Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 2:1

And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that] wine [was] before him: and I took up the wine, and gave [it] unto the king. Now I had not been [formerly] sad in his presence.

Neh 2:1-11 . Nehemiah receives His Commission

1. Nisan ] See note on Neh 1:1. This name only occurs elsewhere in the O.T. in Est 3:7, ‘in the first month, which is the month Nisan,’ cf. Josephus, Ant. xi. 4, 8, ‘The first month, which according to the Macedonians is called Xanthicus, but according to us Nisan.’ Its meaning is uncertain; according to some its root-idea is ‘fruitfulness,’ according to others ‘beginning’ or ‘origin.’ It corresponds to the month of which the older Israelite name was ‘Abib’ (Exo 13:4; Exo 23:15; Exo 34:18; Deu 16:1), ‘the harvest month,’ equivalent to our latter part of March and beginning of April.

The same month appears in the Assyrian dialect as Nisannu, and it is quite possible that the Jews may have adopted the name from Babylonian usage.

the twentieth year of Artaxerxes ] 445 b.c.: Artaxerxes reigned 41 years (465 424 b.c.). In the year 445 Pericles had obtained control of Athenian affairs; and a thirty years’ truce was concluded between Athens and Sparta. At Rome the conflict between patricians and plebeians was being waged; the deposition of the Decemvirs had occurred only four years before.

that wine ] R.V. when wine. The R.V. shows the connexion of the sentences. The present clause states the occasion, when Nehemiah preferred his request. ‘When wine was before him;’ i.e. when the king was at a repast, and the cupbearers were (or a cupbearer was) in attendance. At such a time the king would naturally remark upon any alteration of demeanour in a favourite ‘cupbearer.’

According to Rawlinson ( Ancient Monarchies, vol. iii. p. 214) the Persian king himself rarely dined with his guests. For the most part he dined alone. Sometimes he admitted to his table the queen and two or three of his children. Sometimes at a ‘banquet of wine’ (Est 7:2) a certain number of privileged boon companions were received.

before him ] Another reading is found in the LXX. ‘before me,’ ( ), which is followed in the Arabic version and was known to the translators of the Syriac. The change needed in the Hebrew to give this rendering is very slight, being only the omission of a single letter ( vaw), which is read once instead of being repeated ( l’phn ( y) vaessa instead of l’phnv vaessa). It has been very ingeniously maintained that this is the right reading, and that the words ‘when wine was before me’ denote ‘when my turn came round to attend as cupbearer at the royal table.’ According to this explanation, the clause accounts for the delay of three or four months, before Nehemiah made his appeal to the king; it also accounts for the king not having before recognised the sadness of his cupbearer, this being the first occasion on which he had appeared in the royal presence since the sad news arrived in the month Chislev.

But it does not seem likely that a cupbearer, who enjoyed the favour of the king, should have appeared so rarely in his presence as this view supposes. The LXX. reading makes practically no distinction in meaning between the clauses ‘wine was before me’ and ‘I took up the wine,’ and it is a pure assumption, that the former was a phrase for the rotation of the cupbearer’s office.

On the other hand, the Hebrew text gives with great minuteness full circumstances of the event: (1) the month and year; (2) the time of day, at the dinner; (3) the stage at the dinner, when the cupbearer offered the king wine. It distinguishes between ‘wine before him,’ the occasion of the repast, and ‘I took up the wine,’ the act of presenting the royal cup.

and I took up ] R.V. that I took up. The cupbearer’s duties were to pour out the wine, to taste it so as to prevent any scheme of poisoning, and to present it to the king. Perhaps the words ‘took up’ relate to the reverential gesture with which the goblet was offered.

the wine ] ‘The vines of Helbon were cultivated for the special purpose of supplying the Persian king with wine’ (Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., 3. p. 226). Helbon, a village near Damascus (see Eze 27:18), seems to be the place intended by Strabo and Athenaeus, who call it ‘Chalybon.’

Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence ] These words have given rise to considerable difficulty. There is nothing to show that this was the first occasion on which Nehemiah had stood before the king since the month Chislev. To suppose that the king had been absent for several months from Shushan would of course get over the difficulty. But we have no evidence upon which to base such an assertion. The passage, as it stands, suggests that Nehemiah was performing his usual duties as on former days. If so, how are we to explain Nehemiah’s words? For surely we may suppose his sadness to have dated from the arrival of the distressing news (ch. Neh 1:2). Various explanations of the words have been attempted; e.g.,

(1) ‘Now I was not evil in his sight,’ i.e. he was well disposed to me. The rendering ‘evil’ instead of ‘sad’ is equally in accordance with the Hebrew, but the use of the same adjective in the sense of ‘sad’ in Neh 2:2 (see note) is fatal to this interpretation.

(2) ‘To suppose that I should not have been sad in his presence!’ Grammatically possible, an exclamation is not a probable turn of the sentence.

(3) ‘And I was not sad in his presence.’ The preterite tense is understood to refer to this particular occasion, and not generally to past time. This interpretation supposes that Nehemiah did not wear a sad countenance, but that the quick eye of his royal master perceived that something was wrong with his favourite. This, it is claimed, would account for the perturbation of Nehemiah described in Neh 2:2. But it is sufficient to object that ( a) Neh 2:2, leaves us to suppose that Nehemiah’s sadness was clearly visible; ( b) the 1st pers. sing. of the preterite of the auxiliary is used in three other passages in this book and refers to past time indefinitely (Neh 1:1; Neh 1:11, Neh 13:6). Had, Nehemiah wished to say that he was not sad on this occasion he would not have employed the auxiliary at all.

(4) Accepting the English rendering, ‘Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence,’ it seems necessary to assume that Nehemiah chose his opportunity and deliberately gave occasion for the king’s enquiry. It was forbidden for royal servants to appear before the king gloomy and unhappy. It was ill-omened, and suggested discontent and plotting at the court, cf. Est 4:2. Nehemiah had not therefore beforetime been sad in the king’s presence. He had not made up his mind up to this time what steps to take or what petition to present. Now, however, after his prayer to God (ch. Neh 1:5-11), he had been able to resolve upon his course of action. He appeared before the king at the banquet table in a state of sadness and dejection, which could not possibly escape the king’s notice when he stood before him as cupbearer and presented him the cup.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Nisan was the name given by the Persian Jews to the month previously called Abib, the first month of the Jewish year, or that which followed the vernal equinox. It fell four months after Chisleu Neh 1:1.

The twentieth year – As Artaxerxes ascended the throne in 465 B.C., his 20th year would correspond to 445-444 B.C.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Neh 2:1-8

And it came to pass in the month Nizan.

Divine interposition

I. Was opportune.

1. That Gods plans are worked out with the utmost precision.

2. That God often interferes on His peoples behalf when they least expect it.

3. That God generally interferes on His peoples behalf in their most urgent extremity.

II. required human co-operation.

III. was accompanied by providential coincidences.

1. Nehemiah was unusually sad.

2. The king was unusually friendly.

3. The queen also was present. (Homiletic Commentary.)

A true patriot

That is only a small part of the gospel which leads a man to ask, What must I do to be saved? The glorious gospel of the blessed God goes forth with us interested in everything that concerns us as men–at home, in business, in town, in country, in all national affairs, in the whole world. A Christian may thoughtlessly throw himself into political exitement with no other motive than that of party feeling; but because he is a Christian he will be glad to let the light of God shine in upon his aims and motives, and will be glad to see his duty in the quietness and sacredness of this hour. The Bible, which gives us examples of men in every position where duty leads, has given us amongst its most brilliant and noble characters this of the statesman. If any should think such a position inseparable from ambitious craft and party ends, let them note this fact. Nehemiah is living at the court of the king, occupying a position of high rank, of much influence, of great trust. If the chief thing in life is to take care of ones own ease and luxury, and not to trouble much about the wants and sorrows of other people, then here is a man who has all that heart can wish. There are men, thousands of them, who have no thought or purpose in life beyond themselves. Surely that is to degrade our manhood. But what of any man who should call himself a Christian and yet should live all taken up in himself as if nothing were worth a thought but how he may be as happy as possible on earth–and then happier still in another world? Now to the court where Nehemiah dwells come certain Jews from Jerusalem, and he goes forth to inquire about the state of his countrymen and the beloved city. As a man, as a brother, as a servant of the Living God, he is bound to feel the deepest concern in the welfare of his nation. It is easy enough to think of what Nehemiah might have said, if he had been easy-going and selfish, I really am sorry, very sorry–but I do not see that I can do anything, you know. It is as much as I can do to look after my own duties here without troubling myself about the affairs of the nation. There are some good people who talk so to-day and think it sounds pious. He might have given them a subscription, say of a guinea. And then he could have turned into the palace thankful not to be mixed up in these worldly matters. Or he might have sipped his wine out of a golden goblet and thought what a pity it was that everybody could not be as comfortable as he was. Well, if he had, you may be sure that neither this Book of God nor any other would have found a place for his name. Or he might have pleaded that he was in a very delicate and responsible position, holding office under the king, and that it would never do for him to get mixed up in these matters. Those good people who separate themselves from the duties of citizenship can find no example in the Scriptures. Of all false notions about regenerating the world, the most utterly false, as well as the laziest, is to think that this is the victory which overcometh the world to run away from it. This Book does not teach that the world is the devils, and the less we can have to do with it the better. No, indeed! The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof. The men of the Bible are not monks and recluses; but they are in the very midst of the world and busied with its affairs. Its prophets and messengers are men whose whole life has to do with the councils of kings, with the ways of cities and courts. Surely it is impossible to think of the religion of Jesus Christ as anything but a profound and eager interest in the welfare of our fellow-men–of their bodies as well as their souls; of their work as well as their worship; of their homes on earth as well as their getting to heaven. Nor have any the right to hold themselves aloof from politics because it is mixed up with party strife. We deplore and condemn the bitterness of party politics–but is there not a great deal of nonsense talked about party politics? How are you going ever to have polities at all without party politics? If you want abuses overthrown, and iniquities set right, and the privileges of the few shared by the many, and abominations like the opium trade swept away, and the great curses of drink and lust and gambling east out, are we to fold our hands because we are Christians, and let the devil have his own way because these things involve strife! Of course they do, and always will. We must expect opposition, excitement, abuse. The blessed Lord Jesus accepted and discharged the duties of citizenship. Together with His holiness, His meekness, His majesty, there is another grace and virtue–there is in Him a perfect patriotism. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stonest them that are cent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you desolate. And this example, sublime it is, is followed closely by the apostle Paul, whose passionate love to his countrymen prompts that daring utterance (Rom 9:1). And now to turn to ourselves. What think you? Can we dare to call ourselves by the name of Jesus Christ and yet be indifferent to the needs, the sorrows, the wants, the burdens of our country? Lastly, see how this brave man served his country. Nehemiah sees that his power to help his country is not mostly in his rank, nor in his influence with royalty; it is in his power to pray. This is the great truth we want to lay hold of. The greatest power to bless this land is in our power to pray for it. Here all are on a level. Women as well as men. We need not wait for Parliament in this matter. Womens rights are as ours at the throne of the heavenly grace. Beginning thus in prayer right speedily a glorious reformation is wrought in the face of plotting foes. In spite of the poverty and fewness of the people the city is rebuilt. So shall the city of God once more be set up in the midst of men, if every Christian man and woman will take in upon their heart the wants, the woes, the wrongs, the sorrows of our land, and will plead with God to send us a parliament that shall seek first in all things His kingdom and its righteousness. (M. G. Pearse.)

Religious patriotism exemplified in the history of Nehemiah

The patriotism of Nehemiah was based on religion; and hence the interest which he discovered in his far distant but afflicted countrymen, and the sacrifices which he made for their welfare. The love of country, because it is the country of our birth, and of countrymen, is no narrow-minded bigotry, as some shallow infidels in their pretended love of universal mankind have imagined. It is a principle of human nature implanted in our hearts for the wisest purposes. There is a patriotism which is quite selfish in its nature. Their own aggrandisement, or that of their friends and partisans, is the sum and substance of their patriotism. True patriotism, like every other great virtue, must be founded in true religion. Had not Nehemiah been a pious man, and loved the God of his fathers with all his heart, and loved his countrymen because they bore the image of God, he never would have relinquished his high advantages in the palace of Artaxerxes, and sacrificed so largely for their benefit. The true way to love man is to begin by loving God. On hearing of the affliction of his countrymen, who he might have expected by this time would have been in prosperous circumstances, Nehemiah betakes himself to prayer. All this shows Nehemiahs acquaintance with his Bible, and also the warmth of his piety. We might have expected that living at heathen court, remote from the means of grace, with few to strengthen or encourage him, he, though a good man, would have discovered in his piety the disadvantage of the circumstances in which he had been placed. But no–God can and often does compensate in richer effusions of His grace, for an adverse outward situation. And here let us mark the course which he pursued in seeking to relieve and restore his afflicted countrymen. He did not say, as many would have done, in a proud, vaunting spirit, I am the kings cup-bearer. Backed by his authority, and armed besides with wealth and power, I will soon reduce Jerusalem and its people to a right condition; I will soon quell all opposition, rebuild the wall, and set up the gates, and make the city glorious as of old. This had been the spirit of man flushed with the pride of power; but he had been taught of God, and so begins with humility and prayer. Let us, and let all, follow his example. All are occasionally in the providence of God required to discharge great duties. Important undertakings, involving the glory of God and the good of others, ever and anon call for our services. How should we engage in them? In a spirit of pride and self-confidence? No. But in a spirit of prayer and penitence. We are apt to despair of an undertaking when it is suspended on the will of man, and he is high above us, and we have ground to apprehend his hostility. Let this encourage us to be much in prayer for a good cause, even where it seems to hang upon the will of man, and that will appear hopelessly opposed. Nehemiah having thus prepared himself by prayer, is not slow in setting out in his work. Here we may notice the prudence and piety of this excellent Jew. He showed prudence in addressing a motive to the mind of the king for his journey, which the monarch could understand and appreciate. He did not ask leave to go to Jerusalem for the sake of his religion, but for the sake of his fathers sepulchres. This was an argument to which even a heathen would defer. With regard, again, to his piety, he did not only pray to God for counsel before making his request, but he strengthened and emboldened himself by prayer at the very time he stood in the presence of Artaxerxes. And then, after he had been successful in the petition, he did not refer the success to his own wisdom, or to his services as a faithful servant, but to the good hand of God upon him. He arrogated nothing to himself; he ascribed all to God. How much piety is here, and how beautiful is the union between piety and prudence! Considering the difficulties with which Christians have to struggle, well may the Saviour exhort His followers to be wise as serpents, at the same time that they are harmless as doves. It is worthy of notice, that deeply prayerful and dependent on God as Nehemiah was, he was not unmindful of the duty of using all legitimate means to secure the important object which he had in view. Prayer rightly understood does not destroy the use of means; it only strengthens and regulates its application. Prayer without means, and means without prayer, are equally presumptuous. Duty lies in employing both, but keeping both in their right place. This excellent man now set out on his journey, received the aid of the heathen governors upon the way, and soon reached Jerusalem in safety. With his usual prudence he did not, in the first instance, inform any one–priests, nobles, or rulers–what his intentions were. He wished to see the city with his own eyes, and draw his own conclusions, before acquainting them with the object of his mission. This enabled him to speak from personal observation, and so to speak with greater effect. (J. G. Lorimer.)

Why is thy countenance sad?—

Royal dislike of the sight of suffering

A late empress of Russia enacted a severe penalty, if any funeral procession should pass within sight of her palace. A princess of France, on her way to the capital, once ordered all beggars and persons suffering under disease to be removed from the line of her journey that she might not behold them. This Persian monarch notes signs of grief on his faithful servant with signs of displeasure. How different it is with our Saviour King! His heart is the seat of compassion for the afflicted. (W. Ritchie.)

So I prayed to the God of heaven.

Effective ejaculatory prayer the outcome of the habit of prayer

It is he that cultivates the habit of prayer that will seize the fitting opportunity for such ejaculations. Some think because they may pray in any place and at all times that therefore seasons of prayer may be neglected with impunity; but only he who delights in communion with God, and does not omit set times for such communion, finds that when the emergency arises, and but a moment is given, he can pray as truly and with as much calmness as in his own closet. (W. P. Lockhart.)

Ejaculatory prayer

I. The nature of ejaculatory prayer. It differs from other kinds of prayer, in that–

1. It is dependent upon no place. Prayer is founded upon a full conviction of the natural perfection of God; His omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. On the conviction that the object of prayer is everywhere present, and that we may in every place make known our request. Artisan, merchant, physician can pray wherever they may be.

2. It is dependent on no particular time.

3. It is dependent on no particular occasion. No need to wait for Sabbath or hour of public worship.

II. Examples of ejaculatory prayer. Abrahams servant (Gen 24:12); Samson (Jdg 16:28); Stephen (Act 7:59-60); Christ on various occasions.

III. Necessary occasions for ejaculatory prayer.

1. When suddenly called to important and difficult duties.

2. The Sabbath day and the assembly of the faithful. If hearers were more engaged in ejaculatory prayer, ministers would be more successful preachers.

3. The hour of temptation.

4. The hour of sickness.

IV. The advantages of ejaculatory prayer.

1. It main-rains an habitual sense of our dependence upon God.

2. It preserves our minds in a proper tone for the various exercises of devotion.

3. It is a powerful preventive against sin.

4. It makes us bold to contend with enemies or difficulties.

5. It quickens our zeal and activity in the cause of God. (J. A. James.)

Spiritual recollectedness

This is a remarkable illustration of religious presence of mind.

I. The outcome of a consecrated life.

II. The result of long habit.

III. A mark of self-distrusting humility.

IV. A source of incalculable blessing. (Homiletic Commentary.)

Ejaculatory prayer

It was–

I. Suddenly required.

II. Silently offered.

III. Suitably addressed.

IV. Very brief.

V. Completely successful. (Homiletic Commentary.)

Ejaculatory prayer

Nehemiah had made inquiry as to the state of the city of Jerusalem, and the tidings he heard caused him bitter grief. Why should not my countenance be sad, he said, when the city, the place of my fathers sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? He could not endure that it should be a mere ruinous heap. Laying the matter to heart, he did not begin to speak to other people about what they would do, nor did he draw up a wonderful scheme about what might be done if so many thousand people joined in the enterprise; but it occurred to him that he would do something himself. This is just the way that practical men start a matter. The unpractical will plan, arrange, and speculate about what may be done, but the genuine, thorough-going lover of Zion puts this question to himself–What can you do? Coming so far, he resolved to set apart a time for prayer. He never had it off his mind for nearly four months. When he slept he dreamed about Jerusalem. When he woke, the first thought was Poor Jerusalem! The man of one thing, you know, is a terrible man; and when one single passion has absorbed the whole of his manhood something will be sure to come of it. Before long Nehemiah had an opportunity. Men of God, if you want to serve God and cannot find the propitious occasion, wait awhile in prayer and your opportunity will break on your path like a sunbeam. There was never a true and valiant heart that failed to find a fitting sphere somewhere or other in His service. That opportunity came, it is true, in a way which he could not have expected. It came through his own sadness of heart. This matter preyed upon his mind till he began to look exceedingly unhappy. But you see when the opportunity did come there was trouble with it, for he says, I was very sore afraid. You want to serve God, young man; you want to be at work. Perhaps you do not know what that work involves It is not all pleasure. Thus have we traced Nehemiah up to the particular point where our text concerns him.

I. The fact that nehemiah prayed challenges attention. He had been asked a question by his sovereign. The proper thing you would suppose was to answer it. Not so. Before he answered he prayed to the God of heaven. I do not suppose the king noticed the pause. Probably the interval was not long enough to be noticed, but it was long enough for God to notice it. We are the more astonished at his praying, because he was so evidently perturbed in mind. When you are fluttered and put out you may forget to pray. Do you not, some of you, account it a valid excuse for omitting your ordinary devotion? At least, if any one had said to you, You did not pray when you were about that business, you would have replied, How could I? So habitually was he in communion with God that as soon as he found himself in a dilemma he flew away to God, just as the dove would fly to hide herself in the clefts of the rock.

1. His prayer was the more remarkable on this occasion, because he must have felt very eager about his object. The king asks him what it is he wants, and his whole heart is set upon building up Jerusalem. Are not you surprised that he did not at once say, O king, live for ever. I long to build up Jerusalems walls. Give me all the help thou canst? But no, eager as he was to pounce upon the desired object, he withdraws his hand until it is said, So I prayed to the God of heaven. I would that every Christians heart might have just that holy caution that did not permit him to make such haste as to find ill-speed.

2. It is all the more surprising that he should have deliberately prayed just then, because he had been already praying for the past three or four months concerning the selfsame matter. Some of us would have said, That is the thing I have been praying for; now all I have got to do is to take it and use it. Why pray any more? But no, you will always find that the man who has prayed much is the man to pray more. If you are familiar with the mercy-seat you will constantly visit it.

3. One thing more is worth recollecting, namely, that he was in a kings palace, and in the palace of a heathen king, too; and he was in the very act of handing up to the king the goblet of wine. But this devout Israelite, at such a time and in such a place, when he stands at the kings foot to hold up to him the golden goblet, refrains from answering the kings question until first he has prayed to the God of heaven.

II. The manner of this prayer.

1. It was what we call ejaculatory prayer–prayer which, as it were, hurls a dart and then it is done. It was not the prayer which stands knocking at mercys door.

2. Notice, how very short it must have been. It was introduced–slipped in, sandwiched in–between the kings question and Nehemiahs answer.

3. We know, also, that it must have been a silent prayer; and not merely silent as to sounds but silent as to any outward signs–perfectly secret. Artaxerxes never knew that Nehemiah prayed, though he stood probably within a yard of him. In the innermost shrine of the temple–in the holy of holies of his own secret soul–there did he pray. It was a prayer on the spot. He did not go to his chamber as Daniel did, and open the window.

4. I have no doubt from the very wording of the text that it was a very intense and direct prayer. That was Nehemiahs favourite name for God–the God of heaven. He knew whom he was praying to. He did not draw a bow at a venture and shoot his prayers anyhow.

5. It was a prayer of a remarkable kind. I know it was so, because Nehemiah never forgot that he did pray it.

III. To recommend to you this excellent style of praying.

1. To deal with this matter practically, then, it is the duty and privilege of every Christian to have set times of prayer.

2. But now, having urged the importance of such habitual piety, I want to impress on you the value of another sort of prayer, namely, the short brief, quick, frequent ejaculations of which Nehemiah gives us a specimen. And I recommend this, because it hinders no engagement and occupies no time. It requires you to go to no particular place. No altar, no church, no so-called sacred place is needed, but wherever you are, just such a little prayer as that will reach the ear of God, and win a blessing. Such a prayer as that can be offered anywhere, under any circumstances. The advantage of such a way of praying is that you can pray often and pray always. Such prayer may be suggested by all sorts of surroundings.

3. These prayers are commendable, because they are truly spiritual. This kind of prayer is free from any suspicion that it is prompted by the corrupt motive of being offered to please men. If I see sparks coming out of a chimney I know there is a fire inside somewhere, and ejaculatory prayers are like the sparks that fly from a soul that is filled with burning coals of love to Jesus Christ. Short, ejaculatory prayers are of great use to us. Oftentimes they check us. Bad-tempered people, if you were always to pray just a little before you let angry expressions fly from your lips, why many times you would not say those naughty words at all. The bit of offering these brief prayers would also check your confidence in your self. It would show your dependence upon God.

4. Besides, they actually bring us blessings from heaven. I believe it is very suitable to some persons of a peculiar temperament who could not pray for a long time to save their lives. Their minds are rapid and quick. But if I must give you a selection of suitable times I should mention such as these. Whenever you have a great joy, cry, Lord, make this a real blessing to me. Do not exclaim with others, Am I not a lucky fellow? but say, Lord, give me more grace, and more gratitude, now that Thou dost multiply Thy favours. When you have got any arduous undertaking on hand or a heavy piece of business, do not touch it till you have breathed your soul out in a, short prayer. When you have a difficulty before you, and you are seriously perplexed, when business has got into a tangle or a confusion which you cannot unravel or arrange, breathe a prayer. Are the children particularly troublesome to you? Do you think that there is a temptation before you? Do you begin to suspect that somebody is plotting against you? Now for a prayer, Lead me in plain path, because of mine enemies. Are you at work at the bench, or in a shop, or a warehouse, where lewd conversation and shameful blasphemies assail your ears? Now for a short prayer. Does sin begin to fascinate you? Now for a prayer–a warm, earnest, passionate cry, Lord, hold Thou me up. And when the shadow of death gathers round you, and strange feelings flush or chill you, and plainly tell that you near the journeys end, then pray. Oh! that is a time for ejaculation. Hide not Thy face from me, O Lord; or this, Be not far from me, O God, will doubtless suit you. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, were the thrilling words of Stephen in his extremity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Ejaculatory prayer

Such a sudden uplifting of the soul to God is the most real of all prayers. The man who can thus find God in a moment must be in the habit of frequently resorting to the Divine presence. This ready prayer only springs to the lips of a man who lives in a daily habit of prayer. The deliberate exercises of adoration, confession, and petition prepare for the one sudden ejaculation. There we see the deep river which supplies the sea of devotion from which the momentary prayer is cast up as the spray of a wave. We may compare Nehemiahs two kinds of prayer with our Lords full and calm intercession in Joh 17:1-26. and the short, agonised cry from the Cross. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)

Ejaculatory prayer

I. The person named.

1. As patriot.

2. As statesman.

3. As a man of God. Not guided by the policy of the world. He did nothing without prayer.

II. The occasion. A moment needing great wisdom.

III. The lesson taught. The great duty of ejaculatory prayer. Various uses:

1. Throws light on such texts as 1Th 5:17 and 1Co 10:31.

2. Comfort in bodily pain (Psa 103:13; Psa 119:2).

3. Helps to victory over sin. (Canon Titcomb, M. A.)

Prayer before choosing

At the outset two things strike us here.

1. A rare opportunity for worldly advancement. Here is a king saying to his cupbearer, What dost thou want me to do for thee? What a chance this for any man! Wealth, dignity, influence, all put within his reach, left to depend upon his choice.

2. A rare treatment of such an opportunity. What should we say if our sovereign should speak thus to us? Most would say, Give us a mansion to live in, lordly estate as our inheritance, dazzling titles and extensive patronage. What said Nehemiah? He paused and reflected, and then he prayed. He would not choose for himself. Man is a choosing creature; his daily life is made up of a series of choices; he has to reject and accept in order to live.

I. God alone knows what is best for us. Who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life? Man is constantly making mistakes in this matter. What he wants and struggles for as a prize sometimes turns out to be one of his sorest calamities. Because Moses looked to heaven in such a case, he chose a life which to unregenerate man would be revolting.

II. God always desires what is best for us. He made us to be happy. That He desires our happiness is clear–

1. From the capacity of enjoyment with which He has endowed us.

2. From the elements of happiness with which the world abounds.

3. From the mission of His only-begotten Son.

III. God, in answer to prayer, is ever ready to bestow what is best for us. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. Conclusion: Let us act ever upon the principle that prayer should precede choice. (Homilist.)

The spiritual telegraph

I. How great is the privilege of prayer. Great indeed is the privilege of all this access to the mercy-seat, but how unspeakable is the joy and the consolation of habitual communion with God, and of taking occasion from duties, trials, or mercies, as they follow one another, to lift up the heart in pious ejaculation. The word ejaculation is derived from the Latin jaculum, an arrow, and suggests the rapidity and earnestness with which such a prayer can be winged up to the God of heaven. We have seen how Nehemiah interposed a prayer of this kind as a devout parenthesis between the kings request and his own reply. And there is no book of Scripture so remarkable for ejaculatory prayer as the Book of Nehemiah. Such an acknowledgment of God in our ways is no hindrance, but rather a mighty help in business. That which calms the mind, fixes the purpose, and strengthens moral principle, must be a great assistance, whether in duty or trial. As Fuller remarks, Ejaculations take not up any room in the soul. They give liberty of callings, so that at the same instant one may follow his proper vocation. The husbandman may dart forth an ejaculation, and not make a halt the more. The seaman nevertheless steers his ship right in the darkest night. The field wherein the bees feed is no whir the barer for their biting: when they have taken their full repast on flowers or grass, the ox may feed, the sheep fatten on their reversions. The reason is because those little chemists distil only the refined part of the flower, leaving the greaser substance thereof. So ejaculations bind not men to any bodily observance, only busy the spiritual half, which maketh them consistent with the prosecution of any other employment. The rapidity and brevity of ejaculatory prayer has frequently been illustrated by a reference to the electric telegraph, the greatest achievement of modern science. Christ has opened a pathway down which redeeming mercy may flow into the heart of the sinner, and by which the aspirations and longings of that penitent sinner may climb up to his reconciled God and Father. Christians, however, can tell of something quicker far than electricity. Thought, winging its way by prayer, travels instantaneously from the depths of a penitents need to the height of Gods throne in heaven. Who can estimate the distance thus travelled, or the relief thus experienced? The child cries, and the Father answers. The sinner weeps, and the Saviour draws near to wipe away his tears, and to fill him with an overflowing gladness.

II. But if the privilege of prayer be great, How intensely joyous is the answer. Recurring to the narrative, let us observe in the gracious answer to Nehemiahs prayer that delay is not denial. Four weary months passed before Nehemiah had the opportunity of bringing under the kings notice the desolation of Zion. The answer to prayer is as sure as Divine power, faithfulness, and love can make it. The providence of God concurs sweetly with His grace in this answer. The answer, moreover, to Nehemiahs request, through the good hand of his God upon him, was overflowing and abundant. The utmost, probably, that he had anticipated would be a full permission to resign his duties at court, and to go to Jerusalem. But he received much more than this. He had the large-hearted sanction of his master for all his undertakings. He was provided with a cavalry escort, with letters for safe conduct beyond the river, and ample material for his work. Our God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. (J. M. Randall.)

Ejaculatory prayer in critical junctures

This kind is a short petition, hurled like a dart at its mark.

I. When? In critical junctures.

1. Before choice.

2. Before sudden action.

3. In danger. (The sinking Peter.)

II. Why?

1. Because critical junctures admit of no other kind.

2. Because it leads to wisdom (Pro 3:6).

3. Because it tranquilises the mind.

4. Because it would prevent sudden action.

III. How?

1. Do we pray at all?

2. Do we cultivate the spirit of prayer? (1Th 5:17).

3. Do occasions arise for ejaculatory prayer?

4. Would it help us when buying or selling, when making calls and tempted to gossip or tell white lies? (L. O. Thompson.)

The praying patriot

The true secret of his success was Divine interposition in his behalf.

1. Nehemiah, under God, made the most of this opportunity. He had waited patiently for it; and now, when it came, he did not fail to turn it to the best account. It is not always that this is done. Many, we fear, if they had the chance, would be more ready to injure the servants of Christ than to do them good, and to cripple and damage His cause rather than extend it. And where another spirit prevails, have we not often to mourn over lost opportunities of doing good? or over opportunities of doing good that have been very imperfectly improved?

2. We are reminded that prayer does not supersede efforts in other directions. Nehemiah did not content himself with the thought that he had prayed for Jerusalem, and for its poor inhabitants. He supple mented his praying by using his best endeavours to secure such help as man could render. And did he under-estimate the power of prayer by this procedure? We think not. His conduct showed that he was neither irreligious, on the one hand, nor fanatical on the other. Some objects are best accomplished by prayer alone. Some persons are so placed now that all we can do in their behalf is to pray for them; and some objects are of such a nature that we cannot advance them other wise than by giving them an interest in our prayers. But, as a rule, we may, and ought, to do something more than this for a good cause.

3. Answers to prayer should be gratefully acknowledged. (T. Rowson.)

Ejaculatory prayer

In hard havens, so choked up with the envious sands that great ships, drawing many feet of water, cannot come near, lighter and lesser pinnaces may freely and safely arrive. When we are time-bound, place-bound, so that we cannot compose our selves to make a large, solemn prayer, this is the right instant for ejaculations, whether orally uttered or only poured forth inwardly in the heart. (A. Fuller.)

The flame of devotion constant

The sacrifices of prayer and praise cannot be always ascending; but the flame of devotion to kindle them, as opportunity may serve, ought never to wax dim. (Hugh Stowell, M. A.)

The devotional spirit

Of all the habits of the new man, there is none more distinctive, none more conducive to his souls health and happiness, none more essential to his consistency of conduct and beauty of holiness, than the devotional spirit. (Hugh Stowell, M. A.)

Prayer in few words

We make a great many mistakes about prayer; and one of them is that we dont think we have prayed properly unless we have prayed a certain time. But a few moments of real prayer are better than many minutes of only formal prayer. For my own part, says a friend, if one may talk of a best in the matter of ones prayers, I find that the best prayers I can make are very short ones indeed. Sometimes they have only one sentence, and they are by no means always said upon my knees. They are offered up while I am walking about, or lying awake at night, or riding in the train. When Bengel, the great commentator, was too weary to pray, all he said was, Lord, Thou knowest that it is between us to-day as it was yesterday; and so he went to sleep. A young man, who was worn by sick ness and suffering, had only strength to pray in short and broken sentences His heart was filled with foreboding as Satan whispered that the great God could never listen to such a prayer. Suddenly he came upon these words: God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few. Ah! he said, I have found a verse written expressly for me. God will accept the few words I can utter; now I will trust and not be afraid. If no man is heard for his much speaking, no man is rejected for his little speaking–if compressed into that little be the earnestness of his heart. (Signal.)

Prayer in perplexity

A little child, playing with a handful of cords, when they begin to get into a tangle, goes at once to her mother, that her patient fingers may unravel the snarl. How much better this than to pull and tug at the cords till the tangle becomes inextricable I May not many of us learn a lesson from the little child? Would it not be better for us, whenever we find the slightest entanglement in any of our affairs, or the arising of any perplexity, to take it at once to God, that His skilful hands may set it right?

Prayer heard in heaven

Ejaculatory prayer is like the rope of a belfry; the bell is in one room, and the end of the rope which sets it a-ringing in another. Perhaps the bell may not be heard in the apartment where the rope is, but it is heard in its own apartment. Moses laid hold of the rope and pulled it hard on the shore of the Red Sea; and though no one heard or knew anything about it in the lower chamber, the bell rang loudly in the upper one. (Williams of Wern.)

The swiftness of prayer

We may, if we please, have a mail to heaven, conveying in a moment intelligence of our condition and concerns, our wants and our desires, to our God and Father, and bringing back to us a gracious answer, with advice and comfort, protection and help. Prayer is the swift courier, and sighs are the winged messengers. Doves have been trained to fly from place to place, carrying letters in a little casket fastened to their neck or foot. They are swift of flight; but our prayers and sighs are swifter, for they take but a moment to pass from earth to heaven, and bear the troubles of our heart to the heart of God. (R. Scriver.)

Ejaculatory prayer possible to busy people

The following extract is from a letter addressed by a poor woman to the editor of the Banner of Faith: Poor women with large families often think they have little time for prayer or praise. As I am a poor woman with a large family, and know the value of prayer and praise, I will tell them how I find time for it. Whilst I am cleaning the house I lift my heart to God and say, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me, for Christs sake. Amen. When I am washing the clothes I say, Wash me in Thy blood, O Jesus; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Then as I get to each of my childrens clothes I pray for them separately, not aloud, but in my heart. Again, if I pick up the shirt of one who drinks, I ask God to change his heart, to show him his state in Gods sight, and to help him to give up drink and become a sober, godly youth. If I am washing the shirt of another who has a horrid temper, that is a terror to us all, I pray to God to break his stubborn temper, to soften his heart of stone, and give him a heart of flesh. If I am washing anything belonging to a girl who is idle, then I pray God to show her her sin, and change her whole nature, by the Holy Spirit. Yes, I pray for each as I know their need. Then when I am sewing I find lots of time both for prayer and praise. When I light or mend the fire, I say in my heart, Kindle, O Lord, a sacred fire in this cold heart of mine. (E. J. Hardy, M. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER II

Artaxerxes, observing the sorrow of Nehemiah, inquires into the

cause, 1, 2.

