Sermon series: Learning Life's Lessons From Old Testament Characters

Subject: Nehemiah—Standing Firm in the Face of Opposition

Nehemiah 1:1-4
"The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
And they said to me, "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire. So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven."
Chapter 2:1-6
And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. Therefore the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, since you are not sick?" This is nothing but sorrow of heart. So I became dreadfully afraid, and said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?" Then the king said to me, "What do you request?"
So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it."

Before we consider this historical story of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, we should understand the history that preceded this event.
The twisted story of the Kings, a matter of nearly five centuries, had ended disastrously in 587 B.C with the sack of Jerusalem, the fall of the monarchy and the removal to Babylonia of all that made Judah politically viable.

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When Nebuchadnezzar finally demolished Jerusalem in 586 B.C., a large portion of the most important Jews, especially artisans and craftsmen, were carried to Babylon in exile. With the temple in ruins, the Jews left behind had no place to worship the Lord properly.
Although an altar was erected on the site of the demolished temple, the official cult was for all practical purposes terminated. Jeremiah, belonging to a group who had warned the Jews not to rebel against the Babylonians, was left behind in Palestine.
Archeological results have shown how utterly devastated Judah was. The Jews in Palestine were poor and thus not able to restore the damage done to their country. The Babylonians left after they appointed Gedaliah as governor, and the local Jewish population came out of their hiding places to try to make a living on their devastated land. During the Jews' captivity, world leadership changed hands from the Babylonians to the Persians, (539 B.C.), after which Daniel received most of his prophetic revelations. The Book of Ezra which precedes Nehemiah, begins with the decree of Cyrus, A Persian king, to return God’s people to Jerusalem to rebuild God’s house.
At the time in Judah's history, the Persian Empire dominated the entire Near Eastern world. Its administration of Judah, although done with a loose hand, was mindful of disruptions or any signs of rebellion from its vassals. Rebuilding the walls of conquered cities posed the most glaring threat to the Persian central administration. Only a close confidant of the king himself could be trusted for such an operation. At the most critical juncture in Judah's revitalization, God raised up Nehemiah to exercise one of the most trusted roles in the empire, the King's cupbearer and confidant.
Life under the Persian king Artaxerxes (464-423 B.C.) had its advantages for Nehemiah. Much like Joseph, Esther, and Daniel, he had attained a significant role in the palace which then ruled the ancient world, a position from which God could use him to lead the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls in spite of its implications for Persian control of that city.
Several other historical notes are of interest. First, Esther was Artaxerxes's step mother (Esther 1:9) and could have easily influenced him to look favorably upon the Jews, especially Nehemiah.
Second, Daniel's prophetic 70 weeks began with the decree to rebuild the city issued

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by Artaxerxes in 445 B.C.
Third, the Elephantine papyri (Egyptian documents), dated to the late 5th century B.C., support the account of Nehemiah by mentioning Sanballat the governor of Samaria, Jeohanan, and Nehemiah's being replaced as governor of Jerusalem by Bigvai (410 B.C.)
Finally, Nehemiah and Malachi represent the last of the Old Testament canonical writings, both in terms of the time the events occurred (Malachi 1-4; Nehemiah 13) and the time when they were recorded by Ezra. Thus the next messages from God for Israel do not come until over 400 years of silence had passed, after which the births of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ were announced.
Now, with that historical setting, we begin our study of the Book of Nehemiah.
In that our study deals with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. I have included below a map of Jerusalem in Nehemiah's day.

--Map not available due to copyright--

The main character of our story is Nehemiah. His high assignment was to serve as cupbearer to the great "Artaxerxes Longimanus," who ruled Persia from 464-423 B.C. He is identified as the son of Hachaliah to distinguish him from other Jews of the same name. Nehemiah means "the Lord has comforted."

