Nehemiah 2:1-8
Nehemiah chapter two, beginning
at verse one. This is the word of the living
God written most likely by Ezra and his memoirs. And this tells
us of Nehemiah before the King of Persia in the month of Nisan
in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes when wine was before him. I took
up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad
in his presence. And the king said to me, why
is your face sad seeing that you are not sick? This is nothing
but sadness of the heart. And then I was very much afraid.
I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should not
my face be sad when the city, the place of my father’s graves,
lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? Then
the king said to me, what are you requesting? 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, that
you send me to Judah, to the city of my father’s graves, that
I may rebuild it. And the king said to me, the
queen sitting beside him, how long will you be gone? And when
you will you return? So it pleased the king to send
me when I had given him a time. And I said to the king, if it
pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors
of the province beyond the river and that they may let me pass
through until I come to Judah 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 of the temple and for
the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy.
And the king granted me what I asked for the good hand of
my God was upon me. Amen. The word of the living
God for us, his children, uh, hopefully in. Most of your houses,
or at least at your disposal, maybe you can bum them from somebody
else, you have access to a shelf full of biographies. A shelf
full of Christian biographies. These written of people of old
who are now, well, they’re now dead. The last chapter of their
books are written and we know of their piety, we know of their
sinfulness, we know of their blessing and their benefit. It’s
good from time to time to read through various types of books
and biography always ought to be interspersed, mixed in. It’s inspiring, it’s encouraging,
it lets us see that we’re not alone in this world. It lets
us see God’s hand in the lives of other people. You know, sadly,
today we we are interested in biography, but it’s called reality
television. And we somehow in the last 15
years or so of television have gotten sucked into the banal
moment by moment. foolishness, I guess you would
say, of the way people live, the way people act. And we’re
so interested because we think it’s so interesting. But their
lives have not amounted to anything yet. But we have also the encouragement,
I think, of not just good Christian biographies on our bookshelf,
but we have a whole bookshelf of biographies in our copies
of God’s Word. You can read about the life of
Moses. We’re studying him on Sunday
night. We’ve just, well, almost finished the book of Acts. Don’t
count your chickens before they hatch yet, but next Sunday we’ll
finish the book of Acts. And so you can study the life
of Paul. You can read about Elijah. You can read about David. You
can read about Samuel. You can read about John the Baptist.
You can read in the scriptures the biographies of many wonderful
saints of old whom God used to do great and mighty things. Tonight,
we keep on in our study of Nehemiah. And from the pen of Ezra, most
likely, we have a bit of the history of the life of Nehemiah,
a man who sought the well-being of Jerusalem and sought the request
of King Artaxerxes to go take care of Jerusalem, her city,
her walls, her people, her gates. But most of all, he went to take
care of What was the outward manifestation of the glory of
God on the face of the earth? So perhaps a good question. What
are you reading? Have you read any good biographies
lately? Have you read of a person’s piety, their prayer, perhaps
their patience, their, their, um, persistence in their Christian
duties, their perceptions of what God was doing at that moment
in time in the world, their plans, their hard work for the living
God. Well, we get that tonight in
the life of Nehemiah, who God had providentially placed in
the court of Artaxerxes. Remember in our last study of
the book, we realized that Nehemiah was Oh, about 458, I think Ezra
had come back to Jerusalem and Jerusalem. So this is about 445,
13 years or so later, about a hundred years into the return of God’s
people after exile by Babylon. But we realized Nehemiah heard
from some family who had just come back. They had traveled
the 900 or a thousand miles or so from Jerusalem. And he said,
how’s it going? and they told him not so good.
The city lies in ruins. There’s shame on the people of
God. It’s still a burnt out district
from when Babylon destroyed it. And so we realize that Nehemiah
loves the city of God. Nehemiah loves the people of
God. And importantly, Nehemiah loves
his God and his reputation. And so as we land on our passage
tonight, we have to recognize that it’s been a couple months
Since we last looked, not, it was last Sunday night, right?