Nehemiah shows him the cause, and requests permission to go and

rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 3-6.

The king grants it, and gives him letters to the governors beyond

the river, 7, 8.

He sets out on his journey, 9.

Sanballat and Tobiah are grieved to find he had got such a

commission, 10.

He comes to Jerusalem; and, without informing any person of his

business, examines by night the state of the city, 11-16.

He informs the priests, nobles, and rulers, of his design and

commission, 17, 18.

The design is turned into contempt by Sanballat, Tobiah, and

Geshem, 19.

Nehemiah gives them a suitable answer, 20.

NOTES ON CHAP. II

Verse 1. Month Nisan] Answering to a part of our March and April.

I took up the wine] It is supposed that the kings of Persia had a different cup-bearer for each quarter of the year, and that it had just now come to Nehemiah’s turn.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

In the month Nisan; which was four months after he had heard those sad tidings. The reason of this long silence and delay might be manifold; either because he thought fit that some time should be spent by himself, and possibly others of his brethren, in seeking God by solemn prayer and fasting, for Gods blessing and the good success of this great affair; or because he could not take so long and dangerous a journey in the depth of winter; or because his turn of attending upon the king did not come to him till that time; or because till then he wanted a fit opportunity to move it to the king, by reason of the kings indisposition, or occasions, or multitude of attendants, among whom there probably were divers enemies to the Jews, who, he feared, might hinder his design and desire.

In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes; Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of the great Xerxes, who reigned both with his father, and after his death alone: whence the years of his reign are computed two ways, one from the death of Xerxes, and the other from his first entrance upon the administration of the kingdom, which was committed to him in the fifth year of Xerxes, when he began the Grecian war, and left his son king or viceroy in his stead, as the manner of the Persians was. It may seem doubtful, and is not much material, which way of computation is here used. Others understand this of Artaxerxes Mnemon.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. it came to pass in the monthNisanThis was nearly four months after he had learned thedesolate and ruinous state of Jerusalem (Ne1:1). The reasons for so long a delay cannot be ascertained.

I took up the wine, and gaveit unto the kingXENOPHONhas particularly remarked about the polished and graceful manner inwhich the cupbearers of the Median, and consequently the Persian,monarchs performed their duty of presenting the wine to their royalmaster. Having washed the cup in the king’s presence and poured intotheir left hand a little of the wine, which they drank in hispresence, they then handed the cup to him, not grasped, but lightlyheld with the tips of their thumb and fingers. This description hasreceived some curious illustrations from the monuments of Assyria andPersia, on which the cupbearers are frequently represented in the actof handing wine to the king.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And it came to pass in the month Nisan; in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes,…. It was still but in the twentieth year of his reign; for though Nisan or March was the first month of the year with the Jews, and from whence the reigns of their kings were dated l; yet, with other nations, Tisri or September was the beginning of the reigns of their kings m; so that Chisleu or November being since, see Ne 1:1, it was no more in Nisan or March than the twentieth of the said king’s reign, and was three or four months after Nehemiah had first heard of the distress of his people; which time he either purposely spent in fasting and prayer on that account, or until now his turn did not come about to exercise his office, in waiting upon the king as his cupbearer: but now it was

that wine was before him; the king; it was brought and set in a proper place, from whence it might be taken for his use:

and I took up the wine, and gave it to the king; according to Xenophon n, the cupbearer with the Persians and Medes used to take the wine out of the vessels into the cup, and pour some of it into their left hand, and sup it up, that, if there was any poison in it, the king might not be harmed, and then he delivered it to him upon three fingers o:

now I had not been before time sad in his presence; but always pleasant and cheerful, so that the sadness of his countenance was the more taken notice of.

l Misn. Roshhashanah, c. 1. sect. 3. m T. Bab. Rashhashanah, fol. 3. 1. n Cyropaedia, l. 1. c. 11. o Vid. Heliodor. Ethiopic. l. 7. c. 27.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Neh 2:1-2

In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, Nehemiah as cupbearer took the wine and handed it to the king. Nisan is, according to the Hebrew calendar, the first month of the year; yet here, as in Neh 1:1-11, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes is named, and the month Chisleu there mentioned (Neh 1:1), which, after the Hebrew method of computing the year, was the ninth month and preceded Nisan by three months, is placed in the same year. This can only be explained on the grounds that either the twentieth year of Artaxerxes did not coincide with the year of the calendar, but began later, or that Nehemiah here uses the computation of time current in anterior Asia, and also among the Jews after the captivity in civil matters, and which made the new year begin in autumn. Of these two views we esteem the latter to be correct, since it cannot be shown that the years of the king’s reign would be reckoned from the day of his accession. In chronological statements they were reckoned according to the years of the calendar, so that the commencement of a year of a reign coincided with that of the civil year. If, moreover, the beginning of the year is placed in autumn, Tishri is the first, Chisleu the third, and Nisan the seventh month. The circumstances which induced Nehemiah not to apply to the king till three months after his reception of the tidings which so distressed him, are not stated. It is probable that he himself required some time for deliberation before he could come to a decision as to the best means of remedying the distresses of Jerusalem; then, too, he may not have ventured at once to bring his request before the king from fear of meeting with a refusal, and may therefore have waited till an opportunity favourable to his desires should present itself. , “wine was before the king,” is a circumstantial clause explanatory of what follows. The words allude to some banquet at which the king and queen were present. The last sentence, “And I have not been sad before him” ( according to of Neh 2:2, of a sad countenance), can neither mean, I had never before been sad before him (de Wette); nor, I was accustomed not to be sad before him; but, I had not been sad before him at the moment of presenting the cup to him (Bertheau), because it would not have been becoming to serve the king with a sad demeanour: comp. Est 4:2. The king, however, noticed his sadness, and inquired: “Why is thy countenance sad, since thou art not sick? this is nothing but sorrow of heart, i.e., thy sadness of countenance can arise only from sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid;” because the unexpected question obliged him to explain the cause of his sorrow, and he could not tell how the king would view the matter, nor whether he would favour his ardent desire to assist his fellow-countrymen in Judah.

Neh 2:3

He nevertheless openly expressed his desire, prefacing it by the accustomed form of wishing the king prosperity, saying: “Let the king live for ever;” comp. Dan 2:4; Dan 3:9. “Why should not my countenance be sad? for the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and its gates are burned with dire.” The question, Why … ? means: I have certainly sufficient reason for sadness. The reason is, that ( ) the city where are the graves of my fathers lieth waste.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Nehemiah’s Request to the King.

B. C. 445.

      1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.   2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,   3 And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?   4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.   5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.   6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.   7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;   8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

      When Nehemiah had prayed for the relief of his countrymen, and perhaps in David’s words (Ps. li. 18, Build thou the walls of Jerusalem), he did not sit still and say, “Let God now do his own work, for I have no more to do,” but set himself to forecast what he could do towards it. Our prayers must be seconded with our serious endeavours, else we mock God. Nearly four months passed, from Chisleu to Nisan (from November to March), before Nehemiah made his application to the king for leave to go to Jerusalem, either because the winter was not a proper time for such a journey, and he would not make the motion till he could pursue it, or because it was so long before his month of waiting came, and there was no coming into the king’s presence uncalled, Esth. iv. 11. Now that he attended the king’s table he hoped to have his ear. We are not thus limited to certain moments in our addresses to the King of kings, but have liberty of access to him at all times; to the throne of grace we never come unseasonably. Now here is,

      I. The occasion which he gave the king to enquire into his cares and griefs, by appearing sad in his presence. Those that speak to such great men must not fall abruptly upon their business, but fetch a compass. Nehemiah would try whether he was in a good humour before he ventured to tell him his errand, and this method he took to try him. He took up the wine and gave it to the king when he called for it, expecting that then he would look him in the face. He had not used to be sad in the king’s presence, but conformed to the rules of the court (as courtiers must do), which would admit no sorrows, Esth. iv. 2. Though he was a stranger, a captive, he was easy and pleasant. Good men should do what they can by their cheerfulness to convince the world of the pleasantness of religious ways and to roll away the reproach cast upon them as melancholy; but there is a time for all things, Eccl. iii. 4. Nehemiah now saw cause both to be sad and to appear so. The miseries of Jerusalem gave him cause to be sad, and his showing his grief would give occasion to the king to enquire into the cause. He did not dissemble sadness, for he was really in grief for the afflictions of Joseph, and was not like the hypocrites who disfigure their faces; yet he could have concealed his grief if it had been necessary (the heart knows its own bitterness, and in the midst of laughter is often sad), but it would now serve his purpose to discover his sadness. Though he had wine before him, and probably, according to the office of the cup-bearer, did himself drink of it before he gave it to the king, yet it would not make his heart glad, while God’s Israel was in distress.

      II. The kind notice which the king took of his sadness and the enquiry he made into the cause of it (v. 2): Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? Note, 1. We ought, from a principle of Christian sympathy, to concern ourselves in the sorrows and sadnesses of others, even of our inferiors, and not say, What is it to us? Let not masters despise their servants’ griefs, but desire to make them easy. The great God is not pleased with the dejections and disquietments of his people, but would have them both serve him with gladness and eat their bread with joy. 2. It is not strange if those that are sick have sad countenances, because of what is felt and what is feared; sickness will make those grave that were most airy and gay: yet a good man, even in sickness, may be of good cheer if he knows that his sins are forgiven. 3. Freedom from sickness is so great a mercy that while we have that we ought not to be inordinately dejected under any outward burden; yet sorrow for our own sins, the sins of others, and the calamities of God’s church, may well sadden the countenance, without sickness.

      III. The account which Nehemiah gave the king of the cause of his sadness, which he gave with meekness and fear. 1. With fear. He owned that now (though it appears by the following story that he was a man of courage) he was sorely afraid, perhaps of the king’s wrath (for those eastern monarchs assumed an absolute power of life and death, Dan 2:12; Dan 2:13; Dan 5:19) or of misplacing a word, and losing his request by the mismanagement of it. Though he was a wise man, he was jealous of himself, lest he should say any thing imprudently; it becomes us to be so. A good assurance is indeed a good accomplishment, yet a humble self-diffidence is not man’s dispraise. 2. With meekness. Without reflection upon any man, and with all the respect, deference, and good-will, imaginable to the king his master, he says, “Let the king live for ever; he is wise and good, and the fittest man in the world to rule.” He modestly asked, “Why should not my countenance be sad as it is when (though I myself am well and at east) the city” (the king knew what city he meant), “the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste?” Many are melancholy and sad but can give no reason for being so, cannot tell why nor wherefore; such should chide themselves for, and chide themselves out of, their unjust and unreasonable griefs and fears. But Nehemiah could give so good a reason for his sadness as to appeal to the king himself concerning it. Observe, (1.) He calls Jerusalem the place of his fathers’ sepulchres, the place where his ancestors were buried. It is good for us to think often of our fathers’ sepulchres; we are apt to dwell in our thoughts upon their honours and titles, their houses and estates, but let us think also of their sepulchres, and consider that those who have gone before us in the world have also gone before us out of the world, and their monuments are momentos to us. There is also a great respect owing to the memory of our fathers, which we should not be willing to see injured. All nations, even those that have had no expectation of the resurrection of the dead, have looked upon the sepulchres of their ancestors as in some degree sacred and not to be violated. (2.) He justifies himself in his grief: “I do well to be sad. Why should I not be so?” There is a time even for pious and prosperous men to be sad and to show their grief. The best men must not think to antedate heaven by banishing all sorrowful thoughts; it is a vale of tears we pass through, and we must submit to the temper of the climate. (3.) He assigns the ruins of Jerusalem as the true cause of his grief. Note, All the grievances of the church, but especially its desolations, are, and ought to be, matter of grief and sadness to all good people, to all that have a concern for God’s honour and that are living members of Christ’s mystical body, and are of a public spirit; they favour even Zion’s dust, Ps. cii. 14.

      IV. The encouragement which the king gave him to tell his mind, and the application he thereupon made in his heart to God, v. 4. The king had an affection for him, and was not pleased to see him melancholy. It is also probable that he had a kindness for the Jews’ religion; he had discovered it before in the commission he gave to Ezra, who was a churchman, and now again in the power he put Nehemiah into, who was a statesman. Wanting therefore only to know how he might be serviceable to Jerusalem, he asks this its anxious friend, “For what dost thou make request? Something thou wouldst have; what is it?” He was afraid to speak (v. 2), but this gave him boldness; much more may the invitation Christ has given us to pray, and the promise that we shall speed, enable us to come boldly to the throne of grace. Nehemiah immediately prayed to the God of heaven that he would give him wisdom to ask properly and incline the king’s heart to grant him his request. Those that would find favour with kings must secure the favour of the King of kings. He prayed to the God of heaven as infinitely above even this mighty monarch. It was not a solemn prayer (he had not opportunity for that), but a secret sudden ejaculation; he lifted up his heart to that God who understands the language of his heart: Lord, give me a mouth and wisdom; Lord, give me favour in the sight of this man. Note, It is good to be much in pious ejaculations, especially upon particular occasions. Wherever we are we have a way open heaven-ward. This will not hinder any business, but further it rather; therefore let no business hinder this, but give rise to it rather. Nehemiah had prayed very solemnly with reference to this very occasion (Neh 2:1; Neh 2:11), yet, when it comes to the push, he prays again. Ejaculations and solemn prayers must not jostle out one another, but each have its place.

      V. His humble petition to the king. When he had this encouragement he presented his petition very modestly and with submission to the king’s wisdom (v. 5), but very explicitly. He asked for a commission to go as governor to Judah, to build the wall of Jerusalem, and to stay there for a certain time, so many months, we may suppose; and then either he had his commission renewed or went back and was sent again, so that he presided there twelve years at least, ch. v. 14. He also asked for a convoy (v. 7), and an order upon the governors, not only to permit and suffer him to pass through their respective provinces, but to supply him with what he had occasion for, with another order upon the keeper of the forest of Lebanon to give him timber for the work that he designed.

      VI. The king’s great favour to him in asking him when he would return, v. 6. He intimated that he was unwilling to lose him, or to be long without him, yet to gratify him, and do a real office of kindness to his people, he would spare him awhile, and let him have what clauses he pleased inserted in his commission, v. 8. Here was an immediate answer to his prayer; for the seed of Jacob never sought the God of Jacob in vain. In the account he gives of the success of his petition he takes notice, 1. Of the presence of the queen; she sat by (v. 6), which (they say) was not usual in the Persian court, Esth. i. 11. Whether the queen was his back friend, that would have hindered him, and he observes it to the praise of God’s powerful providence that though she was by yet he succeeded, or whether she was his true friend, and it is observed to the praise of God’s kind providence that she was present to help forward his request, is not certain. 2. Of the power and grace of God. He gained his point, not according to his merit, his interest in the king, or his good management, but according to the good hand of his God upon him. Gracious souls take notice of God’s hand, his good hand, in all events which turn in favour of them. This is the Lord’s doing, and therefore doubly acceptable.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Nehemiah — Chapter 2

King’s Audience, Verses 1-8

The month of Nisan was the first month of the Jewish year and corresponds to late March-April in the modern calendar. The incident Nehemiah is now about to relate occurred in Nisan of the king’s twentieth year, about three months after he first received the news of Jerusalem’s desolate condition. Generally it appears that the circumstances were ordinary. Nehemiah was about his work of serving the king’s wine. But there was one important difference. Nehemiah’s sorrow and grief had progressed to the point it was apparent in his face, and the king took note of it.

In some eastern lands it was forbidden for servants to manifest sadness in the presence of the monarch. Not only had Nehemiah been unable to hide his feeling, but the king recognized that it was from dissatisfaction over some thing rather than an illness that indisposed him. Nehemiah tells his reader, “Then I was very sore afraid,” implying that the king could have severely punished him for this infraction of deportment in his presence. Nehemiah quickly acknowledges his disturbance, begging the king’s pardon by the customary address, “Let the king live for ever.” He was grieved because the city of his forefathers was lying waste, its gates burned and destroyed.

Artaxerxes realized that Nehemiah wanted to request something

from him and gave him permission to do so. At this juncture Nehemiah says he prayed to the God of heaven. He did not fall down on his knees and begin begging God to direct his petition to the king, nor pause and pray audibly in the king’s presence. The prayer was in his heart, from which place God could hear him as readily as though shouted in a loud voice. This teaches a lesson which Jesus and the apostles emphasized in the New Testament (Mat 6:7; 1Th 5:17).

Nehemiah asked that the king look favorably on his request to be allowed to go to Jerusalem, that he might build it up again. It is mentioned parenthetically that the queen was with the king, for an unexplained reason. It does suggest that Nehemiah was a special favorite in the court, and she may have been one of his benefactors in the past. The king showed that he was prone to grant the request by asking the term Nehemiah desired to absent himself from Shushan. Nehemiah comments, “So it pleased the king to send me;” and so recognizing the favorable response he set a time, which is nowhere stated in the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah also asked for a grant of access once he was back in the land, whereby he could acquire the needed materials for repair. He wanted letters to the governors “beyond the river,” and to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest. The letters would instruct these officers to co-operate with Nehemiah and to furnish the things he would need for the rebuilding. He would need beams for the gates, to restore the palace and the walls, and to build his own house. All these the king granted Nehemiah, and he readily accredits “the good hand of my God upon me.” Nehemiah, throughout his career, appears never to have forgot to pause and give God the honor for his successes. Compare the example of Abraham’s servant when he went to secure a bride for Isaac (Gen 24:26; Gen 24:48; Gen 24:52).

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

THE DIFFICULTIES OF REBUILDING

The opening chapter acquaints us with Nehemiahs very soul. The heart of the man is here exposed and the reader is permitted his deepest thought. He inquires after the remnant left in Jerusalem and learns that they are in great affliction and reproach, the walls of the city broken down, the gates burned, and he not only sits him down to weep, but mourns for days and fasts and prays before the God of Heaven, and his prayer as reported in chapter 1, Neh 1:5-11, is a model of intercession, while chapters 2 to 7 record the result of that petition before God.

These seven chapters suggest three things:

First, the strain of prayer and the exercise of patience. Chapters 1 and 2,

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 fathers 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 kings cupbearer (Neh 1:1-11).

Neh 2:1-20.

And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,

And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers sepulchres, lieth waste and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?

Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of Heaven.

And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers sepulchres, that I may build it.

And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;

And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the kings forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the kings letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.

When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the Children of Israel.

So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon.

And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.

Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the kings pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.

Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.

And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.

Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.

Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the kings words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.

But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said. What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?

Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of Heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem (Neh 2:1-20).

I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of Heaven (Neh 1:4). There are people who make easy work of prayer. They either repeat what their mothers taught them in infancy, Now I lay me down to sleep, or else they think over what they would like to have and lightly tell God about it at night or in the morning; or else they remember the famous story of the saint who was heard to say, Well, Lord, Pm glad we are on the same good terms! Good-night! and the whole exercise is finished. Or perhaps, as possibly the greater multitude, forget to pray before retiring, awake in the night and remember it, and while formulating the phrases, fall to sleep again.

There are people who never pray without agonizing. They hold a conviction that any appeal addressed to God must be voiced in sobs if heard in Heaven, and they take on prayer tones and assume sorrow, contrition, agony of soul, and such are wont to think that no one prays who does not cry aloud; but while such patented prayers produce strange and almost revolting feelings on the part of the discerning, it remains a fairly well established fact that true praying is no easy or lackadaisical task.

The prayer of Jacob at Peniel was no slight mental exercise. It consisted not in framing a few petitions. It is described in the Book as a wrestling with God all the night through, a clinging that would not let Him go without a blessing. Abraham in praying for Sodom, continued his petition; advanced his requests and did not let God go until the best possible proffer was secured. Moses in agony for Israel reached the point where he begged that if God would not bless them, He should blot his name out of the Book of remembrance. In Gethsemane, Jesus remained on knees and wrestled with the Father and not only cried in agony, If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me, but sweat great drops of blood.

Prayer is no mere passing of time in talk; prayer is no mere opportunity of literary expression or homiletical arrangement; prayer, at its best, is an agony; prayer, at its best, utterly exhausts; prayer consumes!

Christ, Himself, in teaching us how to pray, employed the illustration of the importunate widow who would not be turned aside but, prostrate before the unjust judge, kept her petitions going until he was wearied with her. Many times I have heard Dwight L: Moody pray and the memory of it will never pass from my mind. I am perfectly confident that a five-minute prayer passing Moodys lips exhausted him more than five hours of hard physical labor would have done; more than the hour sermon that followed, for while Moody assumed no agonizing tones, prayer with him was indeed a soul exercise. He went trembling into the presence of God, as Esther approached the king. He ordered his cause before Him as one who felt that the highest human interests and holiest were at stake. He came not back until he was conscious that he had been heard and his hearts request was fully before God.

Listen to the language of Nehemiahs prayer; I beseech Thee, O Lord God of Heaven * * Let Thine ear now be attentive and Thine eyes open. I pray before Thee now, day and night (Neh 1:3; Neh 1:6). Hear his confession of sin, Both I and my fathers house have sinned, Remember, I beseech Thee, and again, O Lord, I beseech Thee, let now Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant. Grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for he was the kings cupbearer.

But if prayer is exhausting, to wait for the answer is equally if not more so; for the man who truly prays is impatient. He yearns; he longs! Nehemiahs prayer seems to have been made in the month Chisleu, or December, and he waited until Nisan or April, before he had a chance with the king. Four months is a long time to wait when every moment is freighted with anxiety. The reports that had come to him of the condition of his loved city and its sacred temple, and of these blood relatives to whom he was bound as only a Jew is bound to his own, made every day of waiting seem like an eternity.

John Knox was heard, in a secret place behind the hedge-row, to pray, O God, give me Scotland or I die. Three times the passer-by heard this petition, wrung from his soul, and yet even Knoxs agony never exceeded that of Nehemiahthe waiting, weeping man!

Think what it would mean to you if the temple that we are now demolishing at Tenth Street had been in such state for years, and the place to which we were once wont to go and gladly worship God, and in which we once waited with such delightful songs and profitable exercise of soul, was never to rise again, and we knew that only God could call back its towers and make possible the completion of its auditorium and breathe His own Spirit, like a soul, into the same!

Joseph Parker said, Can we hear of sacred places burning without a single tear? Could we hear of St. Pauls cathedral being burned down without feeling we had sustained an irreparable loss, and if anything happened to that grand old Abbey at Westminster, we should feel as if a sacred place was gone, a sanctuary indeed, and as if it were every Englishmans duty to help put it up again.

When the cathedral at Rheims was destroyed, the entire Christian world revolted and grieved, and justly so; but that was a matter of pride rather than of passion. We may be moved with the report that the mansion on the boulevard has burned, but the souls deeps are smitten when one stands before the smoldering ashes of his own home, the place where he has thought and wrought, hoped and helped, planned and prayed. In a great sense, such a place is an essential part of life itself, and to smite it is to smite the soul of man.

To wait for the new building to come, to abide patiently until the walls rise again, and to look unto God who alone can bring order out of chaos, victory out of defeat, restoration out of despair; that is the strain for which few men are sufficient, but under which Nehemiah stood steadfastly.

But the whole of exhausting is not in waiting. Nehemiah proved sufficient for a second thing, namely, the exhausting stimulus of seeing plans perfected.

There are people who imagine that all weariness is over when once a work is well begun, clearly under way, with every prospect of completion. On the contrary, the opposite is true. That is when and where the truest exhaustion takes place. Its exhilaration we grant; its stimulus is often mistaken for strength; but it is none the less consuming.

Some years ago Mrs. Riley and myself sat down to think through plans for a home. Weeks we spent upon those plans, and they were weeks of pleasure. Anticipation played conspicuous part and the enthusiasm of new thought for this convenience and that cheered and encouraged, but when the building time came, the constant watch and care-taking concern was exhausting.

The members of the building committee of the First Baptist Church would bear kindred testimony. I doubt if any building the city of Minneapolis holds, had more time expended in thinking through plans than the two buildings upon the plans of which we have been engaged for years. They have been drawn three times, and the utmost endeavor was put into every detail, and yet the actual construction itself, while stimulating, has proven also exhausting. It may be difficult for racers to wait the word Go, and it is; and when once the race is commenced, the very stimulus of prospective victory leads one to forget self and muscles are not conscious of the strain, but with joy yield themselves to their task. The goal, however, never fails to find an exhausted runner.

But the greatest difficulty of this rebuilding is found in a third circumstance, namely, the increasing load of every conceivable opposition.

This opposition took varied forms; in fact, almost every form possible to Satanic suggestion.

Its first form was scorn. Sanballat and Tobiah laughed, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? wilt they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

Then, with a great guffaw they continued, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall (Neh 4:2-3).

What so hard to endure as scorn; what so difficult to bear as a laugh? It stings like a hornet! It is one of the things against which it is hard to go. The Professor who teaches evolution also teaches his students that ridicule is an insult to science. They know its power and they also know that that subject deserves it; and on that account they wince at the very suggestion. But, on any subject, ridicule is hard to bear. However the true builder, a leader like Nehemiah and his co-laborers go on joining wall to wall and will not be laughed out of court on a great and needful enterprise.

Seeing this, Sanballat and Tobiah changed voices, and, joining with Arabians, Ammonites and Ashdodites, they were very wroth, and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder if (Neh 4:7-8). The man who makes fun of you, when he finds his laughter ineffective, and your success assured, comes to hate, and if possible, to hurt. Human nature does not change through the coming and going of the centuries. All our enemies are of a kind; mockery at first, murder afterward. But, Gods man can commonly meet the true adversaries, Satans servants.

A far more difficult opposition is that recorded in the fifth chapter, the opposition of ones own. The Jews now join their complaints with the others, and the great cry of the people and their wives against their brethren was this:

We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.

Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.

There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the kings tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.

Yet now our flesh is the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards (Neh 5:2-5).

For the moment they forgot that no man among them had sacrificed as Nehemiah had sacrificed, and, in reckoning their losses, they overlooked the circumstance that he had shaken his lap out, leaving himself nothing. That was a harder opposition than was created by Sanballat and Tobiah.

The disappointment of Christs life was not in the fact that He faced the Cross; He came to do that. It was not in the cruelty of the nails that crushed His tender flesh; from all eternity that had been anticipated! But, His agony was in the lifting up a heel against Him by one out of the little circle, dear to Him. Never was sarcasm reduced to such keen edge and more deeply felt than in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ, looking into the face of Judas, said, FRIEND, wherefore art thou come?

FRIENDwhat that must have meant to Judas! If he knew the Scriptures, like a flash, Psa 41:9 filled his thought. My own familiar FRIEND, in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me (Psa 41:9).

And yet again how he would recall the words of the great Zechariah (Zec 13:6), And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My FRIENDS.

Blessed is the man, the members of whose house join with him in his enterprises; and cursed indeed is he who endures their opposition.

But Satan has other methods of opposition than scorn, warfare and domestic rebellion. In the sixth chapter Sanballat tried to effect a companionship and consequent compromise with Nehemiah. Four times over he sends requesting that they meet together for a conference and adjust their differences. The recent Convention of Baptists is now heralded as a triumph of brotherly love. The whole session has gone by and only a single protest characterized it, and only one man voiced that complaint and the newspapers have been filled with jubilation of the reports of peace. The fundamentalists have subsided and the path of the future is smooth! Such is the glared acclaim; and that in the face of the fact that in the last twelve months the most flagrant denials of the faith that ever passed the lips of Baptist men, or dribbled from the pens of Baptist writers, have gone brazenly into print. The peace that comes by a compromise of principle, a conference that results to the satisfaction of Gods enemies, a conference that follows a fellowship of Satanic plans; these are, after all, the most effective hindrances to the truth of God. And it is written to the eternal credit of Nehemiah that he fell into no such trap, but declined the conference, resented the approach, rejoicing that he had escaped the pit digged for him, and recorded the fact that the wall was finished on the twentieth and fifth day of the month, being completed in fifty-two days.

And this same man who had led in the building now organized to hold what he had gained, and the result was a revival.

Mark

THE STABLE FEATURES OF THIS REVIVAL

It commenced in a careful canvass of returned captives. The seventh chapter of the Book of Nehemiah would amaze the modernist, should he read the same. That individual imagines that the social surveys of the last few years constitute a twentieth century novelty, but here three thousand years ago Nehemiah orders a census taken with a view to knowing the strength of Israel and sounding out his possible resources, the fuller carrying out of which has seldom been equalled and never surpassed. The report rendered by the commissioned workers was perfect. He took count of the last man and of his possessions, and when it was finished, Nehemiah knew how many people he had upon whom he could dependforty-two thousand three hundred sixty, besides seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven servants and two hundred forty-five singing men and singing women.

There is a suggestion there for modernists; better count rather than estimate! My candid judgment is that the one sin that characterizes more ministers than any other is estimating versus counting. I went into a church where the preacher had claimed a congregation of forty-four hundred, and counted exactly twenty-two hundred seats, including the choir gallery; and in another church largely over-estimated, reporting six thousand, and counted exactly thirty-two hundred including the choir. Better count than estimate. One might greatly reduce his crowd but would increase his reputation for veracity and increase his self-respect. The man who goes to battle had best not count on soldiers he does not have, and the church of God is militant and cannot win its victories with congregations that are estimated, but never existed.

The relation, however, to such a careful reckoning of ones resources to a revival is intimate and logical. I am inclined to think that of the years of my pastorate in this church, no single meeting held in it has accomplished more for it than the two years campaign that commenced with a most careful canvass of the membership. A canvass itself suffices to bring a conviction of responsibility to the individual, and to waken interest in the task to be undertaken by the entire people. Nehemiah knew the principles of a revival thirty centuries ago as well as the evangelist knows them today.

The second feature of this revival is significant in the last degree: The Word of God was produced and read to all the people.

It was no brief reading; it went on for hours, from morning until midday, .before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the Book of the Law (Neh 8:3).

There will never be a revival of religion without a revival of Bible reading. We are publishing more Bibles than ever before in human history, but the individual is not reading the Bible as much as his father did, and the whole church of God feels the relapse. When the Christian takes his Book in hand and abides with it by the hour, when the family begins the day by reading a chapter from the Book, when the, preacher turns from textual sermons and revives expository preaching, when the Sunday School ceases from lesson helps and pores over the text itself, the revival will be well on the way.

There never will be strength in the church until we feed on the Bread from Heaven and on the meat of Gods Word; until we hold the milk bottle of that same Word to the lips of babes. If we would have a revival we must bring the Bible from its shelf of neglect; if we would have a revival we must exalt it against the charges of infidelity; if we would have a revival we must rescue the people themselves from indifference to this Book. We are novel readers now; we are readers of the daily newspapers; some few of the more industrious, are magazine readers; a smaller company still, are book-readers, but the Church of God waits Bible reading; and if the day of Bible study should suddenly break in upon usand there are some signs of it then as sure as day follows night, an unspeakable blessing immeasurable in extent, infinitely desirable in character, will fall on the sons of man.

But note again, Repentance, fasting, and a fresh covenant follows (Neh 8:9 to Neh 12:39). Impenitent people will never become Bible students. The gormandizing crowd will never give itself to Gods Word; the pleasure-seeking will never enter into covenant with the Lord.

However, if, in the wisdom of His grace, the present Bible movement voices itself in the fundamentals association, and the thousands of Bible conferences that have been held, in the Bible Unions of China and England, and America, shall result in earnest and sincere and increasing study of the Scriptures, we may well expect repentance to follow. Men will break with sin and will no longer make a god of their bellies, but will fast; and out of this conviction self-control will come and a fresh covenant, made in sincerity, and destined to be kept in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So much for the stable features of revival, let us conclude our Book study with

THE STUBBORN FACTS OF RE-OCCUPATION

These are recorded in chapters 11 to 13, and the first one that we face is this: The Jerusalem dwellers were recorded as especially favored. The rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city (Neh 11:1).

It is a significant suggestion: Jerusalem, the city of the king; Jerusalem, the captial city of the land; Jerusalem, the subject of every Jews love, and the choice of every Jews living.

It does make a difference where one lives. A Minneapolis minister, returning from the Orient, a few years since, in an address before the Baptist ministers, said, I spent some days in Jerusalem; it is a bum town!

But only the readers of the Old Testament know what the ancient Jerusalem was and what it meant to every living Jew. It was more than the capitol; it was more than the city of the king: it was more than beautiful; it was, to them, Divine! They believed that God Himself was there; and in a sense they were correct, for He had made every pledge of His Presence in the Temple, and He performed His promise. Ones life, in no small measure, is the result of ones location.

I think I may be pardoned in passing, if I pay tribute to this city. I declare it my conviction that life has meant more to me, that the burdens have pressed less heavily upon my shoulders, that the joy of living has itself been increased, and that I hold a confidence against decrepitude and old age that would be impossible, if I lived in a city less charming than this beautiful metropolis. Life is profoundly affected by location. In the northern woods of Minnesota I stumbled suddenly and unexpectedly upon a small house. I was hungry and supposed myself beyond the pale of civilization. Going in I was met at the door by a charming looking woman to whom I said, I am hungry and have a party of four friends with me; would it be possible for you to give us a dinner? She graciously answered, It would be a delight to give you a dinner; bring your friends in. When the dinner was over and I tried to pay her, she declined to receive anything, and it was only by leaving the money on the table that I could force it upon her. She said, I have not seen a living face, except that of my little son, for three months; you cannot imagine the pleasure this dinner has been to me, for it has meant companionship. I asked, Will you tell me why you live here away from all civilization and friends?

Yes, sir, I live here with pleasure and with joy. In Southern Illinois I dragged a miserable existence; in these north woods my health is recovered and living is a joy.

Who will say that location has nothing to do with living. Jerusalem! Ah, that was the city coveted by every Jew, and the tenth man permitted to dwell there dwelt not only nigh to the Temple but nigh to God; and whatever else may be said of the Jew, it was the acme of his existence that he believed God and sought to live near God.

You will find again that in this city special provision was made for the priests and Levites. God never forgets those He calls to be His special servants !

There are special promises made to all Gods people! In fact, Dean Frost, our former great-souled co-laborer, used to say that there were thousands of promises in the Bible, and that with a solitary exception, they were all made to Gods own, and that exception was salvation proffered to the sinner. But while all Gods people are the subject of promises, the servant whose entire time is devoted to Gods work is the subject of His special promise, and the object of His constant care. The Levite was never forgotten; the priest was never overlooked. By law the provisions made for them both were adequate.

I meet a good many ministers who tell me they feel it incumbent upon them to look out for themselves, and judging by their conduct, they are keen on the job. They hunt for positions; they seek compensation; they corral opportunities. It all raises a serious question, whether one has much to do with the subject of caring for himself if he be the true servant of God, or whether it is sufficient for him to devote himself to that service and leave the whole question of his care to Him who careth and never faileth.

Finally, by the Law of the Lord certain were excluded from the city. Chapter 13.

Mark who they were: Ammonites and Moabites were not to come into the congregation of God forever, and note the reason, They met not the Children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them that he should curse them (Neh 13:2).

It is a grievous thing to refuse help to Gods people in the hour of their need. It is more grievous, a thousand-fold, than the average man imagines. It is not a rejection of the people onlyit is a rejection of Him. The twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew is a further presentation of this subject. The great day of Judgment has come; men are separated to the right and to the left, after the manner of sheep and goats, and the King is saying to them on His right hand,

Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in:

Naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.

Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink?

When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee?

Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.

Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not.

Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?

Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal (Mat 25:34-46).

And yet this is not the only sin that excludes. After all, it is not sin that does exclude, save the sin of having rejected Jesus. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him (Joh 3:36).