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A cupbearer was much more than our modern "butler." It was a position of great responsibility and privilege. At each meal, he tested the king's wine to make sure it was not poisoned. A man who stood that close to the king in public had to be handsome, cultured, knowledgeable in court procedures, and able to converse with the king and advise him if asked. Because he had access to the king, the cupbearer was a man of great influence, which he could use for good or for evil.
That Nehemiah, a Jew, held such an important position in the palace speaks well of his character and ability. For nearly a century, the Jewish remnant had been back in their own land, and Nehemiah could have joined them; but he chose to remain in the palace. It turned out that God had a work for him to do there that he could not have accomplished elsewhere. God put Nehemiah in Susa just as He had put Esther there a generation before, and just as He had put Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon.
At the heart of our study is the character of Nehemiah, and we are going to observe some of the qualities of character that made Nehemiah the man who marked the pages of Bible history.
Nehemiah was the kind of person who really cared about others!
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.
When Nehemiah was visited by Hanani and other men from Judah, he asked them concerning the people who had returned after years of captivity to the home land. He wanted to know how they were getting along in their ancient city which had earlier been destroyed so utterly. When he heard the answer to his question, it was not good and he sat down and wept! The people were in distress, the wall broken down, and the gates burned with fire. Nehemiah wept and mourned and fasted for many days.
"Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others" (Philippians 2:4). "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the Law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). "Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering" (Hebrews 13:3).
When God puts a burden on your heart, don't try to escape it; for if you do, you may miss the blessing He has planned for you. Our tears water the "seeds of providence" that God has planted on our path; and without our tears, those seeds could never grow and produce fruit.
His caring not only brought tears to his eyes

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but bowed his knees in heart-felt prayer.
Throughout this short book, we find Nehemiah praying twelve different times.
The character of Nehemiah was formed and molded and sustained by prayer.
The book of Nehemiah opens and closes with prayer. It is obvious that he was a man of faith who depended wholly on the Lord to help him accomplish the work He had called him to do. Listen to him pray..."I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night..."
Nehemiah's prayer is saturated with quotations from and allusions to the covenants of God found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. "Every promise of Scripture is a writing of God," said Charles surgeon, "which may be pleaded before him with this reasonable request, 'Do as Thou hast said.' The Creator will not cheat the creature who depends upon His truth; and far more, the heavenly Father will not break His Word to His own child! A promise is a written or verbal declaration that binds the person who makes it to do or forbear a specified act. When used of God, it is His pledge or undertaking to do so or refrain from doing a certain thing. Such promises form the basis of the prayer of faith. It is through prayer that these promises are turned into the facts and factors of one's Christian experience. The validity and dependability of a promise rest upon the character and resources of the one who makes it. The holy character and faithfulness of God make His promises credible. God’s promises are bound up with His character, and rest on four of His divine attributes: (1) His truth, which makes lying impossible; (2) His omniscience, which makes His being deceived or mistaken impossible; (3) His power, which makes everything possible and (4) His unchangeableness, which precludes vacillation or change. "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will not do? or has He spoken and will He not make it good? (Numbers 25:19)."
Such confidence is expressed in Nehemiah's prayer and he was confident that God would work in the heart of Artaxerxes and secure for the project of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem the official support that would be needed.
Too often, we plan our projects and then ask God to bless them: but Nehemiah didn't

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make that mistake. He sat down and wept, knelt down and prayed, and then stood up and worked because he knew he had the blessing of the Lord on what he was doing. When the king knew the burden of his heart, he offered to give Nehemiah time off from his duties at the palace and provide whatever would be necessary to accomplish the task of rebuilding the wall. In just four months, Nehemiah is back in Jerusalem looking over the devastation, distress and discouragement of his fellow Jews.
Under the cover of night, he surveyed the project. "And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work." (2:16).
"Then I said to them, "You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach."
And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. So they said, "Let us rise up and build." Then they set their hands to this good work." (2:17-19).
Another aspect of Nehemiah's character is his vision for what could be done to bring honor and glory to God! His desire was to get rid of the broken down wall which was a reproach to his God.
There is a vast difference between a person with a vision and a visionary person. The person with a vision talks little but does much. The person who is visionary talks much but does nothing.
It is reported that Moody’s farewell words to his sons as he lay upon his deathbed were: "If God be your partner, make your plans large."
Men who see the invisible, hear the inaudible, believe the incredible, and think the unthinkable...these are the men God can use to accomplish the impossible!
With the human eye, Nehemiah saw a city in distress, A wall broken down, But his spiritual eye of faith could see a wall, tall and high with gates strong and safe.
Chapter three of the Book of Nehemiah tells us the way in which the wall was built with various families and groups within the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem. Each group was assigned a certain segment of the wall or the rebuilding of a gate. Nehemiah had a plan, well organized and supervised, "So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days" (6:15). But Nehemiah had his enemies, and they were