But it’s been a couple months since the events of Nehemiah
chapter one. Nehemiah has been praying for
and waiting for the best opportunity to speak to the king and make
his request. And now in God’s providence,
here it is. Here’s the big moment. Here’s
the turning point in his life. And here is the turning point
for the people of God back at Jerusalem. You might say there’s
such significance here. It’s like the turning point in
Abraham’s life when instead of thrusting the knife in his own
son, there was a ram in the thicket. You might say it’s the great
turning point in your life when God gave you a great blessing
and he answered your prayers. That’s how big this is in the
life of God’s people, but also in the life of Nehemiah. A couple
of things we want to see from this passage of scripture. We
want to see Nehemiah’s heart. We want to see Nehemiah’s prayer,
and then we want to see Nehemiah’s God. These are three things that
are shown, I think, very clearly to us in this passage. And so in this big moment, this
big opportunity in Nehemiah’s life and in the life of the people,
we see right into Nehemiah’s heart. The book of Proverbs tells
us that a face is reflected in water. When we look in the water,
or I suppose today we are a little bit more modern and we have glass.
When we look into the mirror, we see face. Face reflects face. But Proverbs 27, I believe it’s
verse 19, says that a man’s heart is displayed in his actions.
A man’s heart, what’s inside shows on the outside. And I believe
we can look at Nehemiah’s life here and see inside his heart. For months now, he has been concerned
for Jerusalem. For months now, he has been fasting
and he has been praying and he has been crying out to God, probably
not sleeping, not eating, not doing anything. But his daily
work is the cupbearer to the king. But the rest of the time,
spending it on his face, on his knees and in the presence of
Almighty God, concerned for the people of Almighty God. Now, as A man in the court of
the king is a man who was cupbearer to the great Artaxerxes, one
of the great kings of the great kingdoms in human history. Perhaps he had access to information,
whether they were written documents or word of mouth, just passed
on to him. probably during this stretch
of time, not only poured over the reports back from Jerusalem
and Judea. We, we, we can figure this because
when he got there, he gets to work, uh, rebuilding the city
pretty quickly, but he pours his heart out to almighty God
as well. And he, uh, sees the city and
its brokenness. He sees it in all its losses
and crosses and hardships. and he carries it before the
throne of grace. Now, some of you, um, probably in the past,
you know, you, you got addicted to that PBS show, the, um, Oh,
what am I thinking of? Downton Abbey, you know, where
it showed the downstairs people, the servants and the upstairs
people, the wealthy, and you know, there’s always the difference
between the upstairs and the downstairs. In fact, I think
that’s another PBS or masterpiece show upstairs, downstairs, the
difference between the, the served and the ones who do the serving.
But you’ve got a picture here, Nehemiah. He has to follow protocol. He has to behave in the presence
of King Artaxerxes. He has to put on a happy face.
He has to wear a smile. He has to be cheerful and not
downcast. to serve in the court of the
King of Kings, not the King of Kings, but the King of Persia,
the King Artaxerxes, to serve in his court could lead to capital
punishment. It could lead to death if you
crossed the boundary, if you crossed a line or fell or fall
short. And so he had to be a loyal, happy, cheerful servant. His
job was to protect the king. His job was to be on, as it were,
maybe a secret service type duty, you might say. Well, at this
point in Nehemiah’s life, today is the day. Today is the day
where even with all the cheeriness and the mirth and the joy and
the pouring out of the wine and the gladness that was likely
taking place in Artaxerxes court, Nehemiah, who had been a very
good servant, maybe much like Daniel and others during this
time, Esther, he couldn’t keep a happy face. He was so cast
down in his spirit and in his heart He was so sad for the people
of God and the condition of Jerusalem and Judea. He was so broken hearted
that, well, it spilled out. Perhaps you’ve been at work and
one of your coworkers is going through a difficult time and
maybe the same protocol at work. You leave your personal problems
at the door. You come in and you give your boss eight hours.
You get your work done. You stay off social media. You
clock in. You do your work. And you clock
out. And you can do your crying at home. You can do your Facebook
at home. You can make your dental appointments from home, that
sort of business. Well, step up the game. Well,
what if we lost power here? I’ll keep going. Y’all just listen
harder. The king asked him, what’s going
on with you? Why the long face? And he had
been praying for this moment. He had been on his knees before
God for this very moment. He was waiting for it. And we see his wisdom. He appeals
to Artaxerxes for things that are connected to every human
need. He doesn’t say, well, these,
these rat finks are over there, you know, destroying the people
of God, these wicked people, you know, that you’ve allowed
they’re over here. You need to write an edict. You
need to send an army on. No, he doesn’t say any of that.
He gets rather personal. The graves of my fathers, the
walls of God’s city. It’s a wasteland. It’s desolate.