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

EXPLANATORY NOTES.]

Neh. 2:1. Nisan] Called Abib in Exo. 13:4, first month in Hebrew national year. Corresponds to parts of our March and April.

Neh. 2:3. Let the king live for ever] (Heb. hammelek lolam yihyeh.) (Comp. 1Ki. 1:31; Dan. 2:4; Dan. 6:6-21.) The mere formula of address, like our God save the Queen. Even Daniel used it without compunction. The place of my fathers sepulchres] The Persians regarded their burial-places as peculiarly sacred.

Neh. 2:6. The queen also sitting by him] Some have thought this was Esther, but Shegal refers to the principal wife of the king. Damaspia was the name of the chief wife according to Ctesias.

Neh. 2:7. The governors] (Heb. pahawoth, modern pacha.) Oriental name for viceroy. Beyond the river] i. e. Euphrates.

Neh. 2:8. Asaph, the keeper of the kings forest] may have been a Jew. Name, Hebrew. Word translated forest is pardes, our paradise. It signifies a walled round place, a preserve of trees. Probably a royal park of which Asaph was keeper. The palace which appertained to the house] Probably Solomons palace, situated at the south-east corner of the temple-area, was next to the house; i. e., the temple as the house of God (2Ch. 23:12-15). The house that I shall enter into] Some think this refers also to the temple, which Nehemiah would enter into to inspect; more probably the house where be would dwell during his stay in Jerusalem.

Neh. 2:10. Sanballat the Horonite] (Beth-horon, in full.) Two Horons in Palestine, a few miles north of Jerusalem; also Horonaim in. Moab. Sanballat, probably a native of the last mentioned, was a Moabite; and satrap of Samaria under the Persians. Tobiah, his vizier or chief adviser. Origin of name Sanballat uncertain. Tobiah, the servant, the Ammonite] Tobiah, a Jewish name (Ezr. 2:60; Zec. 6:10). Probably a renegade Jew, who had become a slave, and had risen by his talents and cunning to be Sanballats chief officer, hence the epithet, Tobiah, the slave.

Neh. 2:13. The gate of the valley] (Heb. Shaor haggai.) Probably overlooking valley of Hinnom, called in Jer. 2:23 simply the valley. It was about 1200 feet south of the present Jaffa gate. The Septuagint calls it Portam Galil; the gate of dead mens skulls, because that way they went to Golgotha. The dragon well] So called either because some venomous serpent had been found there, or because the waters ran out of the mouth of a brazen serpent. (Heb. Fountain of the sea-monster.) The dung port] (Rather, Rubbish-gate.) The gate near which the refuse of the city was cast, and burned. Directly before that part of Hinnom known as Tophet (Jer. 7:31-32; Jer. 19:6-14).

Neh. 2:14. The gate of the fountain] A gate in front of the pool of Siloam (Neh. 3:15). The kings pool] (Berechath hammelek.) The pool of Siloam, so called because it watered the kings garden. There was no place for the beast that was under me to pass] The ruin was great, and the rubbish so accumulated, that Nehemiah could not pursue his course along the wall any further, but was obliged to go down into the valley of the brook Kidron (Nachal, the brook.)

Neh. 2:15. And viewed the wall] That which was left of it.

Neh. 2:16. The rulers] A Persian word (Seganim) signifying the executive officers of the colony. Nor to the nobles] (Heb. white ones.) Among the Jews great men robed in white, as among the Romans in scarlet or purple. Herod and Christ (Luk. 23:11; Mat. 27:28).

Neh. 2:19. Geshem the Arabian] Lieutenant of Arabia under the king of Persia, or chief of those Arabs whom Sargon had settled in Samaria (Rawlinsons Anc. Mon., vol. ii. p. 146).

HOMILETIC CONTENTS OF CHAPTER 2

Neh. 2:1-8. Divine Interposition.

Neh. 2:1-8. Disinterested Love for a suffering Church.

Neh. 2:1-2. Subject and Sovereign.

Neh. 2:4. Spiritual Recollectedness.

Neh. 2:5. Ejaculatory Prayer.

Neh. 2:7-8. Religious Prudence.

Neh. 2:8. The Hand of God.

Neh. 2:9-20. The Incipient Stages of a great Reformation.

Neh. 2:9. Secular Aid for Spiritual Work.

Neh. 2:10. First Hindrance.Secret Jealousy.

Neh. 2:11. Preparatory Retirement.

Neh. 2:12-16. The Walls inspected.

Neh. 2:12. A Time for Silence.

Neh. 2:17-18. An Appeal for Help.

Neh. 2:18. The Strength of Unity.

Neh. 2:19. Second Hindrance.Open Derision.

Neh. 2:20. Confidence in God, an Incentive to Work.

Neh. 2:20. The miserable condition of the Churchs enemies.

DIVINE INTERPOSITION

Neh. 2:1-8. And it came to pass in the month Nisan, &c.

THE first chapter occupied with account of state of Jerusalem and Nehemiahs grief and prayer. This opens with the relation of those circumstances which led to the fulfilment of his desires, and the accomplishment of his purposes. We learn from text

I. That Gods interposition was opportune. It came to pass in the month Nisan (Neh. 2:1). The best month, because the one chosen by God. Chosen by God because the best. Note

1. That Gods plans are worked out with the utmost precision. Trace this in Bible. Often find expressions such asIn due time, Fulness of time, Appointed time, Mine hour is not yet come, A set time, &c. Gods timepiece never gains or loses. All his plans carried out with unfailing accuracy. He is neither slack, as some men count slackness, in fulfilling his threats or his promises. Many details, apparently insignificant, combine to work out the most magnificent plans. A loop is a small thing, yet most gorgeous tapestry woven in single loops. A link a small thing, yet chain depends on support of every link. Trifles are links in the chain of Gods providential government, or rather there are no trifles. Illustrate by complex machinery of Lancashire cotton, or Coventry silk, or Kidderminster carpet machinery, which whilst wonderfully intricate, works out the appointed pattern with utmost precision and accuracy. Yet all human exactness fails in comparison with Gods perfect accuracy.

2. That God often interferes on his peoples behalf when they least expect it. Through not discerning Gods methods of working, they get discouraged, and think themselves overlooked. Whilst we look for him to appear in one way he comes in another, and whilst we mournfully strain our eyes down one path, lo, he comes by another. Our most unlikely times are Gods most favourable ones.

3. That God generally interferes on his peoples behalf in their most urgent extremity. It was so here. Nehemiah so distressed that his countenance was sad for first time. The case of the Jews was becoming desperate. God interferes in their extremity as he had done on the shores of the Red Sea

(1) To try their faith,
(2) To elicit their gratitude,
(3) To impress upon them their dependence upon him. The text suggests

II. That Gods interposition required human co-operation. Gods agents are of two kinds, willing and unwilling, allied and non-allied. Both of these found in this history.

1. Allied. As Esther came to the kingdom, so Nehemiah to his office, for such a time as this (Est. 4:14). Though he was a prisoner, a stranger, of an alien religion, yet is he Gods agent as well as the kings servant. Note concerning him,

(1) That he was duly qualified for his appointed work. Mentally be possessed forethought (Neh. 2:5), tact (Neh. 5:5), and ingenuity (ch. 3). His address to Artaxerxes a marvel of clever pleading. Words carefully chosen, respect humbly paid to rank, superstitious reverence for burial-grounds introduced. No argument more powerful with an Eastern monarch. Spiritually, he was richly endowed with every grace required in so difficult a work. Courage, sympathy, generosity, and profound piety all combined to make him an eminently spiritual man. Such agents God chooses for important enterprises, utilizing great endowments for arduous tasks. Note,

(2) That he was favourably situated. When God has work for his servants to do, he by his providence places them where they can do it. Nehemiah evidently a favourite with Artaxerxes, from fact of his having chosen him to this important office, over the heads of the Persian nobles. Had he been otherwise situated, or appointed to any other office, he would not so readily have found access to the kings ear. God appoints our lot and circumstances, and requires us to make the best of them, and not seek to leave them, with the idea that we can best serve him elsewhere. Note,

(3) That he was rightly actuated. No personal ambition inspired his petition, but pure, unalloyed, unselfish desire for the prosperity of Gods Church, and the holy City. No desire for gain, for he used his fortune in feeding the poor, and entertaining the returning exiles in his own house at Jerusalem. They who are engaged in Gods work must lay aside all thoughts of worldly gain or personal honour. Reward there is, but not usually of a worldly sort.

2. Un-allied. God employs unconscious agents as well as willing ones. As he put small thoughts into the heart of Ahasuerus for great purposes (Est. 6:1), so here he caused a heathen prince to favour a hostile religion, and to defend a people whom his subjects hated. God even employs his enemies (though not in the same sense in which he employs his friends), to carry out his purposes. Pharaoh, Philistines, Chaldeans, Romans, &c.

III. That Gods interposition was accompanied by providential coincidences. All these known to Divine omniscience and taken into account.

1. Nehemiah was unusually sad. I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. No mourner might be seen in Ahasuerus court (Est. 4:4). Momus wished that men had windows in their breasts, that their thoughts might be seen. This not necessary, for a merry heart maketh a glad countenance; but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken (Pro. 15:13). Nehemiah had been afflicting his soul for four months. No wonder he betrayed it in his countenance. The Hebrews say that a mans inside is turned out, and discovered in oculis, in loculis, in poculis, in his eyes, purse, and cup.

2. The king was unusually friendly. Most Eastern monarchs would have condemned him at once either to banishment or death. Artaxerxes might have done so at another time. Sad looks were, in their eyes, bad looks, and savoured of assassination: but love thinketh no evil, and the king had confidence in his servant.

3. The queen also was present. Not Esther, the queen-mother, for Hebrew word signifies wife. Because the queen sat by, it is probable that there was some solemn feast that day; for the queens of Persia used not to come into the kings presence, but when they were called by name, as it is written in the book of Esther. This might be the cause of Nehemiahs great fear: but would also be in his favour. The presence of a woman, even without her personal intercession, would temper any harshness the king might feel, and thus aid the suppliants suit.

DISINTERESTED LOVE FOR A SUFFERING CHURCH

Neh. 2:1-8. And it came to pass, &c.

I. Its sorrow. Why is thy countenance sad? &c. (Neh. 2:2).

1. In spite of personal prosperity. This often hardens heart and deadens sympathies. So long as their own homes are flourishing many care little how Gods house fares. This cannot satisfy a truly good man who has the welfare of Gods cause at heart. No measure of personal prosperity will compensate for spiritual dearth and deadness in the Church. 2. In the very midst of social festivities. The revelry of the banquet could not repress the wretchedness of his heart, for whilst he was in the midst of rejoicing and mirth his spirit was not there. The inward grief was stronger than outward surroundings, and broke through all restraint. The wound of a broken heart cannot be healed by any outward gaiety of circumstance.

II. Its confession. Why should not my countenance be sad? (Neh. 2:3).

1. It is not ashamed of the people of God. The city the place of my fathers sepulchres. Surrounded by Persian nobles not an easy matter to thus avow friendship for an alien and oppressed people. Many temptations to expedient silence would have to be overcome. Much was risked by this avowal. Much probably to be gained by ignoring them. True piety is courageous. It says, Thy people shall be my people (Ruth 1), for richer for poorer, for better for worse, at all hazards and in all times. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity (Pro. 17:17). There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother (Pro. 18:24).

2. Not ashamed of poor relations. When men rise from a low estate into high circles they readily forget those who once were equals, unwilling to betray their humble origin. Such pride always despicable as useless. No disgrace to have poor relations. The disgrace is in disowning them. Nehemiah not guilty of such folly or cowardice. He not only acknowledges, but pleads for them.

3. Not afraid of personal danger. Royal displeasure no trifle under the sway of Oriental despots. Witness recent events in Turkey. Thrones overturned by plots and intrigues continually. The nearer the throne, the more likely to incur suspicion. Artaxerxes had come to the kingdom through intrigue and bloodshed. Would be naturally vigilant and wary on this account. Hence the danger incurred by one even so favoured as Nehemiah, when he dared to avow sympathy with a captive and recently conquered people inhabiting a neighbouring province. Fervent love always self-forgetful. It confers not with flesh and blood, but willingly incurs danger for sake of its object This, type of Christs love for his Church.

III. Its petition. And I said unto the king, &c. (Neh. 2:5).

1. It seeks help from God. I prayed unto the God of heaven (Neh. 2:5). This, first step. God has more interest in his Church than any other, and can do more. If his aid be secured, it matters little who else fails. If his denied, none can do much. 2. It craves human assistance. If it please the king, let letters be given me, &c. (Neh. 2:7). Recognizes the principle that God always works by human agency, and helps man by man, to teach him lessons of mutual sympathy and mutual dependence.

3. It asks permission to give its own aid, and that with self-denial. Nehemiah not one who would only work at others expense. No bargain for costs or travelling expenses. He asks that he may be permitted to engage in an enterprise that will considerably diminish his private resources, and involve constant and heavy personal sacrifices. If we desire success in great reformations we must be prepared to make great sacrifices. Our gifts joined with Gods, will accomplish almost anything. We have no right to expect God to render his assistance where we withhold our own.

IV. Its joy. So it pleased the king to send me (Neh. 2:6).

1. Its prayer is granted. Both Jehovah and Artaxerxes looked favourably upon his request. When prayer is thus graciously answered, men should rejoice and speak good of the name of the Lord. Thus did the royal Psalmist often extol Jehovahs name.

2. Its way is providentially opened. And this more prosperously than he could have anticipated. Not only permission granted to leave Persia for a time, but also to take with him an escort; and full authority to build, and command supplies, when he arrived at Jerusalem (Neh. 2:7-8). Thus does God cause our cup to overflow with mercy, giving us far more than we deserve, and more than we either asked or had reason to expect. Not only out of, but according to, his riches in glory, does he supply his childrens wants. A millionnaire might give a penny out of his abundance; but not if he gave according to (in proportion to) his riches. Then must he give what would be a fortune to a poor man. Even so, God gives not grudgingly, or stintedly, but royally. It was but ask, and have; and so it is betwixt God and his people. When there was a discussion amongst some holy men as to which was the most profitable trade, one answered, beggary; it is the hardest, and the richest trade. Common beggary is the commonest and easiest, but he meant prayer. A courtier gets more by one suit often than a tradesman or merchant haply with twenty years labour; so doth a faithful prayer.Trapp.

SUBJECT AND SOVEREIGN

Neh. 2:1-2. And I took up wine, and gave it to the king, &c.

I. He did not allow his duty to God to clash with his duty to his sovereign. His religion not diminish his civility. If it please the king. Fear God, and honour the king, both enjoined in apostolic precept. He had been taken from his native land and placed under another king, whom it was his duty to serve and obey, in all quietness and meekness, until God ordered his lot otherwise. So lived Pharaoh, Daniel, Mardocheus, Ezra, and others. Jeremiah and Baruch taught the Jews thus to pray for those under whose sway they were living as captives, Pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar his son; seek the peace of that country whither ye be carried away captives (Jeremiah 29; Baruch 1). St. Peter taught the Christians that servants should not forsake their masters, though they did not believe (1 Peter 2). Both St. Peter and St. Paul command the faithful wife to abide by her unfaithful husband (1 Corinthians 7; 1 Peter 3). The Scriptures enjoin faithfulness, duty, and obedience toward all men, so far as we offend not God thereby. Duty to God and duty to man two aspects of same life. One requires the other. Each incomplete, being alone. The more efficiently we discharge one, the more perfectly do the other. Neither may be made a substitute for the other. This ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

II. He did not allow spiritual exercises to interfere with the discharge of secular duties. He prayed incessantly, yet failed not in discharge of duties as cupbearer. The believer should be diligent in business, as well as fervent in spirit, lest he bring reproach upon religion. Spiritual activity no excuse for neglecting secular duty. To be slothful in business will quench devotion as fatally as to pursue business with inordinate affection. The hardiest devotion healthiest. The devotion of the cloister, for the most part, like the ghastly light that hovers over decomposition and decay; the devotion which characterizes the diligent, spiritually-minded man of business, resembles the star which shines on in the storm as in the calm, when the sky is clouded as when it is serene.

III. He regarded the path of duty as the path of providential blessing. Not forsaking the common duties of his daily calling, he waited for the opening of his providential path. The faithful discharge of duty itself a blessing. This, the channel through which special grace most likely to flow. Men need not leave the world to find the secret of holiness; or their ordinary sphere of work to find the secret of blessing. The patient, conscientious discharge of lifes ordinary tasks, always the safest path to pursue. ()

IV. He found the favour of his sovereign of great service in carrying out the work of God. His civility and humble demeanour had won the confidence and esteem of his royal master. This friendship now stood him in good stead. Yet he presumes not upon this regard, but approaches the throne tremblingly, as a subject should, even the most favoured. Monarchs like not presumption even in their courtiers. Diogenes says, A man should use his prince or peer, as he would do the fire. The fire if he stand too near it will burn him; and if he be too far off he will be cold. So to be over-bold, without blushing or reverence, bringeth into discredit of both sides; for the king will think him too saucy, and the subject will forget his duty. Courteous and kindly behaviour has nothing to lose, and much to gain. Civility costs little, and is often worth much.

Illustration:() Mr. Carter, a pious minister, once coming softly behind a religious man of his own acquaintance, who was busily engaged in tanning a hide, and giving him a tap on the shoulder, the man started, looked up, and with a blushing countenance said, Sir, I am ashamed that you should find me thus. To whom Mr. Carter replied, Let Christ, when he cometh, find me so doing. What! said the man, doing thus? Yes, said Mr. Carter, faithfully performing the duties of my calling.

SPIRITUAL RECOLLECTEDNESS

Neh. 2:4. So I prayed to the God of heaven

This, a remarkable illustration of religious presence of mind.

I. The outcome of a consecrated life. Unless he had been in the habit of making everything a matter of prayer, would not have been able thus to collect himself whilst trembling with excitement, fear, and suspense before the king. Having formed the habit of doing nothing without consulting God, had no difficulty in acting upon it. Agitated and affrighted, it would have been perfectly natural for him to have stammered forth his appeal in some incoherent manner. But here the irrepressible spirit of devotion, which permeated his whole life, revealed itself. If a man never prays anywhere save at stated times, and on public occasions, there is reason to fear that he never prays at all. If a man lives in the spirit of prayer, sudden emergency will spontaneously summon the familiar habit to his aid. Special prayer should be the outcome of constant prayerfulness. The way to have the heart in harmony with the worship of the sanctuary, is never to suffer its chords to be jarred. It was said of a distinguished Christian that he lived on the steps of the mercy-seat. It was said of a recent Bishop, who was sent to Western Africa, that he lived upon his knees. This is to live safely. This is to live in the porch of heaven. Hence it was said of a dying saint, I am changing my place, but not my company. Like Enoch, he had walked with God, and death was to him only like passing out of the vestibule into the inner sanctuary.

II. The result of long habit. Holy recollectedness not come naturally, nor easily, even to good men. Repeated action becomes habit. Practice makes perfect in this, as in other things.

III. A mark of self-distrusting humility. He dared not ask, without seeking wisdom higher than his own, in matter of such momentous issues. Self-diffidence impelled him to cast the burden of his responsibility upon one who was an unerring counsellor. Travellers make mention of a bird so timid in disposition, and so liable to the assaults of unnumbered enemies, that she almost lives in the sky, scarcely ever venturing to rest her wings; and even when forced through very weariness to repose, she seeks the loftiest rock, and there still keeps her eyes only half shut, and her pinions only half folded, in readiness, on the first sign of danger, to spread her wings, and soar away to the heavens for safety. True emblem of how the child of God should pass the time of his sojourning here in fear. Seldom should the wing of his devotion droop, or the eye of his watchfulness close; and even when he must repose it should ever be in an attitude of vigilance and prayerfulness.Stowell.

IV. A source of incalculable blessing.

1. It imparts confidence. He that believeth shall not make haste (Isa. 28:16). He shall not be afraid of evil tidings, whose heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee, &c. The calmness which comes from reliance upon a wisdom that is superhuman; the consciousness of Divine support.

2. It preserves from missing the providential path. The God of providence will direct those who cast themselves upon his care. Such shall not full direction need; nor miss their providential way.

3. It conduces to the accomplishment of Gods will. When everything is submitted to that will, and the stumbling-blocks of self-will, pride, ambition, &c. are removed, nothing can hinder the fulfilment of the purposes of Jehovah.

EJACULATORY PRAYER

Neh. 2:4. So I prayed to the God of heaven

I. It was suddenly required. A question addressed to Nehemiah by the king, point-blank, upon which hung, possibly, not only issues of life and death, but the success or failure of his long-prayed-for object. Great emergency. Great benefit to be able to seek aid of Omnipotence. Long formula impossible. No audible petition could be offered. Quick as thought the silent prayer of the heart flew to the ear of God, and not in vain. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him (Psa. 145:19). The devout spirit, like the well-strung Eolian harp, not only gives out sweet sounds when woke by the gentler breathings that steal over its chords, but when vibrating under the ruder blasts that sweep across its strings. On many occasions the servant of God requires special assistance, care, and counsel. Men of business are frequently called upon to decide summarily on questions big with importance, to make up their judgment at once on measures the issues of which they can neither over-estimate nor foresee. How commonly is the physician forced to form his conclusions in a moment; yea, to form them on uncertain grounds, and indeterminate symptoms. Yet a mistaken conclusion may endanger the life of his patient. Now if in such circumstances the medical man, or the merchant, rely simply on his own skill, and confer simply with his own judgment, to the neglect of calling in the wisdom and blessing of the Almighty, what a fearful risk and burden does he bring upon himself! But let his heart breathe forth the aspiration to GodLord, direct me. Will he not then, having cast his burden on the Lord, having invoked unerring skill, be able to act with faith, and nerve, and calmness? Call ye this fanaticism? The grossest fanaticism is that which leaves out God.Stowell. ()

II. It was silently offered. No opportunity for audible vocal prayer. This, good when alone, or in public assembly for worship, but not possible now. A sudden and secret desire darted up to heaven. Thus Moses cried unto God, yet said nothing (Exo. 14:15). Hannah was not heard, yet she prayed (1 Samuel 1). Austin reports it to be the custom of the Egyptian Churches to pray frequently and fervently, but briefly and by ejaculation, lest their fervour should abate. It is the praying and crying of the heart that God delights in. Let no man then excuse himself and say he cannot pray; for in all places he may lift up his heart to God, though in the market, or on the mountain. ()

III. It was suitably addressed. To the God of heaven. Ezra had previously used this expression. (See explanatory notes). It recognized the supremacy of Jehovah, and his power over human hearts and events. Thus calculated to impart confidence, and destroy the fear of man. The expression is similar in meaning to Lord of Sabaoth, or Lord of Hosts. All power is given, &c.

IV. It was very brief. Yet quite long enough. Not time for much. A question had been asked and an answer was required. Yet, between question and answer, was ample time for sending prayer to heaven, and receiving a reply. Length no virtue in prayer. Faith and fervour the two principal elements of success. St. Augustine says, He that carrieth his own temple about with him, may go to prayer when he pleaseth. How quickly thought can fly many thousands of miles in a minute. Prayer can travel as rapidly as thought towards heaven.

V. It was completely successful.

1. In that wisdom to ask aright was given. Nehemiahs petition was marked by

(1) Becoming humility. If it please the king.

(2) Tact. The place of my fathers sepulchres.

(3) Forethought. Let letters be given me.

2. In that the kings heart was favourably disposed towards him. And the king granted me, &c. This, Gods doing, in direct answer to prayer. Nehemiah confesses this when he adds, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Illustrations:() Sudden extremity is a notable trial of faith, or any other disposition of the soul. For as, in a sudden fear, the blood gathers suddenly to the heart, for guarding of that part which is principal; so the powers of the soul combine themselves in a hard exigent, that they may be easily judged of.Bp. Hall.

() As the tender dew that falls during the silent night makes the grass, and herbs, and flowers to flourish and grow more abundantly than great showers of rain that fall in the day, so secret prayer will more abundantly cause the sweet herbs of grace and holiness to flourish and grow in the soul, than all those more public and open duties of religion, which too often are mingled with the sun and wind of pride and hypocrisy.Brooks.

RELIGIOUS PRUDENCE

Neh. 2:7. Moreover, I said unto the king, &c.

Not satisfied with bare permission to go to the relief of his co-religionists at Jerusalem, he makes provision for all contingencies, and anticipates every difficulty that is likely to arise. From this learn:

I. That prudent forethought is essential to success in spiritual as in secular enterprises. For,

1. God has nowhere commended rashness. The reverse of this enjoined and approved in word of God. He will guide his affairs with discretion (Psa. 112:5). The fool shall be servant to the wise of heart, (Pro. 11:29). A prudent man, &c. (Pro. 12:23; Pro. 14:15). He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good (Pro. 16:20). Give not that which is holy (Mat. 7:6). Which of you intending to build, &c. (Luk. 14:28). Examples.Jacob (Genesis 32). Joseph (Genesis 41). Jethro (Exodus 18). David (1 Samuel 17). Abigail (1 Samuel 25). Paul (Acts 16). Town-clerk of Ephesus (Acts 19).

2. Pains-taking effort is at the foundation of all human success. By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread (Gen. 3:19), is the curse pronounced upon all human labour. Even the curse turned into blessing, for labour is not necessarily an evil. No gains without pains, under present social laws. No reaping without sowing. No permanent and substantial success in business, or art, or literature, or religion, without earnest, patient, unremitting diligence (2Pe. 1:10). This inexorable law-reigns in the spiritual realm as in the secular, for

3. Spiritual work as well as secular is amenable to natural law. Miracles wrought now in the moral rather than in the physical universe. Not obsolete in the latter, more frequent in the former. Natural law is no respecter of persons. It demands allegiance from the saint and sinner alike. Errors in spiritual work are as surely followed by penalties as in secular. Sloth and senility undermine the success of religious as certainly as profane enterprises. Here, as elsewhere, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

II. That prudent forethought is not opposed, but helpful, to spiritual faith.

1. It furnishes a rational basis for expecting success. No right to expect success, merely because we hope for and earnestly desire it. We are saved by hope; but it must rest on a solid foundation. Hope without faith is dead. If there is a living, there is a dead, hope (1Pe. 1:3). The one stimulates, the other seduces. Faith must have a rational basis to distinguish it from credulity. The basis may appear irrational to men who do not acknowledge God or the supernatural.

2. It acts upon the supposition that mental powers were given to be employed in the service of God. The use of this faculty no more opposed to strong faith and intense spirituality, than the use of other mental powers, as memory, imagination, perception, &c. All powers are to be consecrated to holy purposes, and diligently employed in assisting faith.

3. It takes no step without seeking Divine guidance and approval. Nehemiah used every precaution to ensure success, and made every needful arrangement beforehand, but not without previous thought and earnest prayer. Even so must we take each step, in religious work especially, depending on the Holy Ghost for direction. He committed himself to God; yet petitions the king for a convoy; teaching that in all our enterprises God is so to be trusted as if we had used no means; and yet the means are so to be used as if we had no God to trust in.

Illustrations:As the hermits were communing together, there arose a question as to which of all the virtues was most necessary to perfection. One said, chastity; another, humility; a third, justice. St. Anthony remained silent until all had given their opinion: and then he spoke. Ye have all said well, but none of you have said aright. The virtue most necessary to perfection is prudence; for the most virtuous actions of men, unless governed and directed by prudence, are neither pleasing to God, nor serviceable to others, nor profitable to ourselves. Juvenal speaks to the same effect: No other protection is wanting, provided you are under the guidance of prudence. Bishop Hacket bears similar testimony:He that loves to walk dangerous ways shall perish in them. Even king Josiah, one of the most lovely darlings of Gods favour among all the kings of Judah, fell under the sword for pressing further against his enemies than the word of the Lord did permit him. The ancient Eliberitan Council enacted, that all those who plucked down the idols or temples of the heathen should not be accounted martyrs, though they died for the faith of Christ, because they plucked persecution upon themselves, and provoked their own martyrdom.

THE HAND OF GOD

Neh. 2:8. According to the good hand of my God upon me

The hand sometimes used in an ill sense, for inflicting punishments (Rth. 1:13; Jer. 15:17), for we strike with the hand. Sometimes in a good sense, for helping others, for we bestow favours with the hand. In Psa. 88:6, Cut off from thy hand, means fallen from thy favour. Pindar uses the expression, , in the sense of by the aid of God. Thus Nehemiah is to be understood. By the Divine favour, which inclined the king to do what he desired, his suit had prevailed.

I. The hand of God is with his people for protection. Nehemiahs life was in jeopardy in Gods service. Hence Gods special protection.

1. He was protected from the wrath of the king. Had the king been in an angry mood Nehemiah might have paid for his temerity with his life. The wrath of man doth he restrain. David delivered from the outburst of Sauls murderous anger. Nehemiah saved from the outbursting of Artaxerxes. God will ever defend those who trust him and seek his glory, from the malice of evil oppressors.

2. He was protected from the hostility of his enemies. The Samaritans and surrounding heathen would have not only hindered his work, but probably taken his life, but for the military guard which the king granted, through Gods gracious influence. Thus will the Lord make a hedge about his people (Job 2), for the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him (Psalms 34).

II. The hand of God is with his people for providential guidance.

1. The hand of God guided Nehemiah to the Persian court.

2. To the official position which brought him into the presence of the king.

3. The providence of God directed him when to speak, and

4. what to say. If it please the king, &c. Silken words must be given to kings, as the mother of Darius said ( , ); neither must they be rudely and roughly dealt with, as Joab dealt with David (2Sa. 19:5), who therefore could never well brook him afterward, but set another in his place.Trapp.

III. Gods servants should thankfully acknowledge the good which they receive from him. Nehemiah does not take any credit to himself, but gives all glory to God. This conduct requires

1. Genuine humility. He might have boasted of his services to the king, of his place and authority in the Persian Court, and arrogated to himself the credit of success; but he was of another spirit, and ascribed all to the good hand of his God. Ingratitude is the child of pride; thankfulness the offspring of humility. A proud man will never be truly grateful; a humble man possesses the first element of gratitude. Benefit a vain man, and he will ascribe the service to his own desert, he will regard it as no more than a just tribute to his excellence; but serve a lowly man, and he will attribute the service to the kindness of his benefactor. A proud child thinks that he has laid his parents under obligation; a lowly child feels that he can never liquidate the debt of gratitude he owes to them. The same holds good in relation to God. We must be lowly to be grateful. The lark hides her nest in the grass, but her flight is far up in the heavens. This spirit continually exclaims, It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed, &c.; and, I am less than the least of all his mercies (Lam. 3:22). Paul a striking illustration of it: To me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, &c. David also exclaims when the splendid offerings had been collected for the erection of Gods house: Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, &c. (1Ch. 29:11).

2. True faith. The believer in chance who ascribes everything to fortune, or fatality, cannot own a Divine hand. Faith, discerning the Almighty hand within the machinery of second causes, actuating, controlling, determining all, is the parent of sincere gratitude. Men of business, from the very nature of their occupations, specially liable to lose the lively exercise of this practical faith. Hard by the altar of incense in the ancient temple, stood the altar of burnt-offering. As the one signified the atonement to be made by Christ, and the other the fragrant merits of that atonement; so did the latter represent also the offering of prayer to God through Christs mediation by his faithful people, and the former the oblation of praise, presented through the same intercession, as a sweet-smelling savour to God. Prayer and praise are twin services. They should always go hand in hand. Praise is the fragrance breathed from the flower of joy. He is happiest who is thankfullest. This lesson taught by the brute creation. Morose and unkindly animals express as little of enjoyment as they do of gratefulness by their snarling and growling sounds. The beasts and birds of night are rarely gladsome. But the lambs which sport and gambol in their green pastures, and the birds which in the early morning wake the echoes of the woodland with their songs, all tell most unmistakeably that they are happy. How much more then must it be the blessedness of man to look through nature, up to natures God, and glorify the giver in all his varied gifts.Stowell. (See Addenda.)

Illustrations:Your father had a battle with Apollyon, said Great-heart to Samuel, at a place yonder before us, in a narrow passage, just beyond Forgetful Green. And indeed the place is the most dreadful place in all these parts; for if at any time pilgrims meet with any brunt, it is when they forget what favours they have received, and how unworthy they are of them. This is the place, also, where others have been hard put to it.Bunyan.

Luther said when he heard a little bird sing, when he was out in the fields one morning, The bird had no storehouse or barn, and did not know of any provision for the future, and yet it seemed to sing, Mortal, cease from toil and sorrow, God provideth for the morrow. We do not find any sparrows with large storehouses, or any swallows with a great quantity of grain laid by for the morrow; yet never find a sparrow starved to death, or a swallow that has perished from cold. God careth for them, and are ye not much better than they?

THE INITIAL STAGES OF A GREAT REFORMATION

Neh. 2:9-20. Then I came to the governors, &c.

I. Great reformations often have an insignificant commencement, and are slow in developing their true proportions. Who would have expected such great things to spring from that interview in the palace, and now from the visit of this one man to Jerusalem? Yet who dare despise the day of small things? How slight the first streak of dawn! How minute the grain of mustard-seed! Some of the noblest exploits of the Church have had the feeblest beginnings. A few Christian men met together in the vestry of a plain chapel; they pondered and prayed over the state of the heathen world; they conceived and planned the glorious enterprise of evangelizing all pagan lands. They arose and built. The Church Missionary Society is the result. Not only small at beginning but slow in developing. May travel rapidly on land or by sea, but in morals must be content to proceed gradually. Deep-rooted evils, profligate and abandoned habits, not to be eradicated in a moment; nor are excellent characters manufactured in a moment, as a piece of work from the loom. The restoration of Gods image rather resembles the growing likeness to its beautiful original in the canvas of the artist. At first the outline, and slowly the form and features, of the human face appear; gradually they assume more distinctness and expression, and the likeness stands confessed. So does the Holy Ghost restore the waste places of Christs Church, and the moral deformities of his children.

II. Reformation work requires a vigorous leader. Nehemiah eminently qualified for the post, for

1. He occupied a commanding social position. The office of cupbearer a very honourable one with the Persians. A son of Prexaspes, a distinguished person, was made cupbearer to Cambyses. The poets make Ganymedes to be cupbearer to Jupiter, and even Vulcan himself is put into this office. It gave him influence with king and court, and status amongst even Persian nobles.

2. He was inspired with intense enthusiasm. Without this fire no hearts melt, no great work accomplished. It burns up all evil sordid desires, and kindles all goodness. Jeremiah was influenced by it. Kept silence for a time, but was constrained to break out again, saying the word within him was like burning fire (Jeremiah 20). To the same effect Elijah cries out: I am very zealous for the Lord of Hosts (1 Kings 19). Moses prayed to be blotted out of Gods book, rather than his people should be destroyed (Exodus 32). St. Paul counted not his life dear unto him, &c. (Acts 20). Phineas, when none else would take the sword to vindicate the outraged laws of Jehovah, himself slew the offenders (Numbers 25). Our Lord himself, moved with indignation, drove out the profaners of his sanctuary (John 2). Such holy enthusiasm glowed in Nehemiahs heart, and urged him to undertake this difficult and dangerous work.

3. He possessed unwearied energy and perseverance. His enthusiasm not fitful, but patient. He had calculated the difficulties of his undertaking, and was prepared to carry it through. No great work will succeed without plodding. A great statesman once answered a friend who inquired to what he attributed his great success in life, thusI know how to plod. Without this virtue Nehemiah must have succumbed to the almost overwhelming difficulties that beset his path.

III. Reformation work should not be undertaken without a deliberate estimate of its magnitude and difficulty. Blind courage that counts no costs always short-lived. This stood the tests which it had to endure because founded upon intelligent and mature conviction.

