Rebuilding The Walls

This study is very personal to me and for Crossroads

• In 2006 I was at CCV when I got word of the situation at Crossroads.

• I was studying Nehemiah

• Nehemiah 1:9 was used by God to give me insight and hope

Nehemiah 1:9 (NASB) 9 but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.'

Timing of Nehemiah

538 BC God allowed the people to return

• They started well

• Then they stalled

• God sent Prophets to call them to the Promises of God and His Blessings.

478 BC Esther became Queen

458 BC a second group of exiles return with Ezra

• Ezra calls the people back to God and purity

445 BC In Late Autumn; Nehemiah will now enter The Story

• cupbearer of to King Artaxerxes

o the son of the King who was married to Esther

• Most likely it is because of the faithfulness of Esther and Mordecai that Nehemiah was awarded such a trusted position.

3 Things Nehemiah focuses on:

1. He prayed first then planned.

His part in the Story as Prophecy was enacted.

November of 445 BC: Gets news of the situation in Jerusalem; his heart breaks and he prays.

Nehemiah 1:4 (NASB) 4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven

Why did God wait from Fall to Spring to answer Nehemiah’s hearts desire?

March of 444 BC: God answers his prayer…

Nehemiah 2:1-4 (NASB) 1 And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart." Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, "Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?" 4 Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven.

Note—he is praying before he plans!!!

The point is because Nehemiah prayed then planned he was key to the fulfilling of an amazing prophecy!

Why did God wait from Fall to Spring to answer Nehemiah’s hearts desire?

Daniel’s prophecy given 95 years earlier…70 weeks.

• Daniel 9:25-26 (NASB) 25 "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. 26 "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.

March 5th 444 BC.

• Nehemiah 2:7-8 (NASB) 7 And I said to the king, "If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go." And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me.

69 weeks begins.

This is a week of years.

• The Children of Israel were to keep a Sabbath Day and a Sabbath year.

• Jeremiah said they were judged for each year they did not keep the Sabbath. Lev. 26:35. 2 Chron. 36:20-22.

It starts with the decree given here...

• 7 weeks = 49 years

• 62 weeks = 434 years

• 69 = 483 years.

483 years brings us to 33 AD

• This would be using the 360 day calendar the Babylonians, Persians and Jews used.

• March 30th 33 AD- The date of the Triumphal entry?

By the end of this period the Messiah would come, be revealed and die for our sins.