Fire has devoured it. And you might think to yourself,
What does Artaxerxes, the great king of a mass and vast kingdom,
what does he care about a little bitty town that’s a little bitty
blip, a little bitty dot on a map? It’s not even on his radar. Why
did it get the attention of Artaxerxes? Well, perhaps Nehemiah’s faithfulness,
perhaps Nehemiah’s… good behavior, his punctuality,
his Christian ethics in his daily job, perhaps all that brought
him favor. Well, it’s really the favor of
almighty God, isn’t it? That’s why we think of this as
a tale of two kings. Yes, there’s Artaxerxes, but
there’s the God of heaven and the God of earth. And so the
heart of Nehemiah is before the heart of King Artaxerxes. He
has a love for God. He has a love for his people.
He has a love for his cause. He goes all the way and ask for
everything. Nehemiah’s heart is before us. And so it brings up a question,
how much do we love God? How much do we love his church?
How much does the cause of Zion hurt us or burden us? How much do we think about God’s
name and God’s reputation? Well, Nehemiah did so for Israel
and we ought to for the sake of the church of the living God. Well, that’s Nehemiah’s heart.
Let’s think of his, his request. Maybe you’ve wanted something
and You were waiting for the right opportunity, like Nehemiah,
and you rehearsed. You had your three or four points
in your head. All right, I’m going to ask him
if I can go. I’m going to ask him if he’ll
let me have some lumber. And I’m going to ask him for
all the governors of the lands that I’m going to pass through
to let me through safely. And I’m going to ask him for anything
else that I need. And so he’s rehearsed it. He’s, he’s good to go. Some of
you are probably thinking back, you know, maybe first time you
asked someone out on a date, you know, I’m going to, I’m going
to, I’m going to do it this way. I’m going to, you know, it’s
going to, and you get sweaty palms, right? And you get weak
kneed and you go to ask and it’s just blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, right? You know, you can’t, well, can’t you imagine what
Nehemiah is going through? Uh, It’s kind of a here goes nothing. I was watching a video this past
week, had to do with starting Christian schools. And the man
joked that 40 years ago when he started his first Christian
school, his prayer was Geronimo, amen. All right, you just jump,
you just go. And maybe that’s what Nehemiah’s
request is here. There’s no way. No chance, but
here goes nothing. And the king of kings, God himself
has moved in the heart of the king of Persia, the Artaxerxes. And as Nehemiah has waited, as
he’s planned, as he’s prayed, as he’s feared, verse four, I
think ought to be seen as rather surreal. The king says, what
are you requesting? Oh my goodness. He’s seen me
and not killed me. He could have been put to death
for being a party pooper, right? Sad face, that’s not good. What
you need, what you asking for? Here’s a clipboard, write it
all down. Tell me what you need, what you ask for. It’s a rather
surreal moment. And it says here in verse four,
he offers a quick prayer. So I prayed to the God of heaven.
One little commentary I read had an interesting statement
and it said that the coals of our prayers ought to remain hot
embers so that when a need comes, all we do is stoke our prayers
back up and offer them to God. And you can imagine the hot embers
of Nehemiah’s prayers. Oh God, Israel’s in ruins. Oh
God, Jerusalem needs a leader. Oh God, Jerusalem needs to have
its gates rebuilt so that its people are safe. The walls rebuilt,
its former glory in some way, shape or form restored so that
the nations will see. that there is a God among these
people and he blesses them. This quick prayer is built on
his daily begging God for the other things that he’s been praying
for. And so this momentary request
builds on the foundation of all his other prayers. And God, who
is the Lord of creation, the Lord of history, already knows
these things, but doesn’t he delight hearing his people take
up his cause. Doesn’t he delight in seeing
Nehemiah’s heart or even our heart for the church? Well, it
happens that the king is ready to grant his request. He’s not
suspicious. He’s not wondering what this
Nehemiah is up to. No, God’s grace, God’s favor
comes and you see it in these verses. The king says, how long
are you gonna be gone? Well, it happens he’s gone about
12 years and that pleased the king, his favorite cupbearer.
I don’t imagine any of you have your own personal cupbearer,
but if you did, could you bear to live without him for 12 years?
Probably, probably, probably not. So should you ever get a
cut bear just just keep those things in mind, but God’s grace
extended through Artaxerxes He sends him He lets him go rebuild
or repair the ruins of Israel. He lets him be gone for 12 years. He lets him govern that city,
that region. He gives him the position. He
gives him the authority. He gives him the resources. He
gives them the letters to all the other governors in the area,
and he gives him the lumber, if it pleases the king. If it
pleases the king and he makes this audacious request, you know,
our, our prayers are little prayers sometimes, aren’t they? Lord,
you know, my toe hurts. What do we say? Does God care
about your toe? Of course he does. Um, but I love hearing
y’all pray tonight, praying that generations would know Jesus.