1. Nehemiah forestalled opposition. An escort had been asked for and granted (Neh. 2:10). Forewarned is forearmed. Thus did he fortify himself against failure from this quarter. Christian soldiers must put on the whole armour of God (Eph. 6:11), and expect to be assailed. No mistake greater than presumption. To despise or ignore an enemy sure sign of weakness.

2. He carefully examined the work to be done. And I arose in the night, &c. (Neh. 2:12). Wise proceeding before engaging in a work that might prove to be impracticable. Accurate knowledge helps the judgment and stimulates courage.

3. He weighed the matter before proceeding to action. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days (Neh. 2:11). Days spent in seclusion not spent in vain, if time be occupied in thought and prayer. (See outline on Preparatory Retirement.)

IV. Reformation work in its initial stages is almost certain to provoke opposition. When Sanballat the Horonite, &c. (Neh. 2:10).

1. This often proceeds from a misconstruction of the nature of the work. Will ye rebel? (Neh. 2:19). Bad men always ready to attribute evil motives. Sometimes springs from ignorance, more often from wilful malice. Charges of treason more frequently brought against reformation work than any other. Insinuation often more deadly in its operation than open calumny.

2. This often springs from aversion to self-sacrifice. For this reason the men of Jabesh-Gilead stood aloof when Benjamin was to be punished; and were afterwards destroyed for their neutrality (Judges 21). Work that requires self-denial and hard toil cannot be good in the eyes of those who have no love for any but themselves.

V. Reformation work cannot be carried on without mutual co-operation. So they strengthened their hands for this good work (Neh. 2:18). Necessary as a security against discouragement. Individual workers labouring in isolation always liable to discouragement. Not good for man to be alone. Christ recognized this principle in religious work, when he sent his disciples by twos. Mutual sympathy and counsel will often cheer faltering courage, and strengthen failing hope.

2. Necessary as a safeguard against combined opposition. Good men must combine, and present a united front to the combined forces of wickedness and opposition. Unity is strength in all work, and in all conflict.

VI. Reformation work cannot succeed without the Divine blessing. The God of heaven, he will prosper us (Neh. 2:20). When every precaution has been taken, and all available human aid enlisted, still all depends on God for success.

1. Because the forces of evil are too strong for the unaided powers of man. Melancthon found this by experience, when he thought to convert the world to Christianity in a very short time. Without me ye can do nothing. Not by might, nor by power, &c.

2. The blessing of God will compensate for any amount of opposition. If God be for us, &c. Greater is he that is in you, &c.

Illustrations:() The artist Correggio, when young, saw a painting by Raphael. Long and ardently did the thoughtful boy gaze on that picture. His soul drank in its beauty as flowers drink moisture from the mist. He waked to the consciousness of artistic power. Burning with the enthusiasm of enkindled genius, the blood rushing to his brow, and the fire flashing from his eyes, he cried out, I also am a painter! That conviction carried him through his initial studies; it blended the colours on his palette; it guided his pencil; it shone on his canvas, until the glorious Titian, on witnessing his productions, exclaimed, Were I not Titian, I would wish to be Correggio.

() In the museum at Rotterdam is the first piece painted by the renowned Rembrandt. It is rough, without marks of genius or skill, and uninteresting, except to show that he began as low down as the lowest. In the same gallery is the masterpiece of the artist, counted of immense value. What years of patient study and practice intervene between the two pieces! If all have not genius, all have the power to work; and this is greater than genius.

() Coleridge, one day when some one was enlarging on the tendency of some good scheme to regenerate the world, threw a little thistle-down into the air, which he happened to see by the roadside, and said, The tendency of this thistle-down is towards China! but I know, with assured certainty, it will never get there; nay, it is more than probable, that after sundry eddyings and gyrations up and down, backwards and forwards, it will be found somewhere near the place where it grew. Such is the history of grand schemes of reformation apart from Divine power and benediction.

() William Rufus, having seen the coast of Ireland from some rocks in North Wales, is reported to have said, I will summon hither all the ships of my realm, and with them make bridge to attack that country. This threat being reported to Murchard, Prince of Leinster, he paused a moment, and then said, Did the king add to this mighty threat, if God please? and being assured he made no mention of God in his speech, he replied, rejoicing in such a prognostic, Sure, that man puts his trust in human, not in Divine power, I fear not his coming.

SECULAR AID FOR SPIRITUAL WORK

Neh. 2:9. Now the king had sent captains of the army, &c.

This martial escort granted to Nehemiah in response to his own request. As an official dignitary, had right to public honour and body-guard. Learn

I. That the Church may employ secular power for purposes of protection. When one has suitable means at hand for avoiding danger, he must not despise them (Jos. 2:15; 2Co. 11:33).

1. Every law-abiding subject has a right to claim the laws protection. This holds good except in the case of conduct which is likely to provoke a breach of the peace.

2. It is a good mans duty to seek the protection of secular power rather than rashly to expose himself to danger. Paul sought the shield of the law when certain men had taken an oath to kill him (Acts 23).

3. When secular aid is denied, or granted only on terms inconsistent with righteousness, the believer may confidently cast himself upon the protection, of Jehovah. When my father and mother forsake me, &c. Under such circumstances the three Hebrews and Daniel committed their case to God. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him (Psalms 34).

II. That the Church may not employ secular power in matters of faith. Ezras work had been more purely spiritual than Nehemiahs now was, hence he sought no such aid as this. Both sought the religious reformation of the people, but Nehemiahs chief mission was to restore the city of Jerusalem and rebuild the walls.

1. God has never authorized the use of any but moral means in spiritual work. All coercion inadmissible. My kingdom is not of this world. Go ye into all the world, is the commission which follows upon the proclamation of Divine sovereignty. All power, &c. He that winneth souls is wise. The fire and the rack may command submission, but will never win the heart, or convince the conscience. ()

2. The employment of secular power in matters of faith has always been productive of disastrous results. This method predominated over all others in the dark or medival ages. Hence the war and bloodshed, strife and controversy, hatred and heresy that prevailed. A notable exception was Stephen, king of Poland, who when urged by some of his subjects to constrain certain who were of a different religion to embrace his creed, nobly answered, I am king of men, and not of conscience. The dominion of conscience belongs exclusively to God.

Illustrations:() An old lady taking a long railway journey, prayed almost all the time that God would protect her from harm. When she reached the last platform, and was but a few minutes walk from her home, she felt that now she could take care of herself; but just here she fell, and received an injury from which she was a long time recovering. We must trust in God at all times.

() The missionaries to the Fiji islands were threatened with destruction by the enraged natives, and had no means of defence except prayer. Their enemies heard them praying, became fearful, and fled. The reason was given by one of themselves. They found you were praying to your God, and they know your God is a strong God; and they are gone. St. Augustine was saved from death by a mistake of his guide, who lost the usual road, in which the Donatists had laid wait to murder him.

FIRST HINDRANCE.SECRET JEALOUSY

Neh. 2:10. When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah, &c.

The name Sanballat signifies a pure enemy; for he belonged to a spiteful people who had always been troublesome to the children of Israel, and did constantly vex and provoke them to evil (Num. 22:3-4).

I. Here is jealousy tyrannical in its spirit. The Hebrews in Palestine had been hitherto poor and helpless. They were anxious to improve their condition, but these enemies were eager to keep them poor that they might be able to oppress and plunder them. Jealousy naturally cruel, inasmuch as it feeds upon the poverty and destitution of others, and fears their prosperity, lest it should lose its food. They probably heard of this new enterprise through their wives, who might be Jewesses. Among the Turks every vizier used to keep a Jew as private counsellor, whose malice was thought to have had much to do with the Turks bitter persecution of Christianity.

II. Here is jealousy anti-religious in its attitude. Grieved that any should seek the welfare of the children of Israel (Neh. 2:10). Their opposition doubled by the fact that this was Gods work, and these were his people. They hated the name and worship of Jehovah. The malice of unbelievers and scoffers against the kingdom of God can never be satisfied. If envy had not blinded these men, they might have seen that they meant them no harm. As the building of this Jerusalem had many enemies, so the repairing of the spiritual Jerusalem (the Church) by the preaching of the gospel hath many more.Pilkington.

III. Here is jealousy covetously selfish in its motives. Samaria had become the leading state west of Jordan, and any restoration of Jerusalem might interfere with this predominance. The fear of losing their gains had much to do with the acrimony of their opposition. Hippocrates in his epistle to Crateva gives him this good counsel; that if it were possible, amongst other herbs, he cut up that weed covetousness by the roots, that there be no remainder left; and then know certainly that together with the bodies, he would be able to cure the diseases of the mind.

IV. Here is jealousy self-torturing in its effects. It grieved them exceedingly (Neh. 2:10). The expression a very strong one. (Compare Psalms 112) The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth. Keen mental torture implied. Envy compared to a poisonous serpent. Because it cannot feed upon other mens hearts it feedeth upon its own, drinking up the most part of its own venom, and is therefore like the serpent Porphyrius, which was full of poison, but wanting teeth, hurt none but itself. Austin describes it as a madness of the soul; Gregory, as a torture; Chrysostom, an insatiableness; Cyprian, blindness, a plague subverting kingdoms and families, an incurable disease. A disease that neither Esculapius nor Plutus could cure; a continual plague and vexation of spirit, an earthly hell.

Illustrations:The poets imagined that Envy dwelt in a dark cave; being pale and lean, looking asquint, abounding with gall, her teeth black, never rejoicing but in the misfortunes of others, ever unquiet and careful, and continually tormenting herself. (See Addenda.)

The Bible abounds with instances of this sin. We find it in Cain, the proto-murderer, who slew his brother in a fit of jealousy. We find it in the dark and gloomy and revengeful spirit of Saul, who under the influence of jealousy plotted for years the slaughter of David. We find it in the king of Israel when he pined for the vineyard of Naboth, and shed his blood to gain it. Yea, it was envy that perpetrated that most atrocious crime ever planned in hell or executed on earth, on which the sun refused to look, and at which nature gave signs of abhorrence by rending the rocks; I mean the crucifixion of Christ; for the Evangelist tells us, that for envy the Jews delivered our Lord.J. A. James.

The infatuated Caligula slew his brother, because he was a beautiful young man. Mutius, a citizen of Rome, was reputed to be of such an envious and malevolent disposition, that Publius, one day observing him to be very sad, said, Either some great evil hath happened to Mutius, or some great good to another. Dionysius the Tyrant, says Plutarch, out of envy punished Philoxenius the musician, because he could sing; and Plato, the philosopher, because he could dispute better than himself. Cambyses killed his brother Smerdis, because he could draw a stronger bow than himself or any of his party.

PREPARATORY RETIREMENT

Neh. 2:11. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days

Gods servants frequently thus retired for deliberation before entering upon arduous tasks. Moses had a forty-years half-involuntary preparation for his life work, in the wilderness of Midian. Paul spent three years in Arabia before commencing his career as a missionary. The disciples were commanded to tarry at Jerusalem until, &c. Our Lord himself, at the commencement of his public ministry, was led of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. And here we see Nehemiah spending three days in retirement, before entering upon a work that would tax all his powers and graces to the very utmost. Consider the reason of this

I. It gave him time to look round. Jerusalem altogether strange to him. Unacquainted with the exact state of affairs or parties in the city. To have rushed headlong without premeditation into so gigantic an enterprise would have been madness. Probably made secret inquiries as to vigilance of foes, and spirit of people, as well as their numbers, character, and wealth. Knowledge always source of power to workers and leaders. Knowledge of human nature, human history, and character, of great service in Christian work.

II. It gave him time to look forward. Evidently a man of wise foresight. Could see both difficulties and the way to meet and overcome them. Careful, yet not over-anxious, because made God his counsellor and guide. Neither optimist nor pessimist. By anticipating difficulties we may obviate them, and so make them comparatively harmless when they do come. Guard against other extreme, of making them when there are none, and magnifying them when they are insignificant. Such pre-vision not inspiriting, but disheartening.

III. It gave him time to look within. Now was the time for self-examination. Motives tested, heart probed. Trying moment to faith. Looking at self alone drives to despair. Who is sufficient for these things? the cry of one burdened with such tremendous responsibility. Luther spent the night before the Diet of Worms on the floor of his little chamber, humbling himself before God, and laying hold on Divine strength. No wonder he triumphed.

IV. It gave him time to look upward. The contemplation of his own faults and frailty alone would have completely unnerved him for the work he had come to accomplish. His eye would turn from personal demerit to infinite perfection; from personal impotence to infinite strength. From penitence to prayer a single step, thence to confidence and hope. Such preparation necessary for all who would achieve great works for God. Careless self-confidence as sure to meet with failure as humble and contrite faith to be crowned with success. (See Addenda.)

Illustrations:Domitian, about the beginning of his reign, usually sequestered himself from company an hour every day; but did nothing the while but catch flies, and kill then with a penknife. Gods people can better employ their solitariness, and do never want company, as having God and themselves to talk with. And these secret meals are those that make the soul fat. It was a wise speech of Bernard, that Christ, the souls spouse, is bashful, neither willingly cometh to his bride in the presence of a multitude.Trapp.

The noblest works, like the temple of Solomon, are brought to perfection in silence.Sir A. Helps.

Solitude hath been the custom not only of holy men, but of heathen men. Thus did Tully, and Anthony, and Crassus, make way to that honour and renown which they afterwards obtained by their eloquence; thus did they pass a solitudine in scholas, a scholis in forum, from their secret retirement into the schools, and from the schools into the pleading place.Farindon.

THE WALLS INSPECTED

Neh. 2:12. And I arose in the night, &c.

I. A work involving considerable danger.

1. From the rained state of the walls (Neh. 2:13-15). No safe path. Stones scattered along road made travelling dangerous. Gods servants often required to traverse perilous roads. Missionaries often wonderfully preserved when journeying.

2. From the enmity of the Samaritans. Had they known would probably have waylaid so small and defenceless a company. Exposed to the midnight marauders who lurked about the city, taking advantage of its open condition. This danger did not deter. God often protected his servants from malice and bloodthirstiness of hostile nations. Missionary annals of Church furnish many instances of sublimest heroism and hair-breadth escapes from threatened destruction.

II. A work requiring personal sacrifice.

1. He gave up his much-needed rest. The physician will watch by his patient all night. The captain will not think of sleep if his vessel be in danger. So should the Christian forego his rest in times of danger, that he may call upon God in faithful prayer. David rose at midnight to give praise unto the name of the Lord (Psalms 119). Our mortal enemy, Satan, sleepeth not night or day, but continually goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; and had we not an equally vigilant watchman we should be destroyed. Behold, he neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, that is the watchman of Israel (Psalms 121). Christ himself set us an example of self-denying vigilance; prayed the whole night before sending forth his disciples (Luke 6). Joshua marched all night to conquer the Amorites (Joshua 10). Gideon arose in the night to pull down the altar of Baal (Judges 6).

2. He laid aside his official dignity. Might have sent a deputy, or gone attended by strong escort, or numerous retinue; but preferred to go himself, to teach us that nothing should be painful or degrading to any man, however exalted his station, which concerns the prosperity of Gods City and Church David, when the ark was brought out of Abinadabs house, played on instruments, and after casting off his kingly apparel, danced before the ark in his ephod. Michal mocked, and was punished; but David declared that he would yet more lowly cast himself down, and was blessed of the Lord (2 Samuel 6). Moses forsook the dignity and pleasure of Pharaohs court to become a tender of sheep, that he might serve the cause of God (Hebrews 11). Christ washed the disciples feet, and humbled himself to the death of the cross, that he might effect our redemption. Such humble self-abasement is the greatest honour that can come to a man. Pride has its own reward, and a paltry one it is; but humility shall be rewarded by the great Father in heaven.

III. A work requiring great moral courage. The view of such a wreck likely to dishearten. The magnitude of the task would appear all but overwhelming. Would serve to impress him with a sense of personal insufficiency for so gigantic a work. Ezekiel, surrounded by the valley of bleached bones, when suddenly asked, Son of man, can these bones live? in despair could only reply, O Lord God, thou knowest. Nehemiah, surrounded by a ruin equally hopeless, can only cast himself and his work upon the strength of the Omnipotent. (a)

IV. A work which had an important bearing upon subsequent operations.

1. It furnished accurate information of the work to be done. Some render the words, viewed the walls, broke the walls (i. e. broke off a piece of the wall), to try the soundness of it, that he might know whether it required to be pulled down entirely, or might be repaired on the same foundation. Must have been moonlight, or could not have seen to do this; as, to have carried torches or lamps would have betrayed their presence. Knowledge obtained by personal investigation always most valuable. Illustrate this in the case of pastors, sick visitors, and Sunday School teachers. They who come into personal contact with human nature in its varied phases know best how to remedy its ills, repair its losses, and alleviate its woes. In all religious work knowledge is power.

2. It kindled his enthusiasm for the performance of the work. The greater the ruin, the greater the work of restoration. Small works require commonplace zeal; but great enterprises demand extraordinary grace. Two truths brought home to him by sight of ruins.

(1) How faithful God is. He threatened that Jerusalem should become a heap (Isa. 25:2). Here was the manifest fulfilment of the threat. Surely, if God be faithful in punishing, he will not be less faithful in healing.

(2) How vile sin is. This desolation the result of Israels disobedience. The restoration of the city should be a sign of Israels return to obedience; these thoughts would serve to inflame Nehemiahs zeal. The same thoughts are calculated to stimulate all Christian effort.

Illustration:(a) As Luther drew near to the door which was about to admit him to the Diet of Worms, he met a valiant knight, the celebrated George of Freundsberg, who four years later drove the French into the Ticino. The brave general, seeing Luther pass, tapped him on the shoulder, and shaking his head, blanched in many battles, said kindly: Poor monk, poor monk! thou art now going to make a nobler stand than I or any other captain have ever made in the bloodiest of our battles. But if thy cause is just, and thou art sure of it, go forward in Gods name, and fear nothing. God will not forsake thee. He went forward and won a glorious victory.

A TIME FOR SILENCE

Neh. 2:12. Neither told I any man what God, &c.

There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak (Ecc. 3:7). Taciturnity in some cases an eminent virtue. He is a wise man who can discern the proper season for its exercise. Jerome says, Let us first learn not to speak, that we may afterwards open our minds with discretion. Solomon puts silence before speech, as a virtue rarer and more precious. Learn

I. Good intentions are best kept secret until they are ascertained to be practicable. Nehemiah would only have marred his work by disclosing his intention before he was sure it was worth disclosing. Ideas are prolific as insects, but few of them are fit to live. When Nehemiah had viewed the walls, he was able to render a reason, and expound his plan for their restoration. A good rule for all who contemplate any work of importance. They should first consider, then speak. Rashly to enter upon a crude enterprise is to court failure. A wise man will not open his mouth to others until he has formed some plan for the accomplishment of his purpose. Guard against other extreme of obstinate persistence in a course condemned by others as unpractical.

II. Good intentions are best kept secret until they can be carried out with decisive energy. Great enterprises demand great faith, and intense enthusiasm. Many a grand reform has prematurely failed through the half-heartedness of its chief supporters. Had Luther been less bold he would have been unfit for the work which God entrusted to him. Courage is contagious, and cowardice too.

III. Good intentions are best kept secret from those who are likely to oppose them. Nehemiah aware of the vigilance and enmity of Sanballat and his party. Careful to avoid betraying his purpose to those who were related to them by inter-marriage. Herein we see the prudence of this great man. In this, worthy of our imitation, who are engaged in good works for God. Take no counsel with scoffers, nor give them any advantage in their profane opposition. Caution and forethought as necessary in this warfare as in carnal. We must not cast pearls before swine.

IV. Good intentions are best kept secret until the co-operation essential to success can be relied on. This work impossible without co-operation. Useless to attempt it until this secured. By personal effort and interview we prepare the way for united action and ultimate success. The soldiers must be enlisted one by one, then the battle-cry may be sounded. Workers in the Church must be secured one by one, then the work may be openly announced. This preparatory work done in silence and secresy, afterwards declared openly.

Illustration:When Homer makes his heroes to march, he gives them silence for their guide; on the contrary, he makes cowards to babble and chatter like cranes. The one pass along like great rivers, letting their streams glide softly with silent majesty; the others only murmur like bubbling brooks. A sign of not being valiant is to strive to seem valiant.

AN APPEAL FOR HELP

Neh. 2:17. Then said I unto them, &c.

I. The ground of the appeal. Ye see the distress that we are in (Neh. 2:17). An appeal to their patriotism, their pity, and their piety. Gods city is desolate, your city is in ruins. We (putting himself along with them) are in distress. A reproach to the Church, an object of derision to the world, shall we rest satisfied where we are? Ye see. The fact is patent, it cannot be concealed. No need to expatiate on this point, for you are mourning on account of it every day. See here model for all Christian appeals. Shame a powerful motive. To this Nehemiah appealed. What inconsistency in their conduct!that they who boasted of the greatness and goodness of their God should be living in this miserable plight, as though he could not or would not deliver them! For very shame we should arise and build the waste places of Zion; strengthen her stakes, and lengthen her cords; then shall her converts be multiplied.

II. The nature of the appeal. Come, and let us build.

1. It solicited personal effort; let us build. Time for debating and discussing past. Time for work had come. Nehemiah not satisfied with their good wishes, or money, or prayers; but sought their personal assistance. Every Christian is called upon to take his share of work in the Church. Not all adapted for same kind of work. All kinds of work, intellectual and manual, may be sanctified to the cause of God. In Israels battle with Midian, when Sisera was defeated and slain, we find all kinds of work recorded and commended (Jdg. 5:14). Meroz was cursed for its cowardly neutrality. We may not substitute money, or prayers, or good wishes for work. Every mans work shall be tried, &c. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. Well done, good and faithful servant. The child and the invalid, the school-girl and maidservant, the merchant and his errand-boy, have all some work to do for God. To every believer he says, Go work to-day in my vineyard. At our peril do we say I go, and go not.

2. It promised personal aid. Let us build. Not go, but come: not go ye, but come, let us build. An example as noble as rare, to see a courtier leave that wealth, and ease, and authority in the midst of which he was living, and go to dwell so far from court in an old, torn, and decayed city, where he should not live quietly, but toil and drudge like a day-labourer, in dread and danger of his life. Yet they who are earnest in Gods work think not of ease, and bid none go where they are unwilling to go themselves, or do work which they are too proud to touch. Personal example in workers, and soldiers especially, far more powerful than personal authority. Come, always more successful than go.

III. The motive urged. That we be no more a reproach (Neh. 2:17). Here we see the misery they were in urged as a motive for action. Several years had elapsed since Cyrus gave them permission to return, and yet hitherto they had been unable to rebuild the walls. This plea often occurs in the Bible. For thy great Names sake, an argument often employed by eminent pleaders. (2Ki. 19:4; Psa. 42:10; Psa. 74:18; Psa. 79:12; Psa. 89:51; Pro. 14:31; 1Ki. 8:41-42; 1Ch. 17:24; Psa. 25:11; Psa. 74:10; Jer. 14:7.) Jehovah jealous for his name, and will vindicate his character. When his Church is reproached and scorned he is assailed, and in jealousy for his honour will defend his own. Christ said to Saul of Tarsus, Why persecutest thou me? The wounds inflicted upon the members of his body on earth, were felt by him, the living head, in heaven.

IV. The encouragement offered. Then I told them of the hand of my God, &c. (Neh. 2:18). The time for silence now past, and the time for speech come. The walls inspected, the work carefully planned and thoroughly resolved upon, it only remained to make a bold appeal for immediate help, and commence forthwith, before the enemy could muster their forces or mature their plans. Note, promptness in religious work will often sweep away like a tornado all obstacles, and baffle all opponents. He assured his co-patriots

1. That God was the instigator of the work. I told them of the hand of my God, which was good upon me (Neh. 2:18). In previous verse the law was preached, here the gospel. First, he set forth their misery, then encouraged them by the promise of Gods mercy. This order the true one for all teachers and ministers. They are the best scholars who will work without the rod: yet none so good but need the rod sometimes. A wise schoolmaster will make such use of both gentleness and severity as to gain his point with the least possible friction.

2. That the king approved of the work. Also the kings words that he had spoken unto me. God had given him such favour in the kings sight, that as soon as he asked licence to go and build the city, where his fathers lay buried, it was granted; and the liberality and goodwill of the king were so great that he granted him soldiers to conduct him safely to Jerusalem, and commission to his officers for timber to build with. Why should they mistrust or doubt! With both God and the king on their side, what needed they more? Gods servants should always seek to make themselves agreeable to those in high station, that they may receive their help in doing his work. Learn to be thankful for wise and benevolent rulers, and pray for their conversion (1Ti. 2:2).

V. The success of the appeal. And they said, Let us rise and build (Neh. 2:18).

1. The response was prompt. Without delay or discussion they entered with spirit upon the work there and then. Would that all congregations were equally prompt in accepting the invitations of the Gospel! Now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation (2Co. 6:2). Would that all Christians were as ready to work!

2. The response was practical. Let us rise and build. Not propose substitute, or alternative, but undertook the work required of them. Example for all Christian workers, not to go round difficulties, but meet them in the face. Practical work must be done in a practical way. Fancy and flimsy methods break down, whilst simple and personal effort accomplish great results.

3. The response was unanimous. Let us rise and build. Even the listless were stirred for the time (Eliashib for instance). All with one accord undertook to carry out the work by Gods blessing, and the kings favour. Cooperation necessary to the success of any large undertaking. World never converted until the churches are united.

THE STRENGTH OF UNITY

Neh. 2:18. So they strengthened their hands for this good work

I. Consists in its power to protect individual workers against discouragement.

1. Isolated workers are always liable to depression. This, the result of bearing alone the burden of care and duty incident to their work. Few men have the indomitable courage of a Nehemiah, a Paul, a Luther. Most spirits quail when unsupported by the aid and sympathy of kindred workers.

2. Mutual sympathy and conference relieve mental strain, and renew exhausted energy. Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend (Pro. 27:17). Burdens confessed are half removed. Mutual counsel will cheer the drooping spirit, and stimulate to increased effort. Christ recognized this when he sent out his disciples two and two. It is not good for man to be alone. Where no counsel is the people fall (Pro. 11:14). Two are better than one, for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falleth (Ecc. 4:9-10).

Illustration:There are stragglers in the Church as well as in the army, who fall out of the ranks and are lost. Sometimes they manage to subsist for a while, living on the charity of the people and the scraps left by those in camp, but generally fall a prey to their isolation and exposure. One such found his way, during the American war, to the hospital at Sedalia. He was dying then, and could not give his name or regiment. He was a mere boy, and unequal to the toil of marching. He was wet and cold and weary, and in a few hours died, and was buried in a nameless grave. So do many fall out of the Churchs ranks, and soon faint by the way. Pliny writes of a stone in the island of Scyros, that if it be whole, though a large and heavy one, it swims above water, but being broken it sinks. So long as saints keep whole, nothing shall sink them; but if they break up, and divide, they are in danger of going down.

II. Consists in its power of resisting combined opposition from without.

1. The full force of individual strength only awakened by the enthusiasm of united action. Men are like the stone pyrites, which is cold and dull until well rubbed; then it becomes so brilliant and hot as to burn the hand. Intense earnestness only kindled by the contagion of glowing spirits. Coals need to be pressed together to become thoroughly hot. So do souls require to be brought into very close contact, and inspired by one common impulse, to be fully roused to fervour and self-sacrificing devotion.

2. In unity, the full force of individual strength is directed against the common enemy. Not as separate individuals, but as forming one combined and glowing mass. Such union is resistless as a stream of glowing lava.

Illustrations:The sand-reed, which grows on the sandy shores of Europe, represents the influence of religion and the Church upon society. Its roots penetrate to a considerable depth, and spread in all directions, forming a net-work which binds together the loosest sands; whilst its strong tall leaves protect the surface from drought, and afford shelter to small plants, which soon grow between the reeds, and gradually form a new green surface on the bed of sand. But for the sand-reed, the sea-wind would long since have wafted the drift-sand far into the interior of the country, and have converted many a fruitful acre into a waste; but that invaluable grass opposes its stubborn resistance to the most furious gale. So does the united front of Church organization present an insuperable barrier to the aggressions of profanity and unbelief.

Standing one day before a beehive, Gotthold observed with delight how the little honey-birds departed and arrived, and from time to time returned home laden with the spoils of the flowers. Meanwhile a great yellow hornet, the wolf among bees, came buzzing up in eager quest of prey. As it was evening-tide, and the bees after the heat of the day had settled about the mouth of the hive to breathe the cool air, it was amusing to observe that their fierce adversary lacked courage to attack their combined host and serried ranks. True, he often advanced for the purpose, but seeing how densely and compactly they were sitting, was forced to retreat empty-handed. At last, a bee, somewhat belated, arrived by itself; and on this straggler he instantly seized, fell with it to the earth, and instantly devoured it.

III. Consists in its power to cope with the inherent difficulties of the work, which otherwise would be insurmountable.

1. Work which cannot be done by few may be accomplished by many. This true of the wall-building. A small company of workers, however willing, would have been altogether inadequate for the work to be done. True of many other large Christian undertakings. Especially true of church or chapel building where the workers are mostly poor.

2. Work which cannot be done by many acting separately, may be accomplished by the same acting in unison. Unity is strength. It doubles the capacity of each individual worker. A hundred separate links or threads will accomplish nothing; but join into a chain or a cable, and they may save a hundred lives.

Illustrations:Separate the atoms which make the hammer, and each would fall on the stone as a snow-flake; but welded into one, and wielded by the firm arm of the quarryman, it will break the massive rocks asunder. Divide the waters of Niagara into distinct and individual drops, and they would be no more than the falling rain; but their united body would quench the fires of Vesuvius, and have some to spare for other volcanoes.Guthrie.

Union is power. The most attenuated thread when sufficiently multiplied will form the strongest cable. A single drop of water is a weak and powerless thing; but an infinite number of drops united by the force of attraction will form a stream, and many streams combined will form a river; till rivers pour their water into the mighty oceans, whose proud waves, defying the power of man, none can stay but he who formed them. And thus, forces which, acting singly, are utterly impotent, are, when acting in combination, resistless in their energies and mighty in power.Salter.

A thousand grains of powder, or a thousand barrels, scattered, a grain in a place, and fired at intervals, would burn, it is true, but would produce no concussion. Placed together in effective position, they would lift a mountain, and cast it into the sea. Even so, the whole Church, filled with faith, and fired by the Holy One who gave the tongues of fire on the Day of Pentecost, will remove every mountain, fill up every valley, cast up the highway of the Lord, and usher in the jubilee of redemption.Boardman.

SECOND HINDRANCEOPEN DERISION

Neh. 2:19. They laughed us to scorn, and despised us

I. Here is an attempt to stop the work of God by the combined opposition of wicked men. When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah, &c.

1. The work of God is sure to meet with opposition from wicked men. They must hate and hinder it, because they are opposed to all that is good or godly. The triumph of good means the overthrow of evil. They will find some excuse for their oppression, and thus endeavour to make their conduct appear reasonable.

2. The work of God will often provoke the combined hostility of those who have nothing else in common. Thus did the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, &c., combine for the destruction of Israel, but in vain, for Jehovah brought to nought their evil counsels. Such opposition Luther met with when he began to reform. The pope excommunicated him; the emperor proscribed him; Henry, king of England, and Lewis, king of Hungary, wrote against him; but the work prospered, because it was of God.

II. Here is an attempt to stop the work of God by pouring contempt upon it. They laughed us to scorn.

1. They despised the workers. As a company of fools, who could never effect what they attempted. So Erasmus and Sir Thomas More thought to ridicule the Lutherans out of their religion. This the Scripture calls cruel mocking (Heb. 11:36), and ranks it with bloody persecution. The bitterest persecution which man can inflict is that of cruel taunts and scurrilous invectives: but the least harmful also. Jude, Peter, and Paul, all foretold that in the last days there should come mockers (2 Peter 3; 2 Timothy 3; Jude). Christ thus spitefully treated by Herod, Pilate, the priests, and the people. Solomon says, He that mocketh shall be mocked (Proverbs 3). David thus describes the reward of mockers, He that dwelleth in the heavens shall mock them, and the Lord shall have them in derision (Psalms 2). Michal was childless all her life as a punishment for mocking David (2 Samuel 6). The children that mocked Elisha were devoured by bears (2 Kings 2). Belshazzar, king of Babylon, was destroyed with his kingdom when he despised the warnings of God (Daniel 5).

2. They ridiculed the work. What is this thing that ye do? Scoffingly they asked the question, as Pilate asked, What is truth? Wicked men will never be fast for a taunt. If the Churchs character be above reproach, the Churchs work is ridiculed as impossible or useless.

III. Here is an attempt to stop the work of God by insinuating an evil design. Will ye rebel against the king?

1. When a good work cannot otherwise be hindered an evil motive is sure to be suggested. The work is open, the motive secret. More easy to explain and defend former than latter. Men fear what is secret. Wicked men employ this dread for their own ends.

2. Disloyalty to the State has always been a favourite charge with the Churchs enemies. Elijah is accused by Ahab of being a troubler of Israel (1 Kings 18). David was persecuted by Saul because the people sung, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands (1 Samuel 18). Daniel was accused of disobedience, and consigned to the lions den, because he prayed to the God of heaven (Daniel 6). The Israelites were persecuted in Egypt lest they should rebel against Pharaoh (Exodus 1). Herod sought to slay the infant Christ, lest He should dethrone him (Matthew 2). Christ was accused and executed as a malefactor guilty of treason (John 18). The Apostles were accused of teaching sedition, and subverting the commonwealth (Acts 5). St. Paul was charged with the same crime, at Athens (Acts 17). Luther was called a trumpeter of rebellion. To excuse the shameful massacre of St. Bartholemew, a medal was struck with the inscription, Valour against the rebels, on one side, and on the reverse, Piety hath excited Justice.

IV. Here is an attempt to stop the work of God utterly frustrated. Then answered I them, and said, &c. (Neh. 2:20). The boastful arrogance of Sanballat nothing daunted Nehemiah; and as they were not ashamed to charge him and his people unjustly, so he is not ashamed to step forth boldly in defence of the work they had undertaken. Thus Moses bearded Pharaoh; thus Jephthah withstood the Ammonites (Judges 11); thus Hezekiah defended the Jews from the blasphemies of Rabshakeh; thus David stood up against Goliath (1 Samuel 17); thus did Moses and Aaron withstand the reviling and calumny of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers 16). Nehemiah here in the same spirit appeals to God as the ground of his hope, and the source of his confidence. Balak, the king of Moab, hated the camp of Israel, and bribed Balaam, a prophet, to curse them. Just so does the world hate the Church, and is never happier than when it can hire the ministers of the Church to turn against it, and betray its interests. But it can no more succeed by its curses than the wicked Balak could; it must seduce Christians to sin, and then it prevails; not by its own power, but by tempting the Church to provoke the anger of God. (See Addenda.)

Illustrations:(a) Pliny, governor of Pontus, under the emperor Trajan, was appointed to punish the Christians, but seeing their great number he doubted what he should do, and eventually wrote to the emperor that he found no wickedness in them, but that they would not worship images, and that they would sing psalms before day-light unto Christ as God, and did forbid all sins to be used among them. The emperor hearing this became a great deal more gentle to them (Euseb. Lib. 3 cap. 33). Sallust, tormenting Theodorus, a Christian, in various ways, and for a long time, to make him forsake his faith, but all in vain, went to the emperor Julian, and told him what he had done, counselling him that he should prove that way no more by cruelty, for they got glory by suffering patiently, and he got shame in punishing so sharply, because they would not yield to him.

CONFIDENCE IN GOD AN INCENTIVE TO WORK

Neh. 2:20. The God of heaven, he will prosper us, therefore, &c.

