fact that they have bought this upon themselves. Nehemiah again reminds God of His promise to restore Israel if they returned to Him and states that Israel are God’s people whom he has so faithfully redeemed and protected in the past.
Nehemiah was "the cupbearer to the king." This was a very important position, as he would taste the Kings wine to make sure it was not poisoned. He was therefore a trusted and close ally to the king. Nehemiah could have lived in the palace for the rest of his life and forgotten about God, but he was willing to leave this position.
Like Moses before Him according to Hebrews 11:25-26, Nehemiah Chose, “… rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward."
That’s the way it must be if we are to rebuild the wall and obtain salvation through Jesus Christ. Moses, Nehemiah and all of the men and women of God that we read about in the Bible did the same thing that we must also do.
We must renounce the world, with all of its pleasures of sin for a season, and take up our cross and follow Him. We must get out eyes off of only what we can see right now, and use our eyes of faith to believe that what Jesus has to offer is far better than anything that the world has. If our vision is one of eternal glory, then the glitter of the world won’t blind us anymore.