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there when Nehemiah's retinue arrived in the city. "But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?" (2:19).
Sanballat resided at Beth Horan, about twelve miles from Jerusalem and he was Nehemiah's chief enemy, and the fact that he had some kind of official position in Samaria only made him that much more dangerous.
Being an Ammonite, Tobiah was an avowed enemy of the Jews. (Deuteronomy 23:3-4). He was related by marriage to some of Nehemiah's co-laborers and had many friends among the Jews. If Sanballat was in charge of the army, then Tobiah was director of the intelligence division of their operation. It was he who gathered "inside information" from his Jewish friends and passed it along to Sanballat and Geshem.
"But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews." (4:1)
Nehemiah's arrival in Jerusalem was a threat to Sanballat and his associates, who wanted to keep the Jews weak and dependent. A strong Jerusalem would endanger the balance of power in the region, and it would also rob Sanballat and his friends of influence and wealth.
Chapters 4 to 6 describe at least nine different tactics that Sanballat and his wrecking crew used to try to stop the work on the wall. First, they attacked the Jewish people with ridicule (4:1-6) and plots of war (vv. 7-9). This resulted in difficulties within the Jewish ranks: discouragement (v.10), fear (vv. 11-23), and selfishness (5:1-19). When attacks on the people failed to stop the work, the enemy then started to attack the leader, Nehemiah! They tried compromise (6:1-4), slander (vv. 5-9), threats (vv. 10-14) and intrigue (vv. 17-19); but none of these devices worked either. Nehemiah was steadfast and unmovable and courageous and he led his people to finish their task in a record breaking time!
Courage marked the character of Nehemiah!
He met the enemy head-on. "Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall, at the openings; and I set the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows." (4:13).
"And it happened, when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God had

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brought their plot to nothing, that all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work.
So it was, from that time on, that half of my servants worked at construction, while the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows, and wore armor; and the leaders were behind all the house of Judah."(4:15). "So neither I, my brethren, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me took off our clothes, except that everyone took them off for washing." (4:23).
Sanballat tried to distract Nehemiah from his task, "So he sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?" Sanballat sent one of his servants with a threat that his work would be reported to the king. And I said, "Should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in" (6:11).
Moral courage almost never appears except as part of that greater entity called character.
COURAGE! When persons refuse to listen to the advice of quitters, pessimists, doomsayers, and wet blankets, great feats can be accomplished.
Edison didn't give up on the light bulb, even though his helpers seriously doubted that the thing would ever work.
Luther refused to back down when the church doubled her fists and clenched her teeth.
Michelangelo kept pounding and painting; regardless of the pope's negative put-downs.
Lindbergh decided to fly the ocean blue, when everyone else said it was ridiculous and dangerous.
Julliard School of Music saw past leg braces and a wheelchair and with courage, admitted an unlikely violin student named Perlman.
Courage seems to exist in five basic forms.
Fortitude. In life, we are thrown many curve balls, we take our blows, and endure plenty of unexpected losses, just like Nehemiah, but when the dust settles and we must somehow stagger to our feet and invite life's next pitch...that takes fortitude. Courage involves BRAVERY. When the odds are stacked against us and even the matter of life is hanging in the balance, courage pushes us to bravery and glory! Just ask Nehemiah. Fortitude, bravery, valor, resoluteness--courage based upon conviction--and then abandonment--abandoned to the task at whatever the price! Nehemiah, a man of concern and caring, prayer, vision and courage...a man that left his mark on history!