Knowledge is power, says the philosopher; faith is power, says the saint. And what is faith? Confidence in God, in his almighty power and faithfulness; a confidence which nerves the soul for every task. No principle can brace a man like the principle of implicit trust in God. It leads not to indolence, but to effort, because

I. It suggests almighty protection. The God of heaven.

1. It regards Jehovah as King of the celestial universe. Lord of Hosts, one of Gods most frequent names (Psa. 46:7; Isa. 1:24; Jer. 46:18; Zec. 1:6; Mal. 1:14). All power is given unto me in heaven (Matthew 28). When the God who rolls the stars along, and upholdeth all things by his word; the God who doeth according to his will amongst the armies of heaven, and controls the hidden forces of the universe; the God who is Almighty, and Omniscient, and Eternal, to whom every celestial knee bows in willing homage and adoration; when this God is on our side, who can be afraid?what can hinder?

2. It regards Jehovah as the providential ruler of the terrestrial universe. This implied rather than expressed. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. In earth because in heaven. All destinies in his hand, all events under his control.

II. It suggests providential direction. He will prosper us.

1. The way may be dark, but God will unfold it. When we have, like Nehemiah, done our best, and given our utmost, then we may safely commit our cause to God and patiently await the issue. Thus Abra ham followed the leadings of Providence (Genesis 12). Thus confidingly did he place his son Isaac on the altar (Genesis 22), saying, God will provide himself a sacrifice. Thus the apostles went at the Saviours bidding without scrip, &c. (Luke 22). In this spirit let all who fear God boldly begin his work, and continue it steadfastly, looking for his guidance, and they shall not be disappointed.

Illustration:A Swiss chamois hunter, crossing the Mar de Glace, fell into one of the enormous crevasses that rend the ice in many places. He fell a hundred yards without serious injury: but his situation seemed hopeless. He could not climb out; and the cold would soon freeze him to death. A stream of water ran down the crevasse; he followed it, wading, stooping, crawling, or floating as best he could. At length he reached a vaulted chamber from which there was no visible outlet. The water heaved threateningly. Retreat was impossible. Delay was death. Commending himself to God the hunter plunged into the whirling flood. Then followed a moment of darkness and terror; then he was thrown up amid the flowers and hay-fields of the vale of Chamouni. Thus mysteriously are we led by a gracious Providence to safety and success.

2. The way may be crowded with difficulties, but God will remove them. He will prosper us. Difficulties as many as Nehemiah encountered may beset our path and work, but not more or mightier than God can remove. How deliverance shall come we know not, and must leave to God. All we know is that it will come in due time. On one occasion Luther was very importunate at the throne of grace to know the mind of God, and it seemed to him as if God spoke aloud and said: I am not to be traced. We can trust where we cannot trace. The Almighty has his times and seasons. An eminent saint thus wrote to a friend: It has frequently been with my hopes and desires in regard to providence, as with my watch and the sun. My watch has often been ahead of true time; I have gone faster than providence, and have been forced to stand still and wait, or I have been set painfully back. Flavel says, some providences are like Hebrew letters, they must be read backwards.

III. It suggests Divine benediction. He will prosper us.

1. It matters not how men may hinder if God prosper the work. If God be for us, who can be against us?

2. It matters not how the kings favour may fluctuate if Jehovahs remain the same. He is the Unchangeable One. Mans favour may be fickle, and therefore little to be relied upon. Gods never fails, therefore with confidence his saints may say, He will prosper us.

IV. It anticipates ultimate success. He will prosper us.

1. It concludes that what God initiates he intends to complete. A good beginning is a strong reason to persuade a man that God will grant good success in the end. David comforted himself when he met Goliath by the thought that be who had delivered him from the lion and the bear, would now continue his gracious interposition. Gods plans never fail.

2. It concludes that what God commences he is able to consummate. When God said to Paul that all the souls with him should be safe, there were various means used; all were not able to swim to the shore, and the ship was not able to bring them all to shore, but yet by broken boards and by one means or other, all got to shore. So the Lord brings things to pass in a strange, but a sure manner; sometimes by one way, sometimes by another. He breaks in pieces many ships, that we think should bring us to shore, but then he casts us on such planks as will eventually bring us there.

Illustration:I looked upon the wrong side of a piece of tapestry and it seemed to me a continued nonsense. There was neither head nor foot therein, a company of thrums and threads, with many pieces and patches of several sorts, sizes, and colours, all which signified nothing to my understanding. But then looking on the reverse, or right side, all put together did spell excellent proportions, and figures of men and cities; so that indeed it was a history, not wrote with a pen, but wrought with a needle. So, if men look upon some of Gods providential dealings with a mere eye of reason, they will hardly find any sense therein. But alas! the wrong side is before our eyes, whilst the right side is presented to the God of heaven, who knoweth that an admirable order doth result out of this confusion; and what is presented to him at present, may hereafter be so showed to us as to convince our judgments of the truth thereof.T. Fuller.

THE MISERABLE CONDITION OF THE CHURCHS ENEMIES

Neh. 2:20. Ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, &c.

I. They are excluded from the Churchs pale.

1. Jerusalem a type of the Church militant and the Church triumphant. There Gods name recorded.

2. From which sinners are self-excluded. By their country, creed, and conduct Sanballat and his friends were excluded from communion with the true Israelites. Scoffers by their own conduct condemn themselves to separation from the true spiritual Church of God. Idolaters can have no part with those who worship the true God, for he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

II. They are cut off from the Churchs privileges.

1. The privilege of Church membership. No portion. This a privilege which many ignore. If the Church is the Body and the Bride of Christ, surely it must be an honour to belong to it.

2. Privilege of Church support. Nor right. To the poor and afflicted this a great boon. As in the Apostles days, so now the Church undertakes to care for its poor.

3. Privilege of ancestral reputation. Nor memorial. The Samaritans endeavoured to claim Jewish ancestry, but unsuccessfully. Saints are held in sweet remembrance in the Church. Their name is often as ointment poured forth. This honour denied to the families of those who have no fellowship with the Church.

III. They are forbidden to participate in the Churchs work. As they feared not their threats, so now they would have none of their help. Be ye not unequally yoked, &c. Gods servants are knit together by two bonds; the one is Christ their head; the other, brotherly love. Neither of these exist amongst idolaters. This work is

1. The most exalted in which any human being can engage. Work for God, for human souls, for the Church which Christ has redeemed by his own blood, for all eternity, cannot but exalt and ennoble those who take part in it.

2. The most remunerative in which any human being can engage. All is pure gain without any loss. The gain is not temporal, but eternal. The reward is found in the glory that is brought to Christ, the salvation that is brought to men, and the reflex benefit which descends upon the soul of the worker.

3. Work which requires moral qualifications possessed only by the true servants of God. Hence the unfitness of the Samaritan unbelievers. God never sends men out into the world as apostles until they have become true disciples in heart and life.

ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 2

Neh. 2:8. THE HAND OF GOD,THANKSGIVING

I. The duty of thanksgiving. Giving thanks, a duty commanded (Eph. 5:20). When thanks are given thankfulness is implied, or it is mere formality. The seat of thankfulness is the heart; there it ought to be cherished with the utmost care, and every motive remembered by which it is enlivened and increased. If the heart be thankful, it is perfectly reasonable and proper that its feelings be expressed. The most powerful arguments enforce this duty.

1. Its antiquity. It is as old as the creation. No sooner did intelligent beings exist than gratitude was expressed: the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy (Job. 38:7). Paradise was the seat of thanksgiving before man fell; and consequently before the voice of prayer was heard, or the sigh of penitence was known.

2. Its perpetuity. It not only commenced sooner, but will continue longer than other duties; it will survive most other acts of service. Prayer will cease; repentance will be no more; faith and hope, as to their present use, will terminate; but thanksgiving will be the delightful business of the upper world, and will extend to the countless ages of eternity.

3. Express injunctions to give thanks are numerous in Holy Scripture. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good (Psa. 107:1). Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God (Psa. 147:1).

4. Example of the best men. What good men have lived without gratitude? What eminent characters are recorded in the Bible who abound not in thanksgiving? Nature conspires to engage us in this employment. All thy works praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion; bless the Lord, O my soul.

II. To whom thanksgiving is to be offered.

1. To men. We ought to give thanks to men for the favours we receive from them. So far as they are our benefactors they are entitled to grateful acknowledgments, and ingratitude is justly marked as one of the worst of crimes, and as evidencing the basest disposition of heart.

2. To God. He is our greatest benefactor: every other is but his instrument and agent. The Most High is our best Friend; for other friends we are indebted to him, and they are all of his sending. Hence the injunction, Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High (Psa. 50:14). Giving thanks unto God, even the Father. Here we are reminded of his paternal character. He has the heart of a father, the tenderest feeling, the kindest affection. Like as a father, &c. Such is the God to whom our thanksgivings are offered.

III. The time when thanksgiving is seasonable.

1. When we enter the sanctuary. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.

2. When we are the recipients of abounding mercies. And who is not? He daily loadeth us with benefits.

3. When we have received some special favour, or been delivered from some great calamity. Hannah prayed and wept, and returned to offer thanksgiving in the place where she had prayed (1 Samuel 1). The lepers were reproached by Christ for not returning thanks for their miraculous cure. Nehemiah acknowledged the good hand of God, which had been over him for good, opening alike the kings heart, and his own providential path.

4. Always. Giving thanks always. I thank my God alway, on your behalf. I will bless the Lord always; his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psa. 34:1). Saints are not to be always singing praises, or with their lips expressing gratitude; yet there is a sense in which they are always to be giving thanks. They ought to cherish a thankful heart, a disposition of gratitude; and should frequently take occasion, by every suitable means, to manifest and express it. Thanksgiving should therefore be offered to the end of life, and in every changing circumstance of life. In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, &c. (Php. 4:6). This service is never unseasonable; and sometimes it is peculiarly appropriate.Kidd.

Neh. 2:11. PREPARATORY RETIREMENT

The pleasures and advantages of solitude have been often admired, and recommended. All love the world; yet all complain of it; and whatever schemes of happiness are devised, the scene is always laid in a withdrawment from it. It is there the warrior feeds his courage, and arranges the materials of victory. It is there the statesman forms and weighs his plans of policy. There the philosopher pursues his theories and experiments. There the man of genius feels the power of thought, and the glow of fancy. And retirement is friendly to communion with God. Consider

I. The duty of retirement. Premise two things

1. The place, is indifferent. It matters not whether it be a private room, or an open field.

2. It is not a state of absolute retirement. Man was made for society as well as solitude. A great part of our religion regards our fellow-creatures, and can only be discharged by intermixing with them. What our Saviour thought of hiding in woods and cells, appears obviously from his words, Ye are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men, &c. It is therefore possible for a Christian to be alone, when he ought to be abroad. It may be much more pleasing often to sit alone, reading or reflecting, than to be called forth to give advice or to visit the afflicted. What God requires is comparative and occasional secession for moral and spiritual purposes. Stand in awe, and sin not; commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. This duty enjoined by example as well as by precept. Isaac went out into the field at eventide to meditate. Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled with him a man, until the dawning of the day. Then went king David in, and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, &c. Daniel retired three times a day. Peter went up to the house-top to pray about the sixth hour, and received a Divine communication. Of our Saviour, whose life has the force of a law, it is said, In the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. At another time, he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. The Sabbath brings us immediately into the presence of God, and gives us an opportunity to examine our character and condition, such as cannot be obtained during the six days of toil. It renews those pious impressions, which our intercourse with the things of time and sense is continually wearing off. This retirement often enforced by the dispensations of Providence. Affliction both disinclines us to social circles, and disqualifies us for them. Sickness separates a man from the crowd, and confines him to his bed that he may ask, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night? A reduced condition will diminish your associates. It will drive away the selfish herd, who think that a friend is born for prosperity. This retirement produces

1. A devotional temper. There we can divulge what we could not in the presence of the dearest earthly friend.

2. A desire to rise above the world. This will induce a man to retire. Where is the world conquered? In a crowd? Nobut alone. In the midst of its active pursuits? Nobut viewed in the presence of Jehovah, and in the remembrances of eternity. Then its emptiness appears. Then the fascination is dissolved. Then we look upward, and say, Now what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

3. A wish to obtain self-knowledge. Only when alone can he examine his state, estimate his attainments, explore his defects, discern the source of past danger, or set a watch against future temptations.

4. Love to God. When we are supremely attached to a person, his presence is all we want; he will be the chief attraction, even in company. Friendship deals much in secrecy; kindred souls have a thousand things to hear and to utter that are not for a common ear. This pre-eminently the case with the intimacy subsisting between God and the believer. The heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger intermeddleth not with his joy. Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and there will I speak comfortably unto her.

II. The advantages of retirement.

1. It furnishes opportunity for communion with God. Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee (Eze. 3:22). We admire the nobleman that kindly notices a peasant; and the sovereign who deigns to converse with one of his poorer subjects. But here is the Creator talking with his creature. Some of us cannot aspire after intercourse with many of our fellow-creatures by reason of our condition, and our talents. But whatever be our condition, or our talents, we have a free and invited access to God. The subject of this communion is variously called his secret, and his covenant. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. He will speak peace unto his people. The meek will he teach his way. The mode of this communion is not supernatural, as of old. God talked with Moses, as a man talketh with his friend. It is mere fanaticism to expect God to commune with us in dreams, visions, sudden impulses, and audible sounds. He opens our understandings in the Scriptures. He leads us into all truth. He applies the doctrines and promises of his word by his Spirit. The result and evidence of this communion will be that our hearts will burn within us. Other effects produced by this communion are

1. A deep and solemn sense of our vanity and vileness. Fellowship with God, instead of encouraging unhallowed presumption, gives a man such intimate views of the peculiar glory of God as fill him with godly fear. Thus was it with Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Job, Isaiah, and Peter.

2. An unquenchable desire for closer communion. That which contents the believer makes him insatiable. He desires no more than God; but he desires more of him.

3. An ever-increasing likeness to God. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. Some boast of being much with God; but so censurable are their conduct and temper, that fear of their fellow-creatures would like to have much to do with them. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.Jay.

Neh. 2:19. OPEN DERISION

I. The sin of mocking weakens every virtuous restraint. There are restraints of education, of example, of regard to reputation. But when a man becomes a mocker, such restraints are relaxed; they gradually lose their hold. With every advance in levity and jesting, a sense of shame subsides, the fear of incurring censure abates, respect for the authority of parents and for the opinion and expostulation of friends declines, custom degenerates into habit, and habit becomes settled and easy.

II. The sin of mocking strengthens vicious propensities. This naturally results from the preceding. As the one declines the other gains ground. Let a man become indifferent to what is right, and he will practise what is wrong; let him cease to do good, and he learns to do evil. Is a bad temper, for instance, which is never repressed, no worse after years of indulgence? Does harmless mirth never proceed to profaneness? Does the habit of loose talking never lead to falsehood, nor settle in deceit? You cannot mock at the Bible without your regard for the sacred Book sinking in proportion. You cannot mock at sin but your aversion to sin dies and your love to sin revives.

III. The sin of mocking gives great advantage to your worst enemies. Such are improper companions. Go with them one mile, and they will easily induce you to go two. Every compliance only emboldens their demands, and facilitates their conquest; and every victory they gain only throws you more completely into their power. Walk in the counsel of the ungodly, and stand in the way of sinners, and ere long you will sit in the seat of the scornful. But there is a worse enemy than these; the spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedience, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. Resist him, and he will flee from you; but invite his attacks, and you inevitably fall into his hands. We read of those who are taken captive by him at his will. These are they who indulge the tempers he would have them indulge, who practise the works which he instigates and approves.

IV. The sin of mocking exposes to peculiar marks of Gods displeasure. Witness the destruction of the youths who mocked Elisha (2Ki. 2:23). Some who have scoffed at the Bible and blasphemed its author have been struck dead in a moment. Persistence in sin has more often been followed by judicial hardness. Men who have begun with jesting at the things of God, and sporting with their own iniquity, have been given up to strong delusions and final impenitence.

V. The sin of mocking terminates in remediless ruin. There is a world beyond the present. There mockers of every class have their full recompense. They have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations; I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them. Ye have set at nought my counsels, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish (Isa. 66:3-4; Pro. 1:25-26).Kidd.

ILLUSTRATIONS

The hand of God. Protection.

1. John Knox, the celebrated Scotch reformer, had many remarkable escapes from the malicious designs of his enemies. He was accustomed to sit at the head of the table in his own house, with his back to the window; but on one particular evening he would neither himself sit in his chair, nor allow any one else to do so. That very evening a bullet was shot through the window, purposely to kill him; it grazed the chair in which he usually sat, and made a hole in the foot of the candlestick.
2. Posidonius, in the Life of Augustine, relates that this good man, going on one occasion to preach at a distant town, took with him a guide to direct him in the way. This man, by some unaccountable means, mistook the usual road, and fell into a by-path. It afterwards proved that in this way the preachers life had been saved, as his enemies, aware of his journey, had placed themselves in the proper road with a design to kill him.

Envy. Dionysius the tyrant, says Plutarch, out of envy, punished Philoxenius the musician, because he could sing, and Plato the philosopher, because he could dispute better than himself. Cambyses, king of Persia, slew his brother Smerdis, out of envy, because he could draw a stronger bow than himself or any of his followers; and the monster Caligula slew his brother because he was a beautiful young man.

Base envy withers at anothers joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.

Derision. A poor man who had heard the preaching of the gospel, and to whom it had been greatly blessed, was the subject of much profane ridicule and jesting amongst his neighbours. On being asked if these persecutions did not sometimes make him ready to give up his profession of religion, he replied, No. I recollect that our good minister once said in his sermon, that if we were so foolish as to permit such people to laugh us out of our religion, till at last we dropped into hell, they could not laugh us out again. Admiral Colpoys relates that when he first left his lodgings to join his ship as a midshipman, his landlady presented him with a Bible and a guinea, saying, God bless you, and prosper you, my lad; and as long as you live never suffer yourself to be laughed out of your money or your prayers. The young sailor carefully followed this advice through life, and had reason to rejoice that he had done so.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

TEXT AND VERSE-BY-VERSE COMMENTS

B. Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem
1. Nehemiah is given permission by Artaxerxes to make the trip.

TEXT, Neh. 2:1-10

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

And 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.

5

And I said to the king, If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers tombs, that I may rebuild it.

6

Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will your journey be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time.

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 kings 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.

9

Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the kings letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.

10

And when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.

COMMENT

Neh. 2:1 : Nisan was the first month of the year, corresponding to our March-April, the beginning of Spring. It was the twentieth year, but Neh. 1:1 has spoken of the twentieth year, the ninth month! One explanation is that if Artaxerxes began to rule between the first and ninth months, for example in the fifth, then the twentieth year of his reign would begin in a fifth month and end a year later in a fourth month; thus the ninth month (Chislev) of the twentieth year would come before the first month (Nisan) of the twentieth year. Also, there were two calendars in use: the religious, which began with Nisan, (springtime), and the agricultural, which began six months later, in the Fall, after harvest was completed. Nehemiah may have used this. The Jewish year still begins with Rosh Hashonah, the first day of the seventh month (about our September).

This would indicate a space of four months since Nehemiah had gotten the disturbing news described in the previous chapter. Evidently Nehemiah had been spending the time in prayer, awaiting the propitious moment to introduce his subject, or else the king had been occupied in another city for these months (See comments on Ezr. 6:2.), and this was Nehemiahs first opportunity to come before him with his request. The delay would have heightened Nehemiahs tension and concern.

King Artaxerxes in this passage is traditionally identified with Artaxerxes Longimanus, who ruled from 465 to 424 B.C. The time had arrived for the serving of the wine to the king; Nehemiah had evidently tasted it and was in the act of serving it to the king.

Neh. 2:2 reveals something of the intimacy that would have existed between a king and his cupbearer. The king observed Nehemiahs obvious sadness; he surmised it was caused by grief; his question was a mark of his concern. Nehemiahs fear arose most likely from his recognition of the responsibility to be cheerful, particularly at that point in the meal or banquet. In Neh. 2:3 we see Nehemiahs method of conveying his message to the king. First there is the polite form of address: Let the king live forever, which even the top ranking servant must not forget. Then there was the reference to the desolation of the cemetery of his ancestors, which would strike a responsive cord in an oriental monarchs mind; ones ancestors must always be respected.

In Neh. 2:4, when the king asked what request this was leading up to, Nehemiah prayed. It is a small intimate detail from Nehemiahs diary, and it reminds us of the possibility of our being so conscious of Gods constant presence that we may breathe a short prayer even between hearing a question and responding.

Neh. 2:5 again shows Nehemiahs close conformity to court decorum. The pleasure of the king is foremost. The only compulsion laid upon him must arise out of his favorable regard for his servant, based on his satisfactory past performance. The request is that Nehemiah be sent to Judah, where the aforementioned cemetery is located, to rebuild his home city, which he still has not identified. There is no mention of the walls either, which had been the subject of an earlier controversy (Ezr. 4:13).

In Neh. 2:6 details are spelled out. The mention of the queens presence[52] speaks of two things: (1) it was a very intimate and private moment, rather than a public occasion. The queen ordinarily would not appear in public; she was not a public official, but rather the kings consort, meeting his personal needs, in the oriental manner, (2) The fact that she is mentioned suggests that she added her influence to make up the kings mind.

[52] The position of the queen sitting by or before the king corresponds with representations in the monuments. Compare especially the representation of Ashurbanipal reclining at a banquet, his queen being seated on a chair at the foot of his couch. Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, Ezra-Nehemiah, p. 162.

The two questions in the text are not answered, but the meaning back of them is explained. The question, How long will your journey be? is a way of saying It pleased the king to send (him); and when will you return? indicated the kings desire to make it only a temporary mission; whereupon Nehemiah set a date for his return. Many of our questions also are disguised statements.

In Neh. 2:7 Nehemiah asked for the necessary papers to get him to his destination; he would need documents showing his authority and the backing of the Persian court to pass through various provinces along the Euphrates and Jordan valleys.

In Neh. 2:8 he asked for supplies to accomplish his objective on his arrival; timber from the kings forest, possibly in Lebanon or in Solomons ancient gardens or elsewhere close by Jerusalem. This he would need to (1) rebuild the fortress by the Temple, probably in the N.T. the Tower of Antonia just to the north; (2) repair the walls, that is, towers and gates in particular; (3) build himself a house as his own headquarters as governor. He believed it was Gods approval that caused the king to grant his wishes.

Neh. 2:9-10 trace his progress through the provinces, especially Samaria and Amnion, on his approach to. Jerusalem. While these two lands in particular were hostile to him, his possession of papers from their superiors and his in Persia, and especially the Persian military guard accompanying him, would convince them of the necessity of allowing his passage. This was in contrast to Ezras trip without escort (Ezr. 8:22).

Sanballat, in Neh. 2:10 was the governor of Samaria; his name appears in contemporary literature, the Elephantine Papyri from Egypt; the Jewish colony there asked for his support in building a temple to Jehovah there, but received no assistance. His name means Sin (an Assyrian moon god) gives life; it is not clear whether he worshiped the god Horon, or whether Horonite indicates that he was from Horonaim, in Moab; at any rate, his very name would be an offense to a loyal Israelite.

Tobiah (The name means Pleasing to Jehovah; a similar name, Tabeel, Pleasing to God, is in Ezr. 4:7.) was possibly a half-descendant of the Jews, appointed to govern the Ammonites north and east of Judah. Ruins of a place with his name clearly carved into the stone by the doorway has been located a ways east of the Jordan; from here his descendants, many with the same name, continued to rule for several centuries.[53]

[53] For a description see the article, The Araq el-Emir and the Tobiads, Biblical Archaeologist, Sept., 1957, pp. 6376.

The word official here is literally slave (cf. Word Studies for Ezra 9); in this context it would represent high rank, as a head of a province, though he was still subservient to the Persian king.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(1) Nisan.The old Abib, the first month of the Jewish year, following the vernal equinox. As we are still in the twentieth year of the king, the beginning of his reign must be dated before Chisleu. The record adopts Persian dates, and the two months fell in one year.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

II.

(1-8) Nehemiahs appeal to the king.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

NEHEMIAH COMMISSIONED TO REBUILD THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM, Neh 2:1-8.

1. The month Nisan The name, after the exile, of the first month of the Jewish year, corresponding nearly with April, and more anciently called Abib. Exo 13:4; comp. Neh 12:2. This was the first Nisan that followed the Chisleu (Neh 1:1) when Nehemiah heard the sad tidings from Judah, and four months after that time, but both these months fell in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. For a notice of this king, see note on Ezr 7:1.

Took up the wine, and gave it unto the king This was a part of the business of the royal cupbearer. See note above, on Neh 1:11.

Had not been beforetime sad We may better omit beforetime and translate the past tense of the verb, as is often proper, so as to express an habitual state or condition, I was not accustomed to be sad in his presence. The Hebrew word for sad ( ) commonly means bad, ill-favoured, evil; and is appropriately used of the troubled and dejected countenance of a cupbearer, which should naturally be cheerful and happy, as became his business, to cheer the heart of the king. Various ancient authors attest the propensity of the Persians for wine. Herodotus says, (i, 133,) “They are very fond of wine, and drink it in large quantities.” And, according to H. Rawlinson, it is customary at the present day for the high livers among the Persians “to sit for hours before dinner drinking wine and eating dried fruits. A party often sits down at seven o’clock, and the dinner is not brought in till eleven.”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Nehemiah’s Successful Approach To The King And His Subsequent Commission ( Neh 2:1-8 ).

Having reached his decision before God Nehemiah now carried it out into practise. He came into the king’s presence revealing something of his grief while performing his service.

Neh 2:1

‘And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had not (previously) been sad in his presence.’

The timing of the event may well have been important. Nisan was the first month of the calendar year, and the new year may well have been a time when the king was inclined to dispel favours. Thus Nehemiah may well have been awaiting this propitious time. In view of Neh 1:1, however, it appears that for dating purposes Nehemiah is using the regnal year, as there Chislev was also in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. This may have been with the intentional purpose of linking Neh 2:1 with Neh 1:1 by placing them in the same regnal year. Nisan would still, however, have been the month of the new year celebrations.

‘When wine was before him’ is simply a general indication that this occurred at mealtime. It was, of course, then that Nehemiah would be called on to perform his duty of receiving the king’s wine, tasting it, and passing it on to the king something which he proceeded to do. He then makes the general comment, ‘I had not been sad in his presence’. The time indicator ‘previously’ is not strictly necessary, although helping us with the sense. The point is that he was never ‘sad in his presence’ at any time. It was something that was unheard of. Or alternately it may signify that even though he had been fasting and praying he had not been sad in his presence. The implication is that now he was, and deliberately so. His heart must have been beating fast as he awaited the king’s reaction. He was aware that at any moment he might immediately be arrested for ‘making the king sad’.

Neh 2:2

‘And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Then I was very deeply afraid.’

The king, who was always surrounded by smiling faces, immediately discerned what the situation was. Nehemiah was clearly not sick, so why the sad face? What was the sad news that Nehemiah wanted to convey to him? Perhaps he expected to hear of the death of a beloved relative. That alone could justify Nehemiah bringing his sorrows to the king’s attention. The fact that the queen was present at the feast (Neh 2:6) was probably an indication that it was a private feast.

‘Then I was very deeply afraid.’ He had reason to be afraid. He was about to ask Artaxerxes to put aside his temporary decree which had prevented the building of the walls of Jerusalem (Ezr 4:21). Depending on how serious a matter the king saw that to be it could have been seen as a request of great significance, and it might certainly be seen as questionable whether such a political plea justified ‘making the king sad’. An element of treason might even have been seen as involved. If the king was annoyed about it he could order his immediate execution. But Nehemiah had not come unprepared. He had considered carefully how to phrase his request. He presented it in terms of the disgrace brought on his father’s sepulchre. He was indicating that his concern was a matter of family honour. This was something that the king would appreciate for to both royalty and the aristocracy the family sepulchre was seen as of huge importance. It will be noted that Nehemiah makes no mention of Jerusalem.

Neh 2:3

‘And I said to the king, “Let the king live for ever. Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the house of my fathers’ sepulchres, lies waste, and its gates are consumed with fire?”

‘Let the king live forever.’ This was a normal way of addressing kings. It was a prayer for the king’s continual well-being. And Nehemiah then asserted that the reason why he was so upset was because of the condition of the city with which his father’s sepulchre was connected. It was in ruins. The city lay waste, and its gates had been burned with fire. And this could only rebound on the condition of the family sepulchre. ‘The house of my fathers’ sepulchres’ may well reflect the fact that Persian kings attempted to give their sepulchres the appearance of a house or palace, even when they were utilising rock tombs.

The king, who might well have been troubled had Nehemiah mentioned Jerusalem, was seemingly only full of sympathy. He could fully appreciate his favourite’s distress.

Neh 2:4

‘Then the king said to me, “For what are you asking?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.’

So the king asked Nehemiah what the heart of his request was. What was it that his faithful servant wanted from him? Nehemiah, with his heart no doubt somewhat relieved, flashed a silent prayer to Heaven and then explained his heart’s desire. It is a reminder that when we are going about God’s business we should ensure that we keep in close touch with God.

Neh 2:5

‘And I said to the king, “If it please the king, and if your servant has found favour in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may rebuild it.”

His request was, that if it pleased the king, and if he Nehemiah had found favour in his sight, he would send him to Judah to restore the city of his fathers where his fathers’ sepulchres were found. He still gives no hint that he is referring to Jerusalem.

Neh 2:6

‘And the king said to me (the queen also sitting by him), “For how long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time.’

The mention of the queen sitting by suggests that she may well have approved Nehemiah’s request, and have added her voice to his. Nehemiah may well have been one of her favourite courtiers. But the king was very happy with his request and only wanted to know how long it would take him to fulfil it. When would he be coming back? So the king gave his permission, and Nehemiah set a date for his return.

On the other hand it has been suggested that the sudden introduction of the queen quietly introduces a change from a public feast to a more private one. The questions that the king asks may well have been retained for such a private occasion, with the king initially having simply indicated his approval.

Neh 2:7-8

‘Moreover I said to the king, “If it please the king, let letters be given to me to the governors of Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through till 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 which appertains to the house (the temple), and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into.”

As an experienced courtier who had thought it all out beforehand, and in response to the king’s request, Nehemiah now outlines his requirements. Firstly he asks for letters demonstrating that he has the king’s authority, to all governors of the Province of Beyond the River (Syria, Palestine, and the surrounding area). These would provide him, at least officially, with safe conduct on his way to Judah. Secondly he asks for a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, requiring him to provide the necessary timber for the proposed construction, including beams for the gates of the fortress which was by the Temple, which was a huge construction securing the frontal approach to Jerusalem; the beams necessary for the building of the walls with their gates; and beams for the restoration of Nehemiah’s own family residence, or residence as governor. Whilst he would prove to be very generous to his fellow Jews he was nevertheless aware (as Artaxerxes also was), of his own importance.

The fact that he knew the name of the keeper of the king’s forest in Palestine (Asaph was a Jewish name) suggests that he had fully researched his intended visit to Jerusalem. It is never spiritual to be careless. We have no certain information as to where the king’s forest was, but Palestine and its surrounds were at the time well forested, and the king of Persia would no doubt have taken over from Babylon ownership of the royal forests of the kings of Judah and Israel.

Neh 2:8

‘And the king granted it to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.’

That the king granted his requests he saw as due to the good hand of his God upon him. And it was no doubt so. But part of the reason undoubtedly lay in the fact that he was a faithful and trusted servant of the king. God can often bless us because we have ourselves laid the foundation for such blessing.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Neh 2:1-8 The King Grants Nehemiah Request to Return to Jerusalem In Neh 2:1-8 King Artaxerxes grants a request from Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. It is interesting to note that Nehemiah does not mention the name of Jerusalem, perhaps because this city had a reputation of being rebellious towards outside dominance.

Neh 2:1  And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

Neh 2:1 “And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king” Comments The times of the Gentiles (Luk 21:24) was ushered into world history through the prophecies of Daniel, where Israel’s dominance subsided and the Gentile nations of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greek, and Roman empires would rise. This time began with the fall of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Dan 1:1 is the last biblical event in redemption history that is dated by the calendars of the kings of the nation of Israel. At this point forward, all redemptive events recorded in the Holy Scriptures will be dated around Gentile rules (Dan 2:1; Dan 7:1; Dan 8:1; Dan 9:1; Dan 10:1; Dan 11:1, Ezr 1:1; Ezr 6:3; Ezr 7:1, Neh 2:1, Est 1:1-3, Luk 2:1-2; Luk 3:1-2). Even the book of Ezekiel seems to blend the Jewish calendar with the fall of Israel by the Babylonians in his collection of prophecies.

Luk 21:24, “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

Comments – The Hebrew civil year began in September, coinciding with a “West-Semitic” tradition, while the Hebrew sacred year began with the month of Nisan (March/April), coinciding with the Babylonian calendar. [39] The month of Chislev (Nov-Dec) would be the ninth month of the Jewish sacred. Nehemiah heard the news of his fellow Jews from Jerusalem in November (Neh 1:1) and spoke to the king four months later in April. These two events apparently fell within the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.

[39] I. Abrahams, “Time,” in A Dictionary of the Bible Dealing with its Literature, Language and Contents Including the Biblical Theology, ed. James Hastings, vol. 4 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911), 764-765; H. Porter, “Kislev,” and “Calendar,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).

Neh 1:1, “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,”

Neh 2:1, “And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.”

We find a clear reference to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes at the end of this book (Neh 13:6), so we must assume Neh 1:1 refers to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, which would have been 445 B.C. [40]

[40] R. F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), “Artaxerxes.”

Neh 13:6, “But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king:”

Neh 2:1 “Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence” Comments – Nehemiah heard about the poor plight of his Jewish brethren four months earlier. Perhaps Nehemiah’s mourning took this long to show itself in his countenance.

Neh 2:8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Neh 2:8 “And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me” Comments – Throughout the course of the events that took place over the past few months, Nehemiah recognized the divine providence of God at work. It was a difficult time in his life, while being deeply troubles for his people, he patiently waiting for God to work things out.

Neh 2:19  But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?

Neh 2:19 Word Study on “Sanballat” Strong says “Sanballat” was “a satrap of Samaria.” PTW says the name “Sanballat” (H5571) means, “ strong.”

Neh 2:19 “the Horonite” Comments – Sanballat’s designation as a Horonite means that he was from Beth Horon, the upper or lower (Jos 16:3; Jos 16:5), or perhaps from Horonaim, a town in Moab (Isa 15:5, Jer 48:3; Jer 48:5). He was the governor of Samaria as late as 408 B.C. ( ISBE) [41]

[41] R. Dick Wilson, “Sanballat,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).

Jos 16:3, “And goeth down westward to the coast of Japhleti, unto the coast of Bethhoron the nether, and to Gezer: and the goings out thereof are at the sea.”

Jos 16:5, “And the border of the children of Ephraim according to their families was thus: even the border of their inheritance on the east side was Atarothaddar, unto Bethhoron the upper;”

Isa 15:5, “My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.”

Jer 48:3, “A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, spoiling and great destruction.”

Jer 48:5, “For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.”

Neh 2:20 Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.

Neh 2:20 “Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us” Nehemiah had prayed for God to prosper him in his opening prayer (Neh 1:11).