Generations would follow, because it’s going to be dark times,
isn’t it? Already here, going to get worse. But isn’t there
a bit of hope when we see a little family walking with the Lord?
And we think that little family will grow, and perhaps, maybe
only like Noah’s family, they’ll carry the line of godliness in
their generation. But we should pray big prayers.
Maybe you could say, well, Artaxerxes as an opportunist, we’ve said
a number of times in our studies of Old Testament, ancient Near
Eastern history, sometimes these kings, they let the religious
people do their religious things, and they even pay for it because
it brings peace. It brings good things in their
vast empire, and so what’s it gonna hurt to buy the kids ice
cream, right, if it makes them happy for the night? That’s sort
of the thinking, but the thinking of God, the thinking of Nehemiah
is much bigger. If it pleases the king, well,
it did please the king, and we don’t mean Artaxerxes, do we?
We mean God Almighty. And so his trusted servant, who
plans and prays for success, receives the favor of his God
and his king. His prayers have been answered.
And perhaps it’s encouraging to you to see Nehemiah’s prayers
answered, but how about your own? Are you persistently before
the throne of grace seeking his face, perhaps for the same things
over and over? Well, we’ve looked at Nehemiah’s
heart. We’ve taken a peek at his prayers or his request of
the king. Now we want to look at Nehemiah’s
God. This is a memoir. This is a biography.
This is, this is a look back at Nehemiah, but it’s, it’s really
in a bigger sense, a look back at God, a look back at who he
is and what he’s done. And we remember that the, the,
the hearts of Kings are in the hands of God. It was the same
with Cyrus. It was the same with Darius.
And now it’s with, Artaxerxes, the king’s heart is in the hand
of God, the children of Israel, their peace, their security,
their city, their walls, their gates, the splendor, the glory
of God, their needs, their health, their future, all of that is
in the hands of almighty God, just as is the heart of Artaxerxes. Now, at the end of our passage
in verse eight, it says, the king granted me what I asked
for the good hand of my God, was upon me. It’s not in Nehemiah’s
skills and abilities. I don’t know, perhaps you’ve
read a book on Nehemiah. And the jump is always Nehemiah’s
tips for leadership. Well, you can learn from the
story of Nehemiah about leadership. Gotta admit it’s there. But what’s
the big picture? What’s the meat of the story? It’s Nehemiah’s God gives him
success in building his church and working in the kingdom. And
so what a blessing it is to see how Nehemiah’s God works. It’s
not me, it’s not my skills, there’s nothing I should boast of. No,
God, the sovereign, God, the creator, God, the sustainer,
God, the master of history, the God of providence provides for
his people. Earlier, we sang the little doxology
from the end of Psalm 72. Now, blessed be the Lord, our
God, the God of Israel, for he alone does wondrous works in
glory that excel.” Don’t you imagine Nehemiah was thinking
those sorts of thoughts? I don’t believe Psalm 72 would
have been written yet, but at least the theology, the beliefs
were there probably. We should be thinking of God’s
favor. We’ve been praying for a couple years. Lord, what should
we do for the church long term? What should we do with our assets?
You know, how do we spruce up our sanctuary? What will you
provide, Lord, so that your house of worship can be repaired and
fixed to be a place of worship and growth? And today is a pretty
big milestone for us. And like Nehemiah, we ourselves
ought to be jumping for joy. We found favor. We found favor
in the eyes of the king. He’s granted our request. And so when we have godly desires,
we submit them to the Lord. We are praying people. We may
seem ordinary. We may seem small in the world’s
eyes. And perhaps we may have seasons
where we want to give up or quit or we feel defeated. But if we
seek the Lord with our whole heart, we can’t help believe
that God will use us. And so we began by thinking,
do we have good biographies on our shelves? Do we have within
our reach the stories of people who saw a big God and a grand
opportunity, got on their knees and prayed, and he used them
mightily. But the ending question might
be something like this. If a biography is ever written
about you, What would it say of your prayer life? What would
it say of your desire to see God do things on earth for his
glory and the good of his people? Let’s do pray together. Lord,
we remember your mercies. They are from of old, and this
is a great example, a great narrative, a great telling of how good you
were to your people through through God, our Savior, but through
the work of your servant, Nehemiah. Lord, in our little small part
of the world, may you be pleased to use us to bring glory to your
name and good to your children, your servants. Hear us and help
us as we make our prayer in the name of Christ, our Savior. Amen.