Neh 1:11, “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.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Nehemiah’s Request Granted by the King

v. 1. And it came to pass in the month Nisan, the first month of the Jewish church-year, some four months after Nehemiah had received news regarding the pitiful conditions in Jerusalem, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, the years of whose reign were counted from some other month than Nisan, namely, by Persian reckoning, that wine was before him, it being the custom to drink a little wine with some dried fruits before dinner; and I took up the wine and gave it unto the king, serving it as his office required. Now, I had not been beforetime sad in his presence, it being poor policy at Oriental courts not to show a satisfied and happy face.

v. 2. Wherefore the king, noting at once that something unusual had happened to sadden his trusted servant, said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. It was true then as it is now: “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken,” Pro 15:13. Then I was very sore afraid

v. 3. and said unto the king, Let the king live forever! the common formula of address to the king. Why should not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father’s sepulchers, for Nehemiah seems to have been a descendant of the royal house of David, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? This explained the dejected air which Nehemiah wore even in the presence of the king.

v. 4. Then the king said unto me, rightly guessing that Nehemiah had a request to make in connection with this sad state of affairs, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven, sending up a silent prayer for strength and assistance.

v. 5. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my father’s sepulchers, literally, “the city the graves of my fathers,” probably intend. in a double sense, that I may build it.

v. 6. And the king said unto me, (the queen, as some think, Esther, also sitting by him, this being a private occasion, at which the principal wife of the monarch could be present,) For how long shall thy journey be? And when wilt thou return? So it pleased king to send me; and I set him a time. This circumstance proves that Nehemiah enjoyed the favor and confidence of the Persian monarch in an unusual degree, since he himself fixed the length of his commission.

v. 7. Moreover, I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, to the great territory between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean Sea, that they may convey me over, under the protection of a military guard, till I come into Judah;

v. 8. and a letter unto Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, the royal palace of Solomon, which lay in ruins, and for the wall of the city, and for the house I shall enter into, the Temple itself, which he would, of course, visit and inspect. So the materials for the building of all these structures were to be furnished from the timber of the royal park somewhere in the neighborhood of Jerusalem. And the king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me. All believers who are honestly concerned for the welfare of the Church will receive what they desire and work for. God Himself is zealous for His people, for His Church, and hears the prayers of His faithful children in its behalf.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Neh 2:1

In the month Nisan. The fourth month after Chisleu, corresponding nearly to our April. How it came about that Nehemiah did not put the king’s favour to the proof until more than three months had gone by we can only conjecture. Perhaps the court had been absent from Susa, passing the winter at Babylon, as it sometimes did, and he had not accompanied it. Perhaps, though present at the court, he had not been called on to discharge his office, his turn not having arrived. Possibly, though performing his duties from time to time, he had found no opportunity of unbosoming himself, the king not having noticed his grief. He. may even have done his best to conceal it, for Persian subjects were expected to be perfectly happy in the presence of their king. He had probably formed no plan, but waited in the confident hope that God’s providence would so order events, that some occasion would arise whereof he might take advantage. In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. Like Daniel, Zechariah, Haggai, and Ezra, Nehemiah dates events by the regnal year of the existing Persian king. His Artaxerxes is, by common consent, the same as Ezra’s, and can scarcely be supposed to be any monarch but Longimanus, who reigned from b.c. 465 to b.c. 425. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Other renderings have been proposed, but this is probably the true meaning. Hitherto I had always worn a cheerful countenance before himnow it was otherwisemy sorrow showed itself in spite of me.

Neh 2:2

The king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad? This “kindly question” put by the great king to his humble retainer is his best claim to the favourable judgment of later ages. History puts him before us as a weak monarch, one who could compromise the royal dignity by making terms with a revolted subject, while he disgraced it by breaking faith with a conquered enemy. But if weak as a king, as a man he was kind-hearted and gentle. Few Persian monarchs would have been sufficiently interested in their attendants to notice whether they were sad or no; fewer still would have shown sympathy on such an occasion. A Xerxes might have ordered the culprit to instant execution. Longimanus feels compassion, and wishes to assuage the grief of his servant. Then I was very sore afraid. Notwithstanding the king’s kind and compassionate words, Nehemiah feels his danger. He has looked sad in the king’s presence. He is about to ask permission to quit the court. These are both sins against the fundamental doctrine of Persian court life, that to bask in the light of the royal countenance is the height of felicity. Will the king be displeased, refuse his request, dismiss him from his post, cast him into prison, or will he pardon his rudeness and allow his request?

Neh 2:3

May the king live for ever. A common form of Oriental compliment (1Ki 1:31; Dan 2:4; Dan 3:9, etc. ), but said now with special intention to conciliate, and meant to express a deep interest in the royal life and person. The city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres. We see by this that Nehemiah’s family must have belonged to the capital. The Persians, like the Jews, had a great respect for the tomb, and regarded its violation with horror. Artaxerxes would naturally sympathise with the wish of his follower to give security to the city where his ancestors were interred. It would seem that the Persians generally at this time (Herod; 1.140), the kings certainly, buried their dead. Lieth waste. Nehemiah’s warmth of feeling exaggerates the fact; but he may have been unconscious of the exaggeration. He repeats the phrase to the chief men of Jerusalem after making his survey of the wall (verse 17).

Neh 2:4

Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? Artaxerxes understood that a complaint was contained in Nehemiah’s speech, and that he must have a request to make. With gracious kindliness he facilitates its utterance. So I prayed to the God of heaven. Nehemiah was emphatically a man of prayer. In every danger, in every difficulty, still more at any crisis, prayer rose to his lips (see Neh 4:4, Neh 4:9; Neh 5:19; Neh 6:9, Neh 6:14; Neh 13:14, etc.). Sometimes, as now, the prayer was offered silently and swiftly.

Neh 2:6

The queen. It appears from Ctesias (‘Exc. Pers.,’ 44) that Artaxerxes Longimanus had but one legitimate wifea certain Damaspia. Nothing more is known of her besides this mention, and the fact that she died on the same day as her husband. Sitting by him. Not an unusual circumstance. Though, when the monarch entertained guests, the queen remained in her private apartments (Est 1:9-12), yet on other occasions she frequently took her meals with him. I set him a time. Nehemiah probably mentioned some such time as a year, or two yearssuch a space as would suffice for the double journey, and the restoration of the fortifications. He stayed away, however, as he tells us (Neh 5:14), twelve years, obtaining no doubt from time to time an extension of his leave (Bertheau).

Neh 2:7

Let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river. It is not quite clear why no letters were needed to the governors between Susa and the Euphrates. Perhaps, while travelling was safe, at any rate with an escort, in the more central provinces, beyond the river it became unsafe (see Ezr 8:31).

Neh 2:8

The king’s forest. Patrick supposes the forest on Mount Lebanon to be intended; but Nehemiah would scarcely have desired to transport timber for ordinary building purposes from such a distance. Moreover, the word used is one not applicable to a natural forest, but only to a park, or pleasure-ground planted with trees, and surrounded by a fence or wall. The word is pardes, the Hebrew representative of that Persian term which the Greeks rendered by , whence our “paradise.” We must understand a royal park in the vicinity of Jerusalem, of which a Jew, Asaph, was the keeper. The palace which appertained to the house. The “house” here spoken of is undoubtedly the temple; and the birah, appertaining to it is, almost certainly, the fortress at the north-west angle of the temple area, which at once commanded and protected it. Josephus says (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 15.11, 4) that this fortress was called originally. In Roman times it was known as the “Turris Antonia.” The house that I shall enter into. The governor’s residence. Nehemiah assumes that the powers for which he asks involve his being appointed governor of Judaea. The king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. Through God’s special favour towards me, the king was induced to grant my request.

HOMILETICS

Neh 2:1-8

Prayer answered.

Three or four months bad passed since Nehemiah first heard of the distressed condition of his brethren at Jerusalem, and began to pray for them, and that he might be permitted to visit and relieve them. So long the answer to his prayer was delayed. But he doubtless continued to pray, and at length the answer came. Meanwhile, he would be able to ripen his plans, and prepare himself for his enterprise. Notice

I. THE OPPORTUNITY AT LENGTH AFFORDED HIM. Arising from

1. His access to the king.

2. The king’s notice of his sadness and kind inquiry respecting it (verse 2). An example to superiors in relation to inferiors; to masters and mistresses in respect to their servants. The highest are liable to suffer, and may be glad of the sympathy and services of those beneath them, who will render them all the more cheerfully if kindness has been shown to them. God intends the relationships of life for mutual comfort and benefit. Sympathy benefits alike the giver and receiver. Sympathy is as oil to the machinery of life. It unites classes in bonds more sacred, happy, and lasting than laws or self-interest. Every one has it in his power, by cherishing and displaying it, to render invaluable service to society. Sympathy between employers and employed is one of the greatest wants of England.

3. His reply. Describing the sad condition of Jerusalem, and intimating its preciousness to him as “the place of his fathers’ sepulchres” (verse 3).

4. The king’s encouragement to him to present his request (verse 4). A kind word will do much to alleviate sorrow; a readiness to give practical relief more. The king encouraged Nehemiah to hope for this; nor was the hope disappointed.

II. THE USE HE MADE OF HIS OPPORTUNITY.

1. It filled him with fear (verse 2). The moment he had so long desired had come; but at first its arrival only made him “very sore afraid.” So much depended on it; so uncertain was he of his power to produce the right impression on the king, whose will would determine whether his plan should be executed.

2. It led him to prayer (verse 4). As he stood before the monarch, embarrassed and trembling, he lifted up his heart to God, imploring assistance and success. The best thing he could do. Prayer calms the anxious (Php 4:6, Php 4:7), gives the soul possession of itself, brings God to the help of man. In the strength of God Nehemiah could address the king.

3. He presented his petition to Artaxerxes (verse 5). Humbly and courteously, as became him, and was best adapted to secure his object.

4. He made further and larger requests when the first was granted (verses 7, 8). The general lesson is, Seize your opportunities, whether for getting or doing good. “There is a tide in the affairs of men,” etc. The impression made by a young man in a short interview may determine the complexion of the whole of his after life. Failure is often only lost opportunities avenging themselves. It is so not only in secular matters, but spiritual. “The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone” (G. Eliot).

III. HIS SUCCESS. The king not only granted him his requests, but gave him apparently more than he asked for (verse 9).

IV. HIS PIOUS ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ITS SUPREME SOURCE. “According to the good hand of my God upon me” (verse 8). Many fail in this. Even those who have prayed for what they have received do not always make due acknowledgment. Thanksgivings are not so plentiful as prayers.

In conclusion, observe

1. Christians always have access to the throne of the King of.kings. He feels deep interest in them, sympathy with them; encourages them to tell him their sorrows and present their petitions. They may come to him not only at stated periods, but at any moment, through the mediation of the Lord Jesus.

2. They should avail themselves of this privilege not only for their own advantage, but for the good of others. They should pray constantly “for the peace of Jerusalem,” for the “good estate of the Catholic Church.” God purposes and promises good to his Church, but enjoins prayer for what he has promised (see Eze 36:37). Our Lord teaches us, in the model prayer he has given us, to pray first for the hallowing of God’s name and the coming of his kingdom. Yet many Christians are selfish in their prayers, and thus nourish their selfishness.

3. They may ask for great things. He to whom they come is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,” and has done great things in answer to prayer.

4. Past answers to prayer should embolden to further and larger requests.

Neh 2:2

Sorrow and its Consoler.

“This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.”

I. SORROW OF HEART MAY CO–EXIST WITH EXTERNAL WELL–BEING. Nehemiah was healthy, honoured, rich, yet sad. So are many in similar circumstances. The sorrows of sympathy, patriotism, and piety, as Nehemiah’s were; those of penitence or remorse; of wounded affection or disappointed confidence; those occasioned by family troubles, etc; may invade the hearts of the most prosperous. And it is well that they should. Prosperity without sorrow tends to moral ruin.

II. SORROW OF HEART IS GRACIOUSLY NOTICED AND ASSUAGED BY THE KING OF KINGS.

1. He observes the sorrowful heart. It will commonly reveal itself in the countenance; but if not, God sees it (Psa 31:7; Psa 38:9).

2. He delights to comfort the sorrowful heart. “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” He sent his Son “to heal the broken-hearted.” The Spirit whom he sends is “the Comforter.” By his providence, by the revelation he gives of his fatherly pity and the benevolent ends of affliction, by his assurances of favour and love, by his promises, by human sympathy and solace, he comforts now his children; and ultimately he will wipe all their tears away.

III. SORROW OF HEART SHOULD RECEIVE TENDER HUMAN SYMPATHY AND SUCCOUR. We should be sensitive to its signs, and prompt to feel with and for it, and to proffer consolation and relief. This course is

1. Prompted by nature. To decline this duty is to do violence to ourselves. It is to “shut up our bowels of compassion” (1Jn 3:17), unless, indeed, we are so far below the level of humanity as to have none.

2. Enjoined by religion. The law and the gospel coincide here.

3. Required by our relation to sufferers. The brotherhood of man to man, of Christian to Christian.

4. Enabled by our possession of the gospel. Which is a collection of cordials for all varieties of human sorrow. He who has this, though he has little besides, may be a comforter of many.

5. Illustrated by Divine example (see II.).

6. Enforced by the revelation of the last judgment (see Mat 25:35-45; 1Jn 4:17). Finally, there is sorrow coming on the impenitent which will receive no comfort from God, angel, or man (see Luk 16:24-26).

Neh 2:3

Sadness, when and how far justifiable.

“Why should not my countenance be sad?”

I. SADNESS IS OFTEN JUSTIFIABLE, OR EVEN COMMENDABLE.

1. Under great troubles. Stoicism is neither natural nor Christian. Troubles are meant to trouble us. If they do not, they afford no trial to faith and patience, and cannot effect their purpose for discipline and improvement.

2. Under the consciousness of sin. In view of its essential evil as committed against God, his rights, laws, and goodness; its injuriousness to ourselves and to others; its final consequences unless forgiven.

3. In sympathy with the troubles of others. Which makes them our own. Christian fellow, ship includes community of suffering. “If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.”

4. On account of the sins of others (Psa 119:136, Psa 119:158; Eze 9:4; Php 3:18).

5. On account of the troubles of the Church. Nehemiah’s sadness was honourable to him.

II. YET SADNESS SHOULD NOT BE INCONSOLABLE.

1. It need not. For a sure remedy is furnished in the truths and promises of the gospel, and the ever-available aid of the Holy Spirit.

2. It ought not. For faith and prayer, opening the heart to the Divine consolations, and securing the Divine aid, would turn sadness into peace, if not joy. Those cases are, however, to be excepted where melancholy springs from physical causes, and needs bodily rather than spiritual treatment.

III. SADNESS SHOULD NEVER BE PREDOMINANT IN THE CHRISTIAN. For his habitual sadness of spirit, countenance, or speech

1. Dishonours God.

2. Robs himself. Counteracting the design of our religion, everywhere prominent in the New Testament. “That they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer.” “The kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Ghost.” “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,“ etc. “These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”

3. Hinders Christian service. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

4. Retards the progress of religion. Discouraging inquirer, and giving occasion to adversaries to speak ill of the religious life.

Neh 2:4

Ejaculatory prayer.

“So I prayed to the God of heaven.” Nehemiah, saddened by the report he had received of the condition of the Jews who had returned to their land, had formed a purpose to visit them, that he might encourage them, and take the lead in fortifying the city, and putting affairs into a more hopeful condition. His doing so depended on the consent of the monarch whose cupbearer he was, and his obtaining a commission from him. Already he had prayed for success in his intended application, and now that the desired opportunity presented itself he felt the importance of the moment, and in the king’s presence sent up mentally another prayer. We have here

I. PRAYER BY A GREAT AND WEALTHY MAN. Such have many temptations to neglect prayer; temptations to pride and self-dependence, to worldliness and self- indulgence, tending to the loss of all sense of their need of God and spiritual good; to entire absorption in the cares of their position; to false shame before their equals, etc.; yet they need prayer as much as the poorest, and in some respects more. They equally need Divine mercy as sinners, and Divine help and guidance; and they have special responsibilities, temptations, and power for good or evil, and so need special grace. In undertaking such a work as Nehemiah proposed to himself, the greatest may well feel their need of Divine aid. It is pleasing to contemplate such men when they are men given to prayer. Many instances in the Bible: Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Daniel, Cornelius.

II. PRAYER AT AN UNUSUAL PLACE AND TIME. Not in temple or synagogue or secret chamber; but in the presence of a king and queen, and while engaged in ministering to them. Learn that no place is unsuitable, no time unseasonable, for prayer; for God is everywhere, and his ear always open.

III. SILENT PRAYER. Was perhaps an exercise of mind and heart, unknown to the king. Prayer is not confined to audible utterance. This is desirable where practicable, even in private worship; for utterance aids thought and feeling; and it is indispensable to common prayer. One must speak that all may unite. A silent meeting, as amongst the Friends, may be a true prayer-meeting to individuals, but hardly a meeting for united prayer. But in Nehemiah’s circumstances audible words would have been unsuitable: and always the worth and efficacy of prayer spring not from the words, but the principles and feelings they represent. It is ever what passes in the mind and heart which makes prayer to be prayer. As much as there is of desire, directed to God in faith, so much is there of prayer.

“Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,

Uttered or unexpressed,

The motion of a hidden fire,

That trembles in the breast.”

Much of the truest prayer cannot be spoken. “Groanings which cannot be uttered.”

IV. A SHORT PRAYER. Length is in some measure, and under some circumstances, an element of true prayer. He who satisfies himself, in his regular seasons of worship, with a sentence or two, is guilty of irreverence, and shows that he has no delight in communion with God. But on such an occasion as that in the text, only brief prayer is possible or needful. And how much may be expressed or implied in a few words; how much love, or trust, or longing! In like manner much meaning may be in a short prayer. Instances: the Lord’s prayer; the publican’s; that of the thief on the cross.

V. AN EJACULATORY PRAYER. A short, fervent prayer “darted” upwards on a sudden occasion, when special need of God’s help was unexpectedly felt. The habit of thus praying is much to be desired.

1. Occasions for such prayers are as numerous as the varying exigencies of life, especially the sudden and unanticipated, and when longer prayer is impossible.

(1) On receiving some great, unexpected blessing, or becoming suddenly conscious of preservation from imminent peril. To cry, “Bless the Lord!” in the hearing of others may often be inexpedient; but in the heart is always suitable.

(2) When involved in unexpected perplexity. “Lord, guide me.” The “cry” of Moses at the Red Sea, referred to in Exo 14:15, may have been a mental ejaculation.

(3) When suddenly exposed to obvious danger. Bodily, as the disciples in a storm: “Lord, save us; we perish.” Peter sinking: “Lord, save me.” Or moral and spiritual: sudden assaults of fierce temptation. “Lord, help me.”

(4) When suddenly betrayed into sin. Wait not for the hour of prayer before seeking pardon, but lift up your heart at once in a “Lord. have mercy upon me.”

(5) When any special demands on Christian principle are unexpectedly made, and the consequent special need for Divine assistance is felt.

(6) In connection with any important and difficult duty. In business, family life, Christian activity, (visiting the poor, distributing alms, seizing an opportunity for giving religious counsel). On entering church; before sermon (short prayer for the preacher and yourself); on leaving church, etc.

(7) Under all varieties of feeling. When the heart is touched and tender towards God (gratitude, admiration, penitence, love, desire) or towards men (affection, solicitude, etc.Gen 43:29). When pleasure is felt at the sight of happiness or goodness, or pain at sight of misery or sin. (In walking through the streets; prayer for those you feel you cannot help or save.)

2. The value of such prayers.

(1) As evidencing and cultivating the devout spirit. Those who have the spirit of prayer can hardly be content with stated times, or fail to look to God in unexpected necessities, or praise him at once for unexpected blessings. And thus the spirit of prayer is cherished and maintained. Is one way of fulfilling the command, “Pray without ceasing.”

(2) As maintaining habitual converse with God. We should esteem it a calamity if he were to restrict our approaches to him to certain hours; let us not limit ourselves in a similar manner.

(3) As aiding to sanctify the whole life. By blending worship and devout sentiment with every part of it.

(4) As securing constant Divine assistance. Nehemiah’s prayer was heard; so will ours be.

Neh 2:8

Success ascribed to God.

“And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.” Nehemiah, like Ezra before him (Ezr 7:6), ascribes the success of his application to the king to the “good hand of God;” which had, indeed, been conspicuous. The circumstances which had paved the way for the presentation of his petition, the readiness of the king’s consent to his requests, the largeness of the facilities granted him, all indicated that his God, whose aid he had sought, had ordered events and influenced the monarch’s heart.

I. THE GOOD HAND OF GOD IS IN ALL THE SUCCESSES OF HIS SERVANTS. The hand of God is, indeed, in the successes of all; and in their failures and reverses too; and it is always a good hand. For it is the hand of him who is good, who seeks the good of his creatures, and will surely “do good unto those that be good” (Psa 125:4). Nor is it easy to say whether the goodness of God’s hand is most shown in successes or reverses. It is of success, however, that the text speaks; and this comes from God, as he

1. Arranges the events which conduce to success.

2. Supplies the qualities which contribute to it. Wisdom, power, goodness, in ourselves or others.

3. Overrules adverse circumstances or endeavours.

4. Works in ways inconceivable and indescribable to render all efficient.

II. THE GOOD HAND OF GOD IS ESPECIALLY CONSPICUOUS IN SOME SUCCESSES. We pass over those effected by the display of Divine power in miracles. Nehemiah records no miracle. The hand of God is especially apparent in successes obtained where

(1) great difficulties are surmounted, or

(2) strenuous opposition is overcome, or

(3) feeble instruments have been employed, or

(4) unexpected valuable help arises, or

(5) many unlikely conditions concur, and

(6) signal good is accomplished.

All these were combined in the successes of the gospel in early times, and in many a revival, reformation, or deliverance in later days.

III. THE GOOD HAND OF GOD SHOULD EVER BE DEVOUTLY RECOGNISED AND ACKNOWLEDGED. With admiration, gratitude, and praise. This is meet and right and profitable. To be unable to see God’s hand is to be in the condition of a brute. To shut our eyes and refuse to see it is the part of a determined infidel. To see, and not in suitable ways to acknowledge, is at least to be guilty of impiety, ingratitude, and cowardice.

IV. THE GOOD HAND OF GOD WILL BE RECOGNISED AND ACKNOWLEDGED BY GODLY MEN. They have the faith which discerns it, the love which delights to trace its operation, the gratitude which impels to the acknowledgment of it. Especially will this be the case when the success achieved is a manifest answer to their prayers.

HOMILIES BY J.S. EXELL

Neh 2:1-8

Sadness.

I. THAT IT WAS THE OUTCOME OF A TRUE PATRIOTISM (Neh 2:2). This sadness was not occasioned by temporal loss, by domestic bereavement, or by unfaithful friendship, but by the desolated condition of Jerusalem. The city was “waste.” Many cities of our own country are laid waste by sin; the good man cannot be indifferent, he must sympathise with and help the work of moral restoration. If men are anxious about the walls, they ought to be much more so about the morals of a city; if for the tombs of the dead, much more for the welfare of the living. Sin consumes a city as by fire. The desolation wrought by sin, in commerce, in society, in the home, and especially amongst the young, cannot but awaken deep sorrow of heart.

II. THAT IT WAS EXPERIENCED IN THE COURSE OF HIS DAILY AVOCATIONS. “And I took up the wine, and gave it to the king “(Neh 2:1). How many men go to their daily toil with a heart sorrow which occupation and industry cannot make them forget. Nehemiah was wont to be cheerful before the king; business should be done in joyous mood; but there are times when sorrow will prevail.

III. THAT IT WAS MANIFESTED IN THE APPEARANCE OF THE PHYSICAL FRAME. “Why is thy countenance sad?” (verse 2). How much of the world’s sorrow is concealed. In a very true sense it is sorrow of heart; it is never vocal in explanation or complaint. But such sacred grief is not hidden from God. The face reflects the emotions of the soul; it revealed the sorrow of Nehemiah, the joy of Stephen. How many sorrowful faces do we meet in a day. A sad countenance should awaken tender inquiry, wise consideration, and willing aid. Let us not be heedless of the world’s sorrow. Christ is only true consolation.

IV. THAT IT WAS AIDED BY SECRET COMMUNION WITH THE DIVINE. “So I prayed to the God of heaven” (verse 4).

1. Sorrow often has great opportunities opened up to it. “For what dost thou make request?” Nehemiah’s sorrow opened up the king’s resources to him. Our sorrows often make heaven rich to us.

2. Sorrow needs guidance, so as to make good use of the opportunities presented to it.

3. Sorrow finds in prayer the guidance and culture it needs to use aright its opportunity.

(1) Memory is aided;

(2) difficulty is anticipated;

(3) preparation is accomplished (verse 7);

(4) agencies are perfected (verse 8).

V. THAT IT WAS EMPLOYED IN THE WONDROUS PROVIDENCE OF HEAVEN. “And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me” (verse 8).

1. The sorrow of Nehemiah was allied to the welfare of his people. It led to the rebuilding of the broken wall of Jerusalem. Our trials are often the means of promoting the welfare of others. Christ’s sufferings are allied to our best delights, and to our noblest achievements. It is indeed true that others build because we have suffered.

2. The sorrow of Nehemiah was allied to the beneficence of the king. It awakened the monarch’s sympathy and help. The sorrows of men awaken loving ministries.

3. The sorrow of Nehemiah was allied to the providence of God. By its means Heaven opened the heart of the heathen king in sympathy and his hand in help. The pain of the world is made to achieve high moral ends; a wise providence employs it in the building of broken walls.E.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Neh 2:1-8

Gaining the cause.

It was a time of great suspense, hardest of all things for human hearts to bear. The future of Jerusalem now hung on the building of the wall, and this depended on Nehemiah’s personal interposition and upon Artaxerxes’ pleasure. When great events depend on a single circumstance, issues deep and grave on the charge of a regiment, on the skill of a statesman, on the caprice of a king, we may well wait in anxiety. Nothing could be done now for Jerusalem, speaking humanly, without this Persian sovereign’s consent. There was

I. ABSENCE OF OPPORTUNITY. More than three months intervened between Nehemiah’s receiving the tidings and his appeal to Artaxerxes. Whence this delay? Undoubtedly the actual or virtual inaccessibility of the king. Either he was not called to the royal presence, or the sovereign was obviously not in the mood. How unlike this to the ever-open throne of grace to which at any time, and in any place, we may go, sure of an attentive hearing from “him who giveth liberally and upbraideth not.”

II. DIPLOMACY. Nehemiah showed great skill

1. In the introduction of his cause. How should he ask to be sent elsewhere when he was already “standing before the king”? This was regarded as the height of a man’s ambition, as our Scriptures plentifully intimate. To “stand before kings,” to stand in the “king’s presence, before his face, was the acme of hope and satisfaction. To ask to be dismissed was discourteous and dangerous. It was, indeed, going in this direction, to seem otherwise than joyful (verses 1, 2). But Nehemiah ventured thus far; he did not disguise or restrain his sorrow; it was evident in his countenance. This would be a forceful appeal to the king, and still more so to the queen, who was present (verse 6).

2. In his lament. It was the “one touch of nature that makes the whole world kin,” to allude to “the city of his fathers’ sepulchres lying waste” (verse 3): this would strike a chord in any human heart; it did within the king.

3. In his request. He was mentally prepared for utterance; he had even calculated the necessary time (verse 6), and the materials, etc. he required for the work (verses 7, 8). We must not expect to succeed in any delicate enterprise unless we enter upon it with calculation and care. There are things to be done for God which may be wrought by sheer an& simple earnestness; but there are times when, if we cannot furnish it ourselves, we must give place to the man who can bring to the task refinement, delicacy, tact. We must give way to the Nehemiah of our Church or society; he will succeed admirably where we should fail ingloriously.

III. PRAYER. “So I prayed to the God of heaven” (verse 4). This is a beautiful and suggestive parenthesis. Between the king’s question and the courtier’s reply there was a momentary appeal to heaven. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; as rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Pro 21:1). An excellent thing is it for a man so to walk with God, to live so near to him, that at any moment, and at any time of special need, he can ejaculate a prayer; so that it will be natural for him to withdraw for a brief interval from this world and from man, and lift up the heart to heaven. This is one way in which we may be “praying always” (Eph 6:18), “without ceasing” (1Th 5:17).

IV. GRATITUDE FOR SUCCESS. “The king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me” (verse 8). Nehemiah, like all praying men, was grateful. He ascribed success not to his own ingenuity, but to the “good hand of God.” Men that are undevout are necessarily unthankful and self-complacent; they congratulate themselves instead of blessing God. Far more beautiful and appropriate is it to realise that the hand of the Supreme is controlling all issues, and thus conferring all good. With some prosperity leads to pride and spiritual injury, while in others it inspires gratitude and devotion.C.

HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD

Neh 2:1-8

These verses describe the circumstances in which Nehemiah obtained his commission as restorer of Jerusalem. They show that he was prospered, and that his prosperity was due to the blessing of God. We may notice

I. The REWARD OF FAITH IN THE ANSWER TO PRAYER.

1. The faith was tried by waiting. Opportunity must not be made by hasty, presumptuous attempts to command events, but by watching Providence. Nehemiah still prayed, and then on a certain day he could say, It came to pass.

2. The Divine interposition was manifested in the control of the monarch‘s thoughts and disposition. It might easily have been otherwise. A suspicious Eastern despot might have been jealous and angry. When it is the purpose of God to help, even the secrets of the inner man are swayed by it. We must leave it to him to answer the prayer when and as he pleases.

3. There was a special bestowal of grace upon Nehemiah himself. He needed self-command, prudence, boldness, adroitness. And when challenged to disclose what was in his heart, making his countenance sad, he must depend upon inspiration to be able to say exactly the right thing, and to say it so as to obtain his desire. His patriotism, his purity of motive, his confidence in his own vocation to fulfil so great a commission, all required at that moment to be sustained. He “prayed to the God of heaven.” The answer was immediately sent, in the courage, the wisdom, the self-devotion, the simplicity of the cupbearer in the presence of an Eastern despot, asking to be intrusted with power that he might use it for God and his people.

4. There was a Providential conjunction of circumstances, both in the past and present. Nehemiah was already in the palace to aid the important work of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. How little we can follow the working of the Divine hand! The answer to our prayer may be already provided, even before we present the petition. What seems hard to obtain is not hard for God to give.

II. The DEVELOPMENT OF CAPACITY ON THE BASIS OF RELIGION.

1. The beginning of all, devoutness, intercourse with God, spirituality of aim and motive, largo desires for the welfare of God’s people, and so of the world.

2. On this is built the purity, and strength, and unselfishness which so wins confidence in others. Nehemiah found favour with Artaxerxes because there was that in his very countenance which the monarch delighted to look upon. We should recommend religion by transparent honesty, cheerfulness, and unselfishness.

3. Intellectual power rests upon moral, and both upon spiritual. The cupbearer could not have undertaken to be a ruler and leader of men m most difficult circumstances unless there had been the making of a ruler in him. Some of our greatest statesmen have owed much of their superiority to their religion. “The entrance of thy word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple.”

4. One who places himself in a position of great responsibility requires a far-seeing eye and a strong will. These are wonderfully helped by the cultivation of a deeper nature. Nehemiah knew what to ask for, materials and men; foresaw the demands of the work and its dangers; with steadfast confidence in himself, and fearless trust in his influence over the king, he made great requests, and they were “granted, according to the good hand of his God upon him.” The root of all his strength was his entire dependence upon God.

5. In the character of Nehemiah there is an illustration of the effect of religion in cherishing the higher elements of the nature, and keeping them in beautiful and powerful harmony. He loved “the place of his fathers’ sepulchres,” he loved his nation; but above all, he loved the Church of God. Personal feeling, patriotic enthusiasm, and religious faith, when they all unite together as active principles in one man, produce a loftiness and heroism which prepare him for the greatest efforts and successes.R.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Neh 2:1. In the month Nisan Which answers to part of our March and April. So that it was almost four months between his hearing of the disconsolate condition wherein Jerusalem lay, and his requesting leave of the king to go thither. Now, besides that it might not come to his own turn of waiting sooner, there might be these further reasons assigned for his long silence and delay: that he could not take so long and dangerous a journey in the winter; that he could not sooner meet with a seasonable opportunity of speaking with the king upon so critical an affair: or, as others will have it, that he retired all this intermediate while, and spent it in fasting and prayer. See Patrick and Poole.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Neh 2:1-20

1And it came to pass in the month Nisanin the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the King that wine was before him: and I took up the wine and gave it unto the 2king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore [and] the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, and said unto 3the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? 4Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I praved to the God of heaven. 5And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers sepulchres, that I may build it. 6And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? And when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. 7Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river [Euphrates], that they may convey me over [i.e. from country to country] till I come into Judah; 8and a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the kings forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house [i.e. temple], and for the wall of the city, and for the house [i.e. temple] that I shall enter into [to inspect]. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

9Then I came to the governors beyond the river [Euphrates], and gave them the kings letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. 10When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. 11So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. 12And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. 13And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon-well and to the dung-port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. 14Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the kings pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. 15Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned. 16And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that [afterwards] did the work.

17Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. 18Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the kings words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work [or rather, for good]. 19But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? Will ye rebel against the king? 20Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore [and] we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial [i.e., record of remembrance] in Jerusalem.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

1 Neh 2:6. . Only here and in Psa 45:10. See Exegetical Note.

2 Neh 2:7. . This later use of for , found in Ezra and Esther, is also found in Job frequently. Compare Exeg. Note on Neh 1:7.

3 Neh 2:8. , infin. construct, of the Piel , as in Neh 3:3; Neh 3:6. So 2Ch 34:11. See also Psa 104:3. . This late Hebrew word is applied to the temple in 1Ch 21:19, and to the royal portion of Susa in Neh 1:1. (Comp. Ezr 6:2.) See Exeg. Note here, and on Neh 7:2.

4 Neh 2:12. for . Comp. Isa 66:20.

5 Neh 2:13. . In LXX. . So also in Neh 2:15. Doubtless the correct reading is, with some MSS. and commentators, , which, however, never elsewhere occurs in Kal. . The open Mem. suggests as the proper reading. (Comp. Neh 1:3.)

6 Neh 2:14. . A clumsy form for .

7 Neh 2:16. , not as yet, but until so, i.e. .

8 Neh 2:17. for .

9 Neh 2:18. for . So in Neh 2:20.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The Interview with the King

Neh 2:1. The month Nisan (called Abib in the Pentateuch, Exo 13:4)the first month of the Hebrew national year. This name Nisan is found in the Assyrian, but its derivation is obscure. It corresponded to parts of our March and April. The twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.Artaxerxes reign-years counted from some other month than Nisan, for the preceding Chisleu was in the 20th year. The unlikely supposition (as by Bp. Patrick) that the twentieth year of chapter Neh 1:1 refers to Nehemiahs life, is thus unnecessary. (See on Neh 1:1.) Wine was before him.It is the custom among the modern Persians to drink before dinner, accompanying the wine-drinking with the eating of dried fruits. (See Rawlinsons Herod. I. 133, Sir H. C. R.s note.) Compare the banquet of wine in Est 5:6. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.Lit. And I was not sad in his presence. That is, it was not his wont to be sad in the kings presence. The exactions of Persian monarchs would not endure any independence of conduct in their presence. Everybody was expected to reflect the sunlight of the kings majesty.

Neh 2:2. Wherefore the king said.Lit. And the king said. The word translated sad in Neh 2:1-3, and the noun sorrow in Neh 2:2, are very general words for bad and badness. But the bad countenance was the sad countenance (see Gen 40:7 for the same phrase).

Neh 2:3. Let the king live for ever.Heb. hammelek lolam yihyeh. Compare 1Ki 1:31; Dan 2:4; Dan 5:10; Dan 6:6; Dan 6:21. The mere formula of address to an Oriental king, so that even a Daniel used it without compunction. The city, the place of my fathers sepulchres.Lit. the city, house of graves of my fathers. This emphasis of the house of graves not only seems to prove Nehemiah a Jerusalemite in descent, i.e., of the tribe of Judah, but also of the royal house. An obscure person would scarcely have chosen such a way of designating the city before the king. (Comp. on Neh 1:6.)

Neh 2:4. For what dost thou make request?Lit. On what account this thou art asking? The king takes for granted that the look of sadness is an assumed preliminary to asking a favor. There is a true Oriental touch in this. So I prayed to the God of heaven.A beautiful mark of Nehemiahs piety. He first addresses the King of kings, and then the earthly monarch. He knew in whose hands were kings hearts. For the phrase God of heaven, see on Neh 1:5.

Neh 2:5. That I may build it.This was Nehemiahs first great aim, to rebuild the city. Without walls and fortifications, it was but a large village, exposed to sudden ruin. Could the walls be rebuilt, its permanence would be secured, and the province of Judah have a strong centre. That Nehemiah saw that this was the true course to conserve the special interests of Gods people, there can be no doubt. A man of his piety could not rest in the mere external view of things.

Neh 2:6. The queen also sitting by him.We have a good illustration of this scene in a sculpture from Asshur-bani-pals palace (Koyunjik). The king reclines on one side of the table, and is in the act of drinking. The queen sits upright in a chair of state at the side of the table, near the kings feet, but facing him. She is also in the act of drinking. Attendants with large fans stand behind each. (See copy of this interesting scene in Rawlinsons Ancient Monarchies, Vol. I., p. 493). That the word shegal refers to the principal wife of the king seems clear from its use in Psa 45:10. The chief wife of Artaxerxes at one time was Damaspia, according to Ctesias.

Neh 2:7. The governors.Heb. pahawoth, from pechah, the modern pacha, the Oriental name for a viceroy used by Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians. Beyond the river, i.e., the river Euphrates. The course to Judea would leave the Euphrates probably at Tiphsah, 700 miles from Susa or Shushan, whence there would be 400 miles of travel through the Syrian countries before reaching Jerusalem. They were letters to governors or pachas in this Syrian region that Nehemiah requested.

Neh 2:8. Asaph, the keeper of the kings forest, may have been a Jew, as the name is Israelitish. It may, however, be a form of Aspatha (Est 9:7), from the Persian Aspa (horse). The word translated forest is pardes, which is our familiar paradise. It is an Aryan word (Zend, pairidaeza), and signifies a walled round place, a preserve of trees and animals. There was probably a royal park set off for the king in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, and Asaph was its keeper. The word pardes is found in the Scriptures only here and in Sol. S. Neh 4:13 and Ecc 2:5. As it is not an old Persian word, but found in the Sanscrit and Armenian, no argument for the late date of Solomons Song and Ecclesiastes can be derived from it. In Solomons day, with that kings extensive connections with distant countries, the word may readily have entered into his vocabulary from any Aryan source. The palace which appertained to the house.It is supposed by some that this is the well-known Birah or Baris (afterward Antonia) at the north side of the temple-area. But that was probably constructed at a later date. Nehemiah sought simply to reconstruct the old buildings. Now the palace next to the house (i.e., to the temple, the house, as the house of God) was Solomons palace, inhabited by all the kings after him, which was situated at the south-east corner of the temple-area. (See 2Ch 23:12-15). The house that I shall enter into.Not Nehemiahs own house (he was too high-minded to think of that), but the house of God, spoken of before. He desired timber (1) for the palace gates, (2) for the walls, and (3) for the house of God. That I shall enter into means which I shall visit and inspect.

According to the good hand of my God upon me.For this beautiful expression of piety, compare Ezr 7:9; Ezr 8:18. In Neh 2:18 of this chapter we see it again, slightly varied in form.

The Journey to Jerusalem

Neh 2:9. The king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.Nehemiahs high rank made this a matter of course.

Neh 2:10. Sanballat the Horonite.There were two Horons (Beth-horons in full) in Palestine, a few miles north of Jerusalem. There was also a Horonaim (lit. the two Horons) in Moab (Isa 15:5). Sanballat was probably from the latter, and was a Moabite, as we find his associate is Tobiah, an Ammonite. He was probably satrap or pacha of Samaria under the Persians, and Tobiah was his vizier or chief adviser. The hatred of the Moabites and Ammonites toward Israel, and the equal hatred of the Israelites to Moab and Ammon appear to have grown stronger in the later ages of the Jewish state. In Davids time, his family found refuge in Moab, as Elimelechs family had done long before, and Ruth a Moabitess was ancestress of the line of kings in Israel and Judah. After the attack upon Moab by Jehoshaphat and the terrible scene upon the wall of Meshas capital (2Ki 3:27), there was probably nothing but intense bitterness between the children of Lot and the children of Israel. Sanballat and Tobiah represented the Moabitish and Ammonitish hatred.1 The origin of the name Sanballat is uncertain. It seems akin to the Assyrian Ass–uruballat, and may be, in its correct form, Sinuballat, Sin being the moon (comp. Sin-akhi-irib or Sennacherib), or it may be San-uballat, San being the sun.

Tobiah, the servant, the Ammonite.Tobiah is a Jewish name (see Ezr 2:60 and Zec 6:10). We could scarcely expect to find the element Jah in the name of an Ammonite. Tobiah was probably a renegade Jew, who had become a slave among the Ammonites, and, by his talents and cunning, had risen into prominence, and was now chief adviser of Sanballat. Hence the epithet, which probably his enemies had fastened on him: Tobiah the slave.It grieved them.Samaria had become the leading state west of the Jordan, and any restoration of Jerusalem would threaten this predominance.

Neh 2:11. And was there three days.Days, probably, of prayer and observation before any determinate action. (See Ezr 8:32, for a precisely similar conduct on Ezras part thirteen years before.)

The Inspection

Neh 2:12. In the nightfew menneither told I any man.These facts and that of only one animal being used in the night-survey show the prudence of Nehemiah, who would avoid calling the attention of Sanballat to any survey of the walls until all was ready for building. Any formal survey made in the day-time would soon have reached Sanballats ears, for he and Tobiah were both closely allied by marriage-alliances with the Jerusalem Jews (Neh 6:18; Neh 13:28).

Neh 2:13. The gate of the valley, Shaar hag–gai (2Ch 26:9; Neh 3:13), was probably a gate overlooking the great valley of Hinnom, which is called in Jer 2:23 simply the valley. It was between the Tower of the Furnaces (Migdal hat–tannurim) and the Dung-gate. We may place it about twelve hundred feet south of the present Jaffa, Gate.The dragon-well (Ain hattannin) is perhaps the present great pool, Birket Sultan, along the eastern side of which and above it would be Nehemiahs course southward from the Jaffa-gate. The strange name (Fountain of the Sea-monster) may have been given to it because some curious large water-snake or crocodile was kept in it in Nehemiahs time.The dung-port (Shaar ha–ashpoth) is rather the rubbish-gate, and was probably the gate in the valley before which the rubbish of the city was cast and burned. It was the east gate (lit. pottery-gate) of Jer 19:2. So the Jewish authorities. We may suppose this gate was at the southern extremity of Zion. The false rendering of dung-port has given rise to the idea that it was near the temple; that through it the filth from the animals offered in sacrifice was carried. It is possible that this filth may have been carried over the bridge to Zion, and through this gate to the brink of Hinnoms deepest portion, and there dumped with the other rubbish. But the rubbish-gate or dung-port was only one thousand cubits from the valley gate (see Neh 3:13), and no gate near the temple could have been thus near the valley-gate, if the valley-gate were anywhere on the west of the city. We should consider the Rubbish-gate as directly before that part of Hinnom known as Tophet (Jer 7:31-32; Jer 19:6; Jer 19:11-14). (But see Excursus.)

Neh 2:14. The gate of the fountain, Shaar ha–ayin, is certainly a gate in front of the pool of Siloam (see Neh 3:15). It would be where the ancient wall turned northward beyond its south-eastern corner.The kings pool, berechath hammelek, must be the pool of Siloam. Comp. Neh 3:15. The virgins fountain of to-day is too far away. It probably received this name from its watering the kings garden (Neh 3:15). See Joseph. Ant. 7, 14, 4. Also Jerom. Com. on Jer 7:30.

There was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.The ruin was so great, and the rubbish so accumulated, along Ophel, that Nehemiah could not pursue his course along the wall any further (Neh 2:15), but was obliged to go down into the valley of the Kidron (the brook, nachal), up which he went and surveyed the wall, and then turned back and pursued the same route back again to the valley-gate. It is evident that this survey was confined to the southern and eastern walls, which were perhaps the most ruined and the most neglected, as being on the sides of greater natural defence.2

Neh 2:16. Neither had I as yet told it to the Jews.Rather: Neither did I, until I had done thus, tell it to the Jews.The rulers (seganim, a Persian word) were the executive officers of the colony. Neither to the Jews in general nor to the rulers, priests or nobles specially had Nehemiah communicated the fact of his survey. He, however, now summons an assembly, and urges them to build the walls, showing them as arguments Gods mercies to him and the kings favor.The rest that did the work, i.e. the others engaged in the public service. Or (more probably) it may be proleptic for those that afterward engaged in the wall-building.

Neh 2:18. So they strengthened their hands for this good work, or for good, i.e., for a prosperous time.

Neh 2:19. Geshem or Gashmu (Neh 6:6), who was third with Sanballat and Tobiah in hostility to the Jews, was perhaps chief of those Arabs whom Sargon had settled in Samaria (see Rawlinsons Anc. Mon., Vol. II., p. 146).

Neh 2:20. Ye have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem.This was Nehemiahs firm protest against the slightest interference on the part of these heathen chiefs. He will not acknowledge their right even to complain, and refuses to answer their false charge implied in their question. With such enemies there should be a clear understanding from the first. One of the strong points of Nehemiahs character was his uncompromising and prompt method in all things.

HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL

1. Like Joseph and Daniel, Nehemiah carried into a high office near the throne of an Oriental despot the vigor of a holy life. It did not make him a recluse, nor yet a sad-faced servant of the king. His sad visage at this time was a thing remarkable. He had been an acceptable officer of the court, and the kings treatment of his request shows the high favor in which he stood. True religion does not incapacitate one from office, but furnishes the man with a power to please, while it preserves him from the temptations of rank.

2. No doubt there had been from the foundation of the Persian empire a sincere sympathy on the part of the Persians with the Jews. The monotheism of the Jews gained them favor with the Persian throne, and was, doubtless, the chief reason of Cyruss edict concerning their return to Jerusalem. By the twentieth year of Artaxerxes this sympathy had probably diminished (as under Magian influences it had been previously hindered), and yet the kings readiness to send an escort with Nehemiah (Neh 4:23), and to make his way easy, may be attributed in part to this traditional regard for the Jewish hostility to polytheism.

3. Nehemiahs secresy was a part of his executive ability. Although he had the kings endorsement, he knew the value of keeping his own counsel, for there were jealous foes around the Jews ready to throw hindrances in his way. Moreover these had allies among the Jews themselvesmen high in rank and positionand the distance was so great from the Persian capital that Nehemiahs firman needed great wisdom on his part to make it efficient.
4. The encouragement which Nehemiah held out to his countrymen to rebuild the walls was not simply the kings willingness, but the guiding hand of God. He saw behind the throne of Persia the power of Israels Jehovah, and sought to strengthen his brethren by the same view. Piety teaches the heart to see second causes as only indicators of the Divine will and action, and law, whether it be from mans mouth or in the forces of external nature, is rightly referred to an overruling Providence that guides and guards the people of God. It was this consideration that formed Nehemiahs answer to Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Neh 2:1-9. Love towards suffering Jerusalem: 1) Its sorrow (Neh 2:1-2), in spite of personal prosperity, and even in the midst of the enjoyments of the royal banquet. 2) Its confession (Neh 2:2-3); it is not ashamed of belonging to the congregation of the Lord; neither is it ashamed of its poor brethren, but declares itself candidly as love, and indeed in spite of the danger of displeasing in a very hazardous way. 3) Its petition (Neh 2:4-5): it begs for help, first indeed of God the Lord, and then also of men, but particularly for the permission to give its own aid, and that too with self-denial. 4) Its joy (Neh 2:6; Neh 2:9): its prayer is not only granted, but it receives almost more than it could hope for. Brentius: Hc enim est vera amicitia, qu in afflictionibus perdurat. Exemplum imitandum: si quid petendum est ab homine, primum a Deo petamus, qui hominis cor nobis amicum reddere potest.

Starke: To speak to princes of weighty matters demands great precaution. 2Sa 14:2. O Soul, if a heathen lord takes a servants griefs so tenderly to heart, how should not the Father of mercy allow thy griefs to penetrate His heart! Jer 31:20; Jer 31:25. The sighs of the godly are powerful petitions before God. Psa 12:6. One should not frighten timid supplicants still more, but speedily encourage their petition by generous bounty. Mat 5:32; Rom 12:8. Princes and lords should willingly listen to the complaints of their subjects, and grant as much as possible. 2Sa 3:16. God gives according to His great goodness more than we can hope or ask for. Eph 3:20; 1Ki 3:13.

The sorrow for suffering Jerusalem: 1) In spite of our own prosperity; 2) On account of the sad position of the congregation; 3) In presence of those who are able to help, and must be gained over.The self-denial of a patriot: 1) He grieves in spite of his own prosperity, for the misery of his country; 2) He risks his position by a frank confession; 3) He wishes to relinquish his position, in order to aid his fatherland.

Starke: It is a token of a godless spirit when one does not reverence his fatherland; but it is villainy when one desires to injure it. 2Ma 5:8.

Neh 2:10. The conduct of the worldly-minded towards the congregation of the Lord: 1) Their latitudinarianism: Sanballat and Tobiah maintained friendship with the Jerusalemites. Neh 6:10; Neh 6:17; Neh 13:4-9; Neh 13:28. 2) Their narrowness: they cannot endure that any one should seek to advance the welfare of the congregation of the Lord, as such.

Venerable Bede: Notanda animarum rerumque diversitas, quia supra quidem dicti sunt hi, qui remanserunt de captivitate in Juda, in afflictione magna et opprobrio fuisse; sed et Nehemiam longum cum fletu et precibus duxisse jejunium, eo quod muros. Hierusalem dissipatos, et port illius essent igne combust, et nunc versa vice hostes ejusdem sanct civitatis contristati et in afflictione sunt magna constituti, eo quod dificia illius restauranda. Unde colligendum, etiam in hac vita sententiam domini posse compleri, qui cum dixissit: Amen, amen, dico vobis, quia plorabitis et flebitis vos, mundus autem gaudebit, vos autem contristabimini, continuo subjecit: sed tristitia vestra vertetur in gaudium.

Neh 2:11-18. Bright zeal in the concerns of God: 1) It foresees (Neh 2:11-12) and hastens at times because dangers threaten; 2) It looks around (Neh 2:13-15) to fully estimate the difficulty of the work to be performed; 3) it looks, and points, on high (Neh 2:17-18), to Gods help, to the hand of God, which is extended in favor above it, and therefore succeeds with those whose help is necessary.

Venerable Bede: Diversa urbis destruct loca lustrandro pervagatur.. Sic et doctorum est spiritualium, spius nocte surgere ac solerte indagine statum sanct ecclesi quiescentibus ceteris inspicere, ut vigilanter inquirant, qualiter ea, qu vitiorum bellis. dejecta sunt, castigando emendent et erigant.

Starke: When one has suitable means at hand for avoiding the danger, he must not despise them. Jos 2:15; 2Co 11:33. When something is granted to us by the authorities through favor, we must ascribe it to God. When one will perform anything great, he must keep it secret. 1Sa 14:1. When the Church sleeps, God awakens pious people, who work and watch for its welfare. There is a time for speaking and a time for silence. Well begun is half gained.

Neh 2:19-20. In our work for the kingdom of God what position must we take towards the objections of the world? 1) We must be prepared for scorn, contempt, and anxiety. The worldly-minded consider the aim which we truly have as foolish, as it is too elevated for them; they therefore attribute to us another aim, which is foreign to us; and in this way they give a most suspicious look to our activity. 2) We must not, however, lay any importance upon this; that which they consider foolish is our highest task, that we should keep ourselves unspotted from the world, and therefore concede to them, in so far as they are the world, no part or right in our intercourse.

Neh 2:17-20. The admonition to build up the kingdom of God. 1) It complains: you see the distress, etc., for it always finds again the reason that it may pass beyond to the demand: come, let us build, resting upon the former proofs of the Lord, who also has known how to make the kings of the earth serviceable to His ends. 2) It excites the ridicule and the suspicions of the world, but overcomes them through reference to the God of heaven, who causes His people to succeed, but never allows the evil to prevail.Venerable Bede: Doctores sancti, immo omnes, qui zelo Dei fervent, in afflictione sunt maxima, quamdiu Hierusalem, hoc est, visionem pacis, quam nobis Dominus reliquit et commendavit, per bella dissensionum cernunt esse desertam, et portas virtutum, quas juxta Esaiam laudatio occupare debuerat, prvalentibus inferorum portis dejectas atque opprobrio habitas contuentur.Starke: It is a good sign when envious people combat a work; for one can conclude from that that it provokes the devil, and that makes us the more joyful. Gen 37:4; 1Sa 17:28. The devil is never idle: therefore when he can undertake nothing actively against the people of God, he makes use of poisonous tongues; but whoever fears God has a secure fortress. Sir. 14:26, 31. One should be firm in his confidence in God, and allow nothing to be abstracted from it.

Footnotes:

[1]The Sanballat of Josephus is evidently a very different person, living a century later. He may have been a descendant of this one, inheriting his office and his hostile tactics toward the Jews.

[2]It is generally thought that Nehemiah made the full circuit of the walls; but, although the language might allow such an interpretation, the want of any hint of another way back (no mention of the Fish-gate or Old-gate or any other prominent land-mark on the north and west side) seems to force us to take shuv in the sense of going back in the way he went out.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

Nehemiah appearing with a sad countenance before the king his master, occasions the monarch to ask the cause. Upon being informed, and Nehemiah making request to go to Jerusalem, the king graciously grants it, and furnisheth him with all suitable things for his journey.

Neh 2:1

(1) And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

It is a remark of no small importance to the gracious Reader, in that the Holy Ghost hath caused the names of the two months to be marked in this history. The former chapter tells us that the month in which Nehemiah offered up his earnest supplications on account of the desolations and miseries of Jerusalem, was Chisleu. And we are carefully informed in this that the mouth Nisan was arrived before the Lord’s merciful answer came to Nehemiah’s petition. If I mistake not Chisleu corresponds to our November, and Nisan to our March; no less than four months between. Thus, Reader, our gracious God, though hearing, and sometimes answering prayer, before his people ask, according to his promise, yet is pleased even when he hath determined to fulfil their desires, not unfrequently by way of giving occasion to exercise faith upon his covenant faithfulness and love in his dear Son, to make the blessing by delay yet more sweet and precious.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Purpose in Life

Neh 2:12

Nehemiah was called to a great work, but he kept his own counsel and waited for the time to declare the purpose that lay in his heart like a glowing seed in good soil.

I. The Secret of Strength; As you start out upon life’s cross-roads be sure that your heart’s purpose is prompted by the Lord.

How can we tell whether the secret purpose hidden away in our heart’s deepest desire is implanted by God?

1. Look at the purpose in your heart, the one thing which, if you could, you would supremely desire to do. Can you pray about it? If He put the purpose in your heart you will not find it hard or unnatural to seek His blessing upon it.

2. If our heart’s purpose were accomplished, would it be for the good of others as well as ourselves? That is a sensible test. Any success that injures our fellows is not in accord with the mind of Christ.

3. Would the accomplishment of our purpose be for God’s glory? Nehemiah was satisfied that his aim was a seed of the Divine planting.

II. Some Results of Knowing that our Heart’s Purpose was Implanted by God; It will create steadfastness as we realize that our undertaking is part of the Divine will. Nehemiah’s faith gave him the grace to endure. The difficulties of his task might well have excused a strong man in turning back. The barriers to our achievement may be many and high, but we shall overcome, we shall endure as seeing the invisible.

III. A Part in a Divine Drama. We may be among the majority of featureless persons who make no impression. If we are not called to do great things, we can do little things in the spirit of greatness. Our lives cannot be failures if we are working out the Divine purpose. Perhaps this alone will deliver us from the increasing irritation over life’s littleness. We are common clay, but God is the potter, and He chose us for the purpose He has in view. We may be as gold cups with elaborate ornament, or as plain clay mugs; but if we are used by the Pierced Hand to carry water to thirsty lips we shall have an equal honour.

J. C. Carlile, Christian World Pulpit, vol. LXXII. 1907, p. 3.

References. II. 13-15. A. G. Mortimer, One Hundred Miniature Sermons, vol. ii. p. 308. II. 14. G. F. De Teissier, Plain Preaching to Poor People (9th Series), p. 73. II. 17. S. Baring-Gould, Sermon-Sketches, p. 42. Eugene Bersier, Twelve Sermons, p. 83. II. 20. G. Body, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. 1900, p. 339. III. 10, 30. H. C. G. Moule, World Pulpit, vol. lxxiv. 1908, p. 225. III. 15. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv. No. 790. III. 20. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in a Religious House, vol. ii. p. 580. III. 28. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture 2 Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, p. 343. A. Soutar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxvii. 1890, p. 170. J. Wallace, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. 1899, p. 379. III. 28-30. J. W. Burgon, Nehemiah, A Pattern to Builders, Sermons, 1842-79. IV. 1-23. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2254. IV. 2. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in a Religious House, vol. i. p. 78. IV. 8. F. Hastings, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. 1899, p. 198. IV. 9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2254. IV. 9-21. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture 2 Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, p. 354. IV. 10. Ibid. vol. xx. No. 1156. IV. 10, 11, 19, 20. W. C. Magee, The Gospel and the Age, p. 89. IV. 14. T. E. Ruth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiii. p. 217.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Neh 2

“And it came to pass in the month Nisan [the name given by the Persian Jews to the month previously called “Abib,” the first month of the Jewish year, or that which followed the vernal equinox. It fell four months after Chisleu (see ch. Neh 1:1 )], in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes [it is generally agreed that the Artaxerxes intended is Longimanus, who reigned from b.c. 465 to b.c. 425] the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king” ( Neh 2:1 ).

The Result of Hanani’s Message

The urn which held the ashes of Artaxerxes is in the British Museum, so that those who have any curiosity about the urn which held the ashes of the king can easily satisfy that curiosity. In the month of Nisan Nehemiah had his chance. He received the message about the month of December, and for some three months, more or less, he had been turning over this message in his mind, wondering what to do with it, eagerly looking for the gate being set ajar, that he might push it back a little farther and go through it, and do the work upon which his heart was set. For three months the gate seemed not to be opened at all, but in the month Nisan the opportunity came. Whether Artaxerxes took a little more wine than usual is not stated in the Scripture: we simply know that, whilst Artaxerxes had the wine in his hand and was enjoying his goblet, a certain conversation took place between him and his cupbearer which ended in very important consequences.

For three months Nehemiah was steady to his vow. How long are you going to keep that best vow you ever made in your life dumb in your heart? How long are you going to allow it to lie unredeemed, unrealised? The king’s gate stands ajar: on it is written “Welcome,” on it is written, “Knock and it shall be opened;” still further, “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation!” Speak the word, it will be a sound in thine ear for ever: repeat the oath, and say thou wilt fulfil it to the letter; and the very utterance of the oath and the very repetition of the desire to be better will themselves be elements in your education, and will help you onward a step or two heavenward, Godward.

Let us follow the history and see what its modern applications may possibly be.

“Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid” ( Neh 2:1-2 ).

How beautifully, how exquisitely human and true is this! You have been waiting for your chance: the chance suddenly comes, and you who were on tiptoe of expectation for it, seeing it as it were face to face, fall back, and feel the chill of a great fear in your half-misgiving heart It is so with all great crises in life. Little things may happen, and we may say we expected these they may come as mere matters of course we have been looking for them, and now they have come we care next to nothing for them. But the great messages that make the soul new, that inspire the life with a new determination, the great gospels, the infinite evangels that regenerate and sanctify the soul, these, though waited for long, always awaken inexpressible surprise, and in not a few cases they first create a great fear before bringing in their complete and final joy. For three months Nehemiah said, “O that he would speak to me! I would be so glad.” Artaxerxes spoke to him and he was sore afraid. Is that a contradiction? Only to a wooden life and to a dullard, not to a living soul, not to a sympathetic spirit, not to a man who has lived everywhere and through all time, who by the variety of his experience has been the contemporary of all ages. Do you know what is meant by waiting for a great opportunity having a great opportunity set before you, and then falling back from it out of the fear of a great surprise? Such was Nehemiah’s experience on that memorable day when Artaxerxes read the writing of sorrow on the face of his faithful cupbearer.

“And I said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad,. when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?” ( Neh 2:3 ).

Here is the beautifulness of an unselfish sorrow; here is an individual magnifying himself into a nation; here is one poor heart taking upon itself the sorrows of a kingdom. Do you know what such suffering is? You say your own burden is heavy enough, without taking any additional weight upon you. Then you can never enter into the meaning of the experience of Nehemiah. But you who do know what it is to have every orphan to keep, every poor soul to help, every blind man to lead over a corner in our streets you who by the vastness and tenderness of your sympathy have every poor creature to take care of, will enter into Nehemiah’s feeling when he assumed to represent the condition of the whole Jewish people under the circumstances narrated in the text. How could he be glad when his fathers’ sepulchres were torn to pieces and the gates of his fathers’ city were consumed? He entered into other people’s feelings he was more than a mere unit in the great aggregate, he was human; he took upon himself the sufferings of others, and when he did so, he was but preparing himself to take also upon his own heart the joys of others. He who can go deepest in sympathy with sorrow can rise highest in sympathy with laughter. If we have never had any keen, deep, devouring woe, we have never had any pure, lofty, inexpressible delight.

We have been told about a man who in the time of the Punic Wars had put a chaplet on his empty head and put his head out of the window to look at the difficulties, the struggles, the hazards of the people, and we know how the Romans treated that man: they took his chaplet off his head, and would have put his head itself in great danger if the head had been worth taking off. Ay, poor fool! could he put on his little green chaplet and say, “I am happy, what do I care for what is occurring in the commonwealth? I have bread enough: why should I think about those who are hungering? my thinking about them cannot help them.” There have always been men of that kind, who have lifted their chaplets to their heads and worn individual joys in the midst of great public sorrows men who could fatten themselves on the sepulchre of the commonwealth, who had no public soul, no sympathy with public distress, who could see an empire their own empire rending, aggravated by a thousand sorrows, and tormented by an unconquerable spirit of unrest, and yet take their four meals a day and their airing in the park. Of little use are such people in society, or to the state; they render no service to the body politic. Who would not rather be Nehemiah, sad in the public sorrow, bowed down by the general distress, feeling the agony of the commonwealth at heart, dejected and sad because the city of their fathers’ traditions and sepulchres lying waste, and its gates black with fire?

The Jews always remembered this state of Jerusalem. For many a long century at least they never, even in their wealthiest times, built a great house to live in without leaving part of the wall, if it were only one square yard, unplastered, or leaving some out-building unfinished, and writing upon the incomplete parts in large Hebrew letters these words “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her cunning.” Do you understand the pathos of that feeling, or are you so wrapped up in your own little concerns, saying, Jerusalem is so far away, and the time of her desolation so remote, that we now plaster every inch of our walls, paper and paint the house throughout, and think of nothing but ourselves? Who could look on that square yard of unplastered wall, and see the expression upon it in memory of the desolation, without at once entering into complete sympathy with the people who did so? It is better to live thus: it gives us larger life, we take in more: life is more absorbent because more sympathetic, and we get things that help us to see into the deepest parts of human history.

“Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven” [mentally and momentarily before answering the king] ( Neh 2:4 ).

But he had been praying for three months. Yes. Why then did he pray to the God of heaven now? Because you must always have just a little supplementary prayer, if you are a true man. Did you ever finish a prayer? For three months Nehemiah had been opening his window and looking Godward, and pouring out his poor afflicted soul on account of what Hanani had told him, and now, when the king says, “What is thy request?” he stood and prayed to the God of heaven one word more, gathering up all the three months’ prayer in one final cry. Sometimes we have to gather up the prayers of a whole lifetime in one poignant, keenly accentuated petition; sometimes the prayers of a whole lifetime escape us in one deep heartfelt sigh, which the fool standing near, of unsympathetic heart, can never understand. He calls it but a sigh; yet that sigh has blood in it, and life and agony, and that sigh will move the almightiness of God. He knows what it costs. He knows how much heart goes up in that yearning pang to him. “So I stood and prayed to the God of heaven.” For three months he had been kneeling, morning, noon, and night, and more frequently still, and now he stands and prays. Is it right to stand and pray? Certainly. Is it right to kneel and pray? Unquestionably. Is it right to pray in a crowd? Yes. Is it right to go into sandy places, and desert paths, and empty, dreary solitudes, and there to pray? Indisputably so. Pray always pray without ceasing. Nothing depends on the mere form or the mere phrase. Stand and pray kneel and pray think and pray speak and pray. Many a time we have prayed to God without ever saying a word just the lifting of a speechless heart, and a lifting that is never without peculiar blessing.

This was what is called ejaculatory prayer. We need not change the word ejaculatory. There is a great deal of Latin in it, no doubt, but still it seems now to belong to the English tongue. It signifies thrown out darted forth. It implies suddenness, terseness, earnestness. It was not a literary prayer; it was not artistically divided into sections; it was like an arm suddenly thrown out and thrown up. You can pray so, in the warehouse or in the crowded thoroughfare. Do not say that if you only had a little private place of your own to which you could retire, you would enjoy now and then a few moments’ communion with God. Make a private place, create silence in the city, in the great seething, tumultuous mob find a sanctuary. A brief prayer, a cry, a sigh, the upward lifting of an eye may bring to thee all-needful angels and chariots of fire and help divine. We must get our ideas of prayer very much simplified. You really do not need a carpet and a hassock, that is unnecessary; you do not need fine words, beautiful phrases, well-turned sentences, bold and resonant literature. You need earnestness, fire, yearning, vehement desire, determination to take the kingdom of heaven by violence. Why, in that way you can always pray. You can say, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” A brief prayer, all prayers in one, the liturgies of the universe condensed into one sentence. It is an endless prayer, because it involves an endless confession of sin, and weakness, and self-helplessness, and confidence in God.

Nehemiah opened his lips and told the king freely what he wanted. “Moreover I said unto the king——” When Nehemiah once got his lips opened he spoke with wondrous practical eloquence to Artaxerxes the king. “Moreover” now what will he say? “If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah.”

“So I stood and prayed unto the God of heaven then I asked the king to give me letters.” That is the true model of prayer to pray and then to ask for your letters to pray to the King of kings and then to accept the ordinary appointments of life to invoke Omnipotence, and then to use your senses. How have you been praying? Did you sit in the chair and pray that you might be able at the end of the week to make both ends meet, and then fall asleep until the time came, and wake up to find that both ends did not meet. That was not prayer at all; that was puerility, and sentiment, and nonsense, and profanity. I will pray God to help me to pay every debt I owe, to overcome every difficulty in my way, to beat down every mountain that intercepts my progress. Lord, help me to accomplish a faithful and noble ministry in thinking, in literature, in commerce, in the family wherever my lot may be cast. Now, having said my prayer, let me go out and do it. There are people who do not believe in prayer, simply because they do not know what prayer is. The prayer they talk about is something defined in the dictionary. Never go to the dictionary for the meaning of a great heart-word. Such meaning you can only get in the agony of your own personal experience. Referring to that as a proof and test of prayer, we may call upon a thousand hearts to say if God be not the hearer and answerer of prayer. Never yet has God denied prayer, when the granting of it would have been a blessing in the true sense of the word, to our own spirit.

“And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me” [comp.Ezr 7:6Ezr 7:6 , Ezr 7:9 , Ezr 7:28 ; Ezr 8:22 ] ( Neh 2:8 ).

How very seldom we have the prayer and the answer on the same page! We have now and then just to keep our courage up. For years together we seem to have no literal proof of the existence and nearness of God to our life, and then, just when we can bear it no longer, when the little sand-glass so little! o our poor faith’ is nearly run out, he meets us in burning bush, or in dream wherein the ladder is revealed, or in vision of the night, or in Bethlehem’s leading star somehow and in that one moment we recover our years’ experience, our years’ loss, and become young and strong again. But these specialties are granted only now and then. A daily miracle would be a daily commonplace. Let him come as he will but from the particular argue the universal, from the one instance of prayer answered argue the readiness of the Almighty to answer every prayer that he himself has inspired.

The arrangements were then made. Nehemiah went upon his journey came to the governors beyond the river and gave them the king’s letters. And now we read

“When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel” ( Neh 2:10 ).

Sanballat and Tobiah are everywhere. There was a great vocalist singing recently a great master of the divine art. And there was an encore. And a person who was there said, “That is not genuine, you know: that encore is got up by somebody just for the purpose of increasing her reputation or her popularity.” It was some man who had come up from some village in some extra-rural district, who sat himself down in the great assembly and knew exactly how the encores were manufactured. Distressing man that very sad to live with a person so acute a dreadful martyrdom to have to sit near a person who can chatter such idiocy. But there are always a few people who understand everything see through it mark it: saw it just in time to observe how it was and to explain it to the infinite satisfaction of their own folly. Let us not be disagreeable with anybody, but pleasant and sympathetic even with a preacher.

Nehemiah arrived on the scene of operation, and then he says “I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well… and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.” Was there ever a picture touched with so delicate a hand? Ruins seen at night-time think of that solemn picture, think of that scene that might have made the reputation of a Royal Academician the ruins of the most famous city in the world, seen at night by a lonely man. He took with him some few men; the fewer the better, but probably he left even these at a distance. At a certain point he went out himself: he took his own measure of the situation ruins ruins softened by moonlight, ruins aggravated by shadows, ruins seen by a lonely man, ruins looked at by a heart that meant to restore them, and bring back every beam of the ancient glory. If we could paint that picture we might entrance the world!

Take your own measure of the destitution of the world. Every Christian man should go about in the world, so far as he is able to do so, by the aid of reports to take his own measure of the situation steal out by night and see what the devil has done with this human nature of ours, and whilst he is walking out under the soft light of the moon and viewing the ruined humanity, he should say, “God helping me, I will do my utmost to undo this mischief and to repair the shattered house of the Lord.” Ye are the house of the Lord ye are God’s living temples: the house and the temple have been defiled and desolated, and every man who has the spirit of Nehemiah in him should take his own estimate be his own missionary secretary, be his own missionary observer, and be his own missionary so far as it is possible for him to be so, and then he will do some good in his day and generation in the name of the Lord.

Then Nehemiah spoke unto the people, stated the case to them, and called upon them to co-operate with him in his great purpose, and gave them as a sign and token of good a repetition of the king’s words that had been spoken unto him. And they said, “Let us arise and build.” See what one man can do! One man can set fire to a thousand: Caesar was more than all Caesar’s legions. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. We cannot all be Goliaths; we cannot all be Csars and Hannibals; we cannot all be inspirers; but we can all follow the great inspiration of biblical testimony, and the great lead of the patriotic philanthropic class of noble and godly men. Though we be but a cipher, yet with a unit at our head that unit shall strike individual value into that which of itself is of minor of almost infinitesimal consequence. Who will arise and build? The people did; Nehemiah did.

“When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn and despised us” ( Neh 2:19 ).

Nehemiah and a handful of men, come to rebuild Jerusalem! and Sanballat nudged Tobiah, and Tobiah nodded to Geshem, and the three drank wine together, and laughed uproariously and with derisive accent, because the instrument was so little adapted to the end that was proposed to be accomplished. “Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?” “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe…. The foolishness of God is wiser than men…. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty… and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are.” The instrument which God has chosen is evidently out of all proportion to the end he seeks to accomplish. He will give to his Son the heathen for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession; and the men going out in twos and threes, with cheap Bibles under their arms, and with the Cross to talk about with this instrumentality they are going to convert the world! And to-day Sanballat has had his laugh, and Tobiah his rude merriment, and Geshem has declared that he never heard of anything so unreasonable and from a human point of view they are quite right. But “if God be for us, who can be against us?” “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” “It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?” It is God who says, “Go ye into all the world and rebuild the waste places, and call the wanderers home, and tell the story of the Cross;” and he who sent us has said, “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: for it shall not return unto me void.” If this be a merely human arrangement, nothing so preposterous was ever conceived in the world, but because of the very preposterousness of the conception from an earthly and temporal point of view, is our faith in the divinity of its inspiration, and in the perfectness of its ultimate success.

What is true of great public movements building city walls, restoring city gates, converting heathen nations is also true of the building of character. To men of shattered character we say, Arise and build. To men all broken down, utterly dismantled and distressed, we say, Arise and build. Have you a withered hand? Put it out. But you cannot, except at God’s bidding: if he had not bid thee put it out, thou couldst not, but his bidding, his telling thee to put it out is the first pledge that he means to make thee a whole man. God’s promises are God’s fulfilment.

Prayer

Almighty God, teach us that all men are builders, that there is one foundation laid, a stone that is elect, precious, tried, infinite in value, and let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. Some are building gold and silver and precious stones, upon which the fire shall have no mischievous effect, and some are building wood, and hay, and stubble which the fire will utterly burn up; nevertheless, the builders themselves may be saved, the foundation upon which they are building is God. Teach us that thou wilt try every man’s work of what sort it is, and that thou wilt give to every man according to his work; may we, therefore, labour by day and by night with both hands earnestly never thinking of ourselves, always thinking of the good work that is to be done, and labouring at it with toil that is itself its own reward. If we have built anything that is strong and beautiful in life, behold thou didst show us where to build thou didst teach our hands how to put things together: not unto us, therefore, not unto us, but unto thy name be the whole praise. Thou dost teach men how to get wealth thou dost show them the way out of difficult places, and when they do bring themselves into entanglements and thickets, out of which there is no human deliverance, it is the divine hand that brings them forth into straight lines again, and into wide open spaces of liberty. We thank thee for a thousand deliverances. Behold our feet had slipped and our steps had gone, but thou didst find us in our ruin, and rebuild us, and because the good hand of our God has been upon us we are spared until this hour. Thou knowest what histories we represent, what broken hearts, what shattered fortunes, what unfulfilled vows, what secret cares, what fretful, vexatious anxieties, what prosperity, joy, honour, delight what presumption, self-boasting, self-enclosure, defiance, challenge, and what modesty, humility, timidity resting upon the Eternal and yearning after the Infinite. According to our diversified experience do thou command thy blessing to rest upon us. Bring us all to Christ, Son of man, Son of God, God the Son. He loved us and gave himself for us, and he is in heaven now on our behalf his the Mediator’s seat his the Intercessor’s cry: O hear that blessed Saviour as he takes up our poor words and repronounces them with the emphasis of his own love. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXIII

THE EXPEDITION OF NEHEMIAH AND HIS WORK OF REBUILDING

Nehemiah 1-7

The period of time between the books of Ezra and Nehemiah is about twelve years. The leader of this expedition was Nehemiah, who was in all probability a man of princely Jewish blood, brought up and trained in a foreign land, a man of fine presence and splendid ability. He was a favorite of the king, Artaxerxes, and he was a true Jewish patriot. He was the “cupbearer” of the king. This was a position of great responsibility, and yet of great authority. He was skilled in the diplomacy and trickery of the Oriental courts, a man who knew men and affairs.

He received word from his brother, Hanani, that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the people afflicted. This news produced a remarkable effect upon him, and he prayed to the God of heaven and fasted, confessing the sins of the people. He prayed that God would enable him to speak to Artaxerxes the king at the right time and that he might receive favors from him.

About two months Nehemiah continued to pray, waiting for his opportunity, though he dared not manifest that sadness in his face. Kings do not like for their servants to be sad in their presence. But the deep grief of Nehemiah could not be completely hid. The king noticed it, asking him why he looked so sad, stating that it could only be sadness of heart. He gave his reason for his sadness. Then the king asked him if he had any request to make,, and in that moment Nehemiah prayed to the God of ‘heaven for help. He had matured his plans and had come to a conclusion as to what he should ask of Artaxerxes. So he requested that he be sent to Jerusalem and that the king give him letters so that he might safely go on his way without being hindered by their enemies.

The date of this decree is 445 B.C. It gave to “Nehemiah the special commission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, including letters to Asaph, the keeper of ‘the king’s forest, which also caused much grief to the enemy. This is the first sign of opposition which grew more and more intense as the work went on. After some time Nehemiah with his bodyguard arrived safely. He was a man of great position in the empire, and must have had a strong guard with him. He makes no mention of his mission on his arrival. He preserves a very tactful silence. If his purpose had been known, his enemies would have at once set to work to defeat it. His practical turn of mind is shown in the fact that he chose the secret hours of the night to ascertain the condition of the walls of Jerusalem, thus being able to mature his plans, no one suspecting his purpose. When he had surveyed and noted the condition of the walls, and had seen just what had to be done, he summoned the leaders of the people, made his purpose known and organized his forces for the rebuilding. Then followed an appeal to the elders to consider their evil case and to arise and build and then he told them how the good hand of his God had been upon him. “So they strengthened their hands for the good work” but the opposition now is more manifest. They laughed them to scorn, but Nehemiah replied, “God will prosper us . . . you have no portion or right or memorial in Jerusalem.”

Nehemiah had organized his forces to perfection. The priest ly families began to build by the sheep gate which was the portion nearest to the Temple. They had a double incentive to work, viz: the protection of the city in which they dwelt, and the protection of that part of the city where their interests were. Nehemiah mentions many of the gates, e.g., the Fish Gate, which was probably at the northeastern entrance of the city. It was called the Fish Gate because the fish from the river Jordan and the Sea of Galilee were brought to the city from that side and through that gate. He mentions the old gate which was probably to the north of the city. The “tower of the furnace” probably refers to the potteries which existed in that day. The Valley Gate overlooking the valley of Ninnom opened west. The Dung Gate led out to the lower end of the valley of Hinnom on the southwest. The Fountain Gate probably led down to the Tyropean Valley on the south. The stairs led to the City of David. The next was the Horse Gate, but we do not know just where it was located. Thus he built the walls beginning at the east side and going around to the west and south. It is impossible to follow the construction exactly as Nehemiah built it. Only a small portion of this wall has been discovered, and that part is near Ophel. Hurlbut’s Bible Atlas is helpful here.

They built the walls in the face of opposition. No one knew that this would arise better than Nehemiah. He felt that the work must be rushed. The attitude of his enemies was characteristic. Anger in the first place gave place to scorn and contempt. Now Sanballat gathers his forces together to oppose Nehemiah. It was a trying time. The enemy mocked them (Neh 4:1-3 ), but Nehemiah set his prayers against the enemy and went forward.

Their third opposition was a conspiracy to fight, which was met on the part of Nehemiah by prayer and setting a watch against them, but just here a complaint came from Judah evidencing his lack of faith. It was threefold, viz: (1) The strength of the burden bearer is gone; (2) there is much rubbish; (3) the enemy is threatening. In view of this, Nehemiah made provisions for their safety, arming the people and setting them in battle array after their families and then he made a moat masterful plea: “Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” The effect of this plea is seen in their vigilance and diligence. Half of them worked while the other half held the arms; those that worked had on the sword and worked with one hand and held a weapon in the other. Nehemiah set trumpeters for signal purposes; they did not take off their clothes not lay down their weapons for water, but with sleepless vigilance they pressed the work to completion and were able to say, “And so we built the wall . . . for the people had a mind to work.”

Now we have followed Nehemiah’s work to the time that the walls were rebuilt. Almost as soon as this work had been completed there occurred great destitution. This is set forth in Neh 5 . Nehemiah had been devoting his energies to the fortification of the city; now he must give his attention to the matters in the city.

So we now take up the reforms of commercial and social abuses by Nehemiah. In this fifth chapter we come face to face with conditions that give us a painful surprise. One would think that they would be happy indeed, now, but instead, they were sorely downcast by serious circumstances, in that great wrongs were heaped upon them. Nehemiah was brought face to face with a serious condition of affairs. A great cry was raised by both men and women who were concerned. They said that they were in dire straits of poverty. They had no food, and were in danger of starvation. The suffering was intense. Others said, “We have mortgaged our fields, and vineyards and houses.” The implication really is that some of these had been taken away from them. Then they were without fields and vineyards, also without corn and wheat, things necessary to life. Then again, others said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute upon our fields and vineyards.” They even had to borrow money to pay the king’s tribute. Now we see that they were in sore straits when they had to borrow money to pay their taxes. But their distress does not stop here. We are told that some of them had to sell their own children in order to get bread to eat. “Lo, we bring unto bondage our sons and our daughters . . . for other men have our fields and our vineyards.” This is the condition with which Nehemiah was brought face to face.

Nehemiah was angry and said, “Then I consulted with myself and contended with the nobles and the rulers and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother.” He saw what had led to this state of affairs. It was just common greed and covetousness. Nehemiah was enraged. He called an assembly et the people, something like the old fashioned “Town Meeting” of New England. He says to them: “The thing ye do is not good: . . . I likewise, my brethren, and my servants, do lend them money and grain. I pray you, let us leave off this usury.” The interest was about 12 per cent. All such interest was forbidden by the law of Moses. So Nehemiah issued a command ordering them to restore all this property. He called the priests together and took an oath of them that they were to see that this thing was done. Now this shows that the priests were the leading men in national life. They were to enforce the law. In order to impress it he says, “I shook out my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house who does not do this.” Just as one would take an apron with articles in it and shake them out, so God would do to them, which meant excommunication. They were to restore the fields and the vineyards which the people sorely needed and ought to have. Then he cites his own example (Neh 5:14-19 ): “From the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah . . . I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor,” that is, he had not been collecting any salary. “But,” he says, “the former governors were chargeable unto the people, and took of them bread and wine, and forty shekels of silver, but instead of that I fed one hundred and fifty of them at my own expense.” Then in Neh 5:19 he says, “Remember unto me, O my God, for good, all that I have done for this people.”

During all this time, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem had been trying to entrap him. They sought some way to entangle Nehemiah and stop the work. But Nehemiah had been trained in an Oriental court. He was used to trickery and deception, common in the life of an Oriental palace. Sanballat and Tobiah invited him down to the plain of Ono for a conference. That sounds like they wanted to be friends with Nehemiah. But he says, “I cannot come down: why should the work cease while I leave it, and come down to you?” He saw through the plan. Four times they sent him that invitation, but each time he replied that he could not come down. In Neh 6:5 he says that they sent him an open letter in which Geshem says, “You think to rebel. You have appointed prophets to preach among the people that you are to be king in Judah.” That is a clever story. The letter informs Nehemiah that they were going to report to Artaxerxes that he was planning to be king; that prophets were preaching in Jerusalem that Nehemiah was to be king. That is the same threat that the Pharisees used on Pilate: “Pilate, if you let this man go you are not Caesar’s friend.” It would have frightened an ordinary man. That very thing drove Pilate to put Jesus to death, when he knew that he was innocent. They sought to stop the work in that way, but Nehemiah prayed: “Now, O God, strengthen thou my hands.” So the work went right on. In Neh 6:10 is the record of another attempt. They employed a certain prophet to help them. He was one of those men who made divinations and was secured to entice Nehemiah. Nehemiah went down to the house of this man, who had been shut up under a vow. Then the prophet said to him, “Let us meet together in the house of God; . . . let us shut the doors of the Temple: for they will come to slay thee.” That was a very subtle proposition. But Nehemiah was too wise even for this trap. He says, “Should such a man as I flee? I have no right to go into the Temple. Am I going to do wrong to save my life?” No wonder God cared for and used this man! Then he discovered that God had not sent the prophet, but he had been hired by Tobiah and Sanballat.

The work went right on, and the wall was completed on the fifty-second day. Now what was going on in the city? Neh 6:17 tells us that the nobles of Judah sent letters to Tobiah and he to them. Nehemiah says, “They spake of his good deeds before me and reported my words to him.” Now that was treachery, but Nehemiah paid no attention to that. He saw clearly through it all. They were simply trying to make him afraid.

Now when the wall had been built he set up the doors and appointed porters and singers and Levites. He appointed his own brother to be governor over the city. This brother was appointed because he was a God-fearing man. He gives instruction about the city gates, as to their opening and so on. Now we are told about the houses and the inhabitants. The record says, “Now the city was wide and large but the people were few therein.” Many Texas cities are like Jerusalem in that they are large and wide, but the houses are not yet built and the people few.

Now he had built the walls and set up the gates. Next he finds the book of the genealogy. That is the same as the list in Ezr 7 . The Apocryphal book, 1 Esdras, also contains a similar list. But why was it repeated here? It was taken from the same list from which Ezra’s was taken and is in accord with the great emphasis which the Jews put on their genealogies. This was necessary for the identification of all who had thus come to Jerusalem and confirms the account given by Ezra. There are no important differences no more than we might expect in two separate genealogical lists prepared by different persons. But there is a special advantage in having the two lists, viz: they enable us to make out a more complete catalogue of those who came at the first, though either list was sufficient for the purpose of identification.

QUESTIONS

1. What was the time period between the books of Ezra and Nehemiah?

2. How did Nehemiah come to know the condition of Jerusalem and according to this report what was the condition?

3. How did this affect Nehemiah and what did he do?

4. What of the providence of God in answer to his prayer and what was the lesson on the relation of prayer and works?

5. What date of this decree and what special commission did it give?

6. What effect of this decree on the enemy?

7. How did Nehemiah commence the work of Jerusalem?

8. What his appeal, what was the first opposition of the enemy and what was Nehemiah’s reply?

9. How did Nehemiah distribute the work and what was the lesson?

10. Locate as nearly as you can the parts of the wall which were assigned to the various companies to build.

11. What was the second opposition of the enemy and what was Nehemiah’s reply?

12. What was the third opposition of the enemy and how did Nehemiah meet it?

13. What was Judah’s complaint and what was the masterful plea made by Nehemiah in reply?

14. What indicates their great vigilance and diligence?

15. What complaint came to Nehemiah from the people?

16. How did this affect Nehemiah, what course did he take and what the result?

17. How does Nehemiah show his spirit of generosity and unselfishness?

18. After the wall was completed what artful proposition came from the enemy to Nehemiah, what was his course in the matter and what lesson for us?

19. How then did they try to entrap Nehemiah and what saved him from their scheme?

20. How long was the wall in building, what effect on the enemies, what embarrassing fact to Nehemiah here revealed, and what provision was made for the continued safety of Jerusalem?

21. Why should Zerubbabel’s register of names occur here also, are there any important differences between the two lists, and what the special advantage in having the two lists?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Neh 2:1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that] wine [was] before him: and I took up the wine, and gave [it] unto the king. Now I had not been [beforetime] sad in his presence.

Ver. 1. And it came to pass in the month Nisan ] Time and place is to be registered of special mercies received. “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord,” Psa 102:18 .

In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes ] Surnamed Longhand, as our Edward I was called Longshanks, and another Longespee, or Longsword. This Longhand is renowned for the fairest among men in that age, M , Omnium hominum puleherrimus (Aemil. Prob.); of all men most handsome; and no wonder, if he were (as is generally thought) the son of that fairest Esther.

That wine was before him ] There was a feast, as Neh 2:6 . Not by chance, but by God’s providence; who of small occasions worketh greatest matters many times, as he put small thoughts into the heart of Ahasuerus for great purposes, Est 6:1 .

And I took up the wine, &c. ] As Esther was come to the kingdom, so Nehemiah to this office, for such a time as this, Est 4:14 . Though he were a prisoner, a stranger, one of another religion, yet is he the king’s cupbearer and taster; and once of great trust and credit. This was a strange work of God, to cause heathen princes thus to favour the religion that they knew not, and to defend that people which their subjects hated.

Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence ] Princes are usually set upon the merry pin; and all devices are used, by jesters and otherwise, to make them merry; no mourner might be seen in Ahasuerus’s court, Est 4:4 . But good Nehemiah had been, for certain months’ time, afflicting his soul and macerating his body, as in the former chapter: hence his present sadness, which the king (being a wise man and a loving master) soon observed.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Nehemiah Chapter 2

The king, as we learn from the second chapter, finds Nehemiah’s countenance sad, and at once remarks about it. It was not a thing that these kings relished. Humanly speaking, a man coming specially to such a position would seem to have but small respect for the monarch, for, naturally, these great kings cherished the idea that whatever was sorrowful was quite unfit for their presence. Even supposing a man were ever so sad, still, there ought to be sufficient light and glory in their presence to banish all such sad thoughts; but the truth is that had it been merely for outward casualties – for the loss of substance or any natural thing here below – Nehemiah’s tears and gloom would have all disappeared in the presence of the Lord, but the presence of the Lord deepened these. The more he went before God and weighed the state of the Jews in Jerusalem, the more grieved he was. It was not that his heart was not lifted up, but for all that the tears would naturally flow the faster. The deep sense of it would be felt just the same, because he felt what a God was theirs, and what they had been to God – what they were now to God! Nehemiah, therefore, was in no way delivered from sadness by his prayer. And this is what I wish to show. There was confidence in going to God, but, at the same time, there was still the deep sense of the ruin.

The king, however, puts the question, and we find that Nehemiah candidly tells us how much afraid he was, for, indeed, it might have cost him his life. The king might have suspected treason – might have suspected that there was some dark plot – and that Nehemiah’s conscience was at work. All sorts of things might have entered his mind in accounting for this extraordinary gloom that covered his servant’s face. But Nehemiah tells the simple truth to him. “Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, and the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?” (Neh 2:3 )

Perhaps it is worth noticing, but I only notice it to shew what a difference there is between the word of God and the word of man. In the book of Maccabees, Nehemiah is said to be a priest, and also, singular to say, of the race of David. Now, whatever may be the case as to the race of David, for that very reason he could not be one of the priests. I mention it that we may see how men, when once they attempt to write upon the things of God, only expose their ignorance. Yet this is a book, as you know, that professes to be inspired – at least, it is accepted by a large portion of Christendom as such. Very possibly Nehemiah did belong to the tribe of Judah. It would seem that if Jerusalem were the place of his fathers’ sepulchres, so it would be. It was there that they were buried very generally; but he was not a priest. This is a mistake. He was a civil governor; and this leads me to a very important point, as to this book. The temple is not the point, but the ordinary life of the people of God. And, let me say, beloved brethren, that this is of great moment for you and for me in this our day.

Christianity is not merely a thing of God’s worship: Christianity is meant to govern every day. I do not like your Sunday Christians, I do not like men or women who merely just maintain their place by coming to the table of the Lord. This is disgraceful. We are called, assuredly, to recognize His claims for every day, and so much the more because there may be difficulties. In a busy place such as we know is in our immediate neighbourhood, many of us have our duties, though not all the same. Some of us have labours. Some of us may know what it is to labour early and late. Some of us may know what it is to labour by night as well as by day. And this is not confined to men, but applies to women, for there are those who work, and work hard and diligently; and I know not what we are here for except to be diligent in whatever may be before us. But I still say that it is a sorrowful thing to be diligent for the world, and not for the Lord, and that we are bound to take care that our ordinary life of every day be a witness of Christ. I do not say that we are all called to do the same work, but I do say that we are all called to the same Christianity, and we are all called that Christ should be apparent in what we are doing every day, and not merely upon the Lord’s day, or the Lord’s day morning. No, beloved brethren, this will not do for the Lord, and the failure to be thus witnessing for the Lord Jesus in our ways of every day, and in our ordinary matters, our ordinary life, our social life, our life of labour, of whatever kind it may be, is a blotting-out of the grand object for which we are called by the grace of God.

In short, while Ezra bears upon what is more manifestly the spiritual part – that which pertains to the worship of the Lord and the altar, and while the temple – the house of God – is the grand point there, we have here in Nehemiah the wall of Jerusalem; not the temple, but Jerusalem. Here we have, not the house built, but the wall built. It is the desolation, therefore, of what pertained to the people every day. It is what concerned their ordinary life, and, for this simple reason, that the people of God are always called to what is, if I may say so, extraordinary – at any rate, to what is divine. It may be the commonest thing in the world, but we ought to do no common thing except in a divine way. Whatever we do – whether we eat or drink – we ought to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, to do all to the glory of God. This is our calling. This is what the Jews had forgotten. They had no thought of it. The consequence was that they sank down; they were lower than the Gentiles. For so far, the Gentiles had something to live for and something to show. What had these poor Jews? They had lost heart, they had lost courage; and (what was the most important of all things) they had lost faith. They had lost practical faith.

Well, but I should like to know, beloved friends, whether there is not this same danger amongst you – whether there is not a danger of that for me, because supposing, now, we come in fresh and happy through the name of the Lord Jesus, yet, we at once find ourselves in by no means smooth waters.

We find there are storms; we find there are rocks and shoals, and we find, also, that our boats are not very strong, and that we are not very skilful either, in managing them, that is, we come into difficulties. Is it not so? And after we have encountered a little rough weather we are apt to get downcast and dispirited. We find fault with this one or that one. Is it not so? Now, I am not the least denying that there are faults, but then let us not forget that we have faults; and, further, that it is not a question of whether I or you have got faults – one or other or both (which is a little nearer the truth), but the great point is this – whether you and I are looking to the Lord or not. This is the thing that makes the heart happy – confidence in looking to the Lord, and also my living in this looking to the Lord, not merely for myself, but for you; for this is the true way to win another, that is, to be looking to the Lord about the other. Supposing there is a person that you have got something against, or that has got something against you; how is it to be met? Not by wit, not by power, not by influence. Not all the brethren can set it to rights, but the Lord can, and the moment that our heart has got perfectly settled in this, it gives quietness and confidence – it gives peace and assurance for ever. The Lord grant that it may be so with us!

But what I press again is this, that the point here is the daily life – the social, civil life of Israel, and not merely that which was manifest by religion, but it is the bringing God into the common matters of life, of every-day life. That was the grand point here, and there it was that Israel failed. No doubt they failed, as we have seen, in the Book of Ezra, because the two things go together, and you will never find that the person who enjoys much in worship fails much in walk; but you will find, on the contrary, that where there is feebleness of faith in the worship of the Lord, there will be feebleness also in the walk. What God looks for is that there should be faith in both, and where there is faith there will be faithfulness. That is the secret of it. It is, after all, a want of being with God touching every matter, whether it is what concerns the worship of the saints or what concerns the walk day by day. There is only one resource for both, and the same for both.

Now this is what filled the heart of Nehemiah. He feels about it. He spreads it out, even when the king was speaking. And here is what I wish to shew, how truly it is a question of faith. “The king said unto me, For what dost thou make request?” What does he do? Does he make a request to the king? No, he makes request to God. “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” It is not that he does not tell the king; but, even at that very moment, in the presence of the king himself, his heart was to the Lord. No wonder he got his request. No wonder that God listened and heard, and he could take it as from Him. Why? Because he prayed to the Lord first. It was not that he did not own the king, but the fresh first-fruits, so to speak, surely were due to the Lord.

“And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto me (the queen also sitting by him), For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. Moreover, I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; and a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.” The letters were granted. The timber and other materials that he lacked were vouchsafed by the king, and he goes up guarded to Jerusalem, and the same thing that filled his heart with joy and thankfulness in the midst of his sorrow grieved the enemies of the people of God.

But there is another thing, too, and that is that we must not be too much occupied with what other people do or say. Mark Nehemiah. Now his heart was with the people of God, but, for all that, he knew what it was to act in dependence upon God; and this comes out most markedly at the very start. You will help the people of God most when you are looking to God most simply. It is not looking to the people and trying to get them up.

No, but I must look to the Lord myself. “So,” says he (verse 12), “I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon.” It was no matter of pomp or show, or anything that would be usual among men. It was not a question of bringing a number of engineers and other skilled artisans to see what was to be done; but he himself: his heart was in it. He does not wait for all that. He goes about it at once with all simplicity, and he goes about it by night with the express purpose that he might take a view at once without drawing attention – needless attention. It was not that there was anything that he owed to others. Want of candour would be a sad thing amongst the people of God, but it was no question of candour. Here it was wisdom, and the man that does not know when to be silent will hardly know when to speak. It is a great thing to learn that there is a season for both. He went out by night, then, and he saw it all, and saw it in the depth of sadness, and took a full view. “And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the rest that did the work.” It was between his own soul and God, with the few men that were then with him. “Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste.” His soul entered more deeply than ever – realised, as we shall see, the state of things more than ever. “Then I told them of the hand of my God which was upon me.” Two things, you observe – sense of ruin, confidence in God, and both found together filling his heart. And look at the effect of it. They said, “Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.” Thus, you see, when a man of faith goes forward he goes forward, not in his own power or wit, but with a broken spirit and in dependence upon God. The hand of the feeble are strengthened for the work. It is God that helps. It is God that has the glory, but God making use of the faith of a man. So he did here.

Nevertheless, the moment that God begins to act, the devil tries to hinder. “But when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem, the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us” (Neh 2:19 ). This was the first effort of the enemy. It was to pour contempt upon a work so simple and insignificant; but, further, it was the manifestation of their malice. Nevertheless, God used it for their good. Nehemiah learns more than ever before the adversaries that were there. But this is no reason to be alarmed. As the apostle Paul says, “An effectual door, but many adversaries.” So it was with Nehemiah now. There was an effectual door opened. The adversaries in no way frightened him. “Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we, his servants, will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.”

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Neh 2:1-8

Neh 1:11 bNow I was the cupbearer to the king. Neh 2:1 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. 2So 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. 3I 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? 4Then the king said to me, What would you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5I said to the king, If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it. 6Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will your journey be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time. 7And 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, 8and 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.

Neh 2:1 Nisan This would have been March – April (cf. Special Topic at Ezr 3:1), three months after Hanani’s news. It shows the length of Nehemiah’s prayer and fasting. See Special Topic: Ancient Near Eastern Calendars .

in the twentieth year There were two calendars in use by the Jews in this Persian period, which started at different times of the year (Nisan and Tishri). This causes the dates possibly to be off one year.

wine The Persian kings were known for their drinking parties, yet because of Neh 2:6, the Queen being included, this may have been a private meal. See Special Topic: Biblical Attitudes Toward Alcohol and Alcoholism .

I had not been sad in his presence It was a dangerous thing to show personal emotion in the king’s presence (cf. Neh 2:2 c; Est 4:2). Possibly Nehemiah planned this encounter!

Notice the parallel between the cupbearer of Pharaoh (cf. Gen 40:7) and Nehemiah.

Neh 2:2 I was very much afraid It was inappropriate to bring up personal matters to the King (cf. Est 4:2). Also, this same King had ruled against rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem earlier (cf. Ezr 4:23). This shows Nehemiah’s faith and fear.

Neh 2:3 Let the king live forever This VERB (BDB 310, KB 309) is a Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense. This was a common hyperbole of respect and best wishes in addressing Near Eastern monarchs (cf. 1Ki 1:31; Dan 2:4; Dan 3:9; Dan 5:10; Dan 6:6; Dan 6:21). See Special Topic: Forever (‘olam) .

father’s tombs Notice that he never says Jerusalem. The Persian Kings also buried their fathers.

its gates have been consumed by fire The Jews had always been supportive of the Persian kings who allowed them to return to Judah. Possibly the Persian Empire needed some military outposts in this region as a buffer against Egypt, which at this time was currently in revolt.

The VERB (BDB 37, KB 46, Pual PERFECT) could refer to the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar’s army in 586 B.C. (cf. 2Ki 25:10) or to a more recent destruction of the Jews’ attempt to rebuild the walls (cf. Ezr 4:7-24).

Neh 2:4 So I prayed This instant prayer for wisdom and a favorable hearing from Artaxerxes I is quite a contrast to the three month fasting prayer of Neh 1:4 to Neh 2:1. Both have their appropriate place.

Neh 2:5 Nehemiah is asking for both a personal favor (i.e., send me back to my God’s city to rebuild it. Qal IMPERFECT used in a COHORTATIVE sense) and a political need (i.e., a walled city with a faithful population in an area of the empire currently in revolt, i.e., Egypt).

Neh 2:6 the Queen Ctesias (a Greek who lived at the Persian court) tells us that Artaxerxes I had one Queen, whose name was Damaspia (and three concubines).

The rare term Queen (BDB 993) is only used here and in Psa 45:9. The Septuagint translates it as concubine, but it has the DEFINITE ARTICLE and even the Septuagint translates it Queen in Psa 45:9.

‘How long will your journey be’The exact time envisioned by Nehemiah is not stated, but it probably was a short time. As it turned out, from Neh 5:14 and Neh 13:16, he stayed for 12 years. I am sure he returned from time to time to the Persian court.

Neh 2:7 let letters be given me for the governors This VERB (BDB 678, KB 733) is a Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense. Nehemiah wanted documented authority in light of the opposition of the surrounding regions (i.e., Ammon, Samaria, cf. Ezra 4).

Neh 2:8 the king’s forest Many assume that this refers to the cedars of Lebanon, but this would have been very expensive lumber for wall and gate timber. It seems to refer to a local royal forest because (1) a Jew is in charge of it (Asaph) and (2) the term used to refer to it is a Persian term for royal garden, possibly one of Solomon’s (at Etham, cf. 2Ki 25:4).

the fortress which is by the temple This same fortress within the city is mentioned in Neh 7:2. The Jebusites also had a citadel within the walls, which Josephus calls Baris (Antiq. 15.11.4). In the NT it was a fortress like this next to the temple in which Roman soldiers were garrisoned year round (Fortress Antonio, cf. Act 21:37; Act 2:24).

because the good hand of my God was on me Nehemiah knew the ultimate source was the God of Israel. Nehemiah’s God is the one to be praised (cf. Neh 2:18; Ezr 1:1; Ezr 6:14; Ezr 6:22; Ezr 7:27-28; Ezr 9:9). God uses human instrumentality, both Jews and non-Jews, believers and unbelievers, to accomplish His redemptive purposes for all mankind (cf. Gen 12:3; Exo 19:5-6).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Nisan. The first month (Abib, Exo 12:2, &c), called Nisan after the Captivity. This was four months after receiving the news (see App-51.)

the twentieth year. The “seventy sevens” of Dan 9:24-27 begin here (454 B.C.) The “seven sevens” (Dan 9:25), or forty-nine years begin here, and end in 405 B.C.; marked by the completion and dedication of the second Temple. The “threescore and two sevens” (Dan 9:26), or 434 years begin (or rather, follow on) in 405 B. C, and end in A.D. 29, the year of the Cross. The last “seven “is therefore, still future. The first four of the “seven sevens” ended in 426 B. C, marked by the Decree of Cyrus, which ended the Babylonian Servitude of seventy years. See App-50, App-57,and App-58.

Artaxerxes = the great king. An appellative (like Pharaoh, Czar, &c.) used of several kings of Persia. Synonymous with Artachshast (Arta = great, and Kshatza = king, preserved in the modern “Shah”). See App-57and App-58. This Artaxerxes was the great king ASTYAGES (of Herodotus), and ARSAMES (of Darius Hystaspis’ Inscription), the husband of Esther, and father of Cyrus. He was also the Ahasuerus of Est 1:1, which means “the venerable king”; and he was also the “Darius the Mede” of Ezr 6:14 and Dan 5:31. See App-57and App-58.

wine. Hebrew. yayin. See App-27.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 2

“You’ve never been sad in my presence before, what’s wrong with you?” And so Nehemiah opened up his heart. Actually, the king had asked him a question and the king discerned. He said, “It’s obviously a sorrow of heart. What’s wrong?” And so Nehemiah answered:

Let the king live for ever ( Neh 2:3 ):

And he told the king of the plight of his countrymen. Those that had gone back and of the news that he had received, and the heaviness of his heart because of the condition of Jerusalem, that beloved city. And so he said:

I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king ( Neh 2:4-5 ),

So he’s talking to the king, and then while he’s talking, he throws up this prayer to God. “And I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, ‘I would like to have permission to go back for a period of time to Jerusalem myself to see what I might be able to do to help the people there.’ And so the king says, ‘Well, how long are you going to be gone?'” And so he gave him a specified time to return. And so the king gave unto him letters of authority and he was made the Tirshatha, which was the governor appointed by the king to go back to Jerusalem and to be governor over that area. It turned out to be a period of twelve years that he had come back. And so the king gave to him the commandment to go back and to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem, the authority, the commandment.

Now this is one of the most important dates in history, the date that the king gave the commandment to Nehemiah to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem. Because we are told in Daniel the ninth chapter that there are seventy sevens determined upon the nation Israel, and from the time of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the coming of the Messiah the Prince would be seven sevens, and sixty-two sevens, or 483 years ( Dan 9:24-25 ). So here on the fourteenth of March 445 B.C. the commandment was given to Nehemiah to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem. One of the most important dates in the history of the world because from this date it can be ascertained the date of the coming of the Messiah.

It would be 483 years. Here is the commandment given the restoration of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the city. So just as was prophesied in the word of God, 483 years later, Babylonian years of 360-day years, Jesus came in His triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem on April 6, 32 A.D.

Now Daniel said, “But the Messiah will be cut off and receive nothing for Himself” ( Dan 9:26 ). And the people will be dispersed. And even as the prophecy of Daniel was so accurate, Jesus came the very day. So He was also cut off, He was crucified without receiving the kingdom and the Jews ended up in the dispersion. So this is a very important date in history.

The king granted me, [he said,] according to the good hand of the Lord upon me ( Neh 2:8 ).

And so he came with some of the captains and the soldiers of the Persian army, and as he came there were a couple of fellows, Tobiah and Sanballat, who were very upset over his coming. One was a Moabite and the other was a Ammonite. The Horonite is actually from the Horon in Moab, and they were immediately antagonistic to Nehemiah because he sought the welfare of the Jews. In other words, they hated anybody who was seeking to help the Jews.

Now it is interesting and tragic that there are people today who hate the Jews and they really don’t know why. And they hate anybody who loves the Jews or anybody who seeks to help the Jews.

This week in Salt Lake City we had quite a confrontation with some Palestinians because of the film, Future Survival. It was shown Sunday night and they came and they were all filled with anger and hostility because we dared to say that God’s Word was being fulfilled in the return of the Jews to Israel. That God said He would bring them back into the land, and this just absolutely angered them. And there was, well, there was just a lot of shouting and accusations and all, and it was quite a scene. These Palestinians were so upset that a film would be shown that would be pro-Israel or at least give the Israeli position from a biblical standpoint.

But there are many people who have this kind of antagonism towards the Jewish people, and Tobiah and Sanballat were two. Because he sought the welfare of the Jews, they were very upset with his coming. And so Nehemiah came to Jerusalem and he just visited with them for three days, not letting anybody know what was the purpose of his trip.

And then after three days, at night after everybody had settled down, without letting anybody know, he took some of the men that had come from Persia with him, and he was riding on his animal as they were walking around the city walls as he was observing the condition of the walls, the gates. And they finally got to a place where the rubble was so thick that they just couldn’t go any further. And so they came on back into the city and didn’t let anybody know of their little midnight journey or junket around the city. And then Nehemiah called the leaders together and he unfolded to them his plan for the rebuilding of the city. And it involved, actually, all of the people working together–each family group taking a certain section of the wall and working on it. And so the priests were to start there at the sheep gate. And then next to them the families that would be working, on down to the various gates. And there are ten gates that are listed. And then later on, the gate of Ephraim is listed and then another gate is listed. So probably twelve gates in all. And the various families that would be working on this gate and on the wall. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Neh 2:1. And it came to pass in the month Nisan,

Three or four months after he began to pray.

Neh 2:1. In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king.

We have in some of the old slabs and carvings some singular pictures of the dainty way in which the kings of Persia and Media were served by their cupbearers. They always spilled a little wine upon their left hand and drank first, for fear the king should be poisoned. So the greatest men of the different provinces of the empire were called by turns to act this part before the king. It was a piece of state ceremonial.

Neh 2:1. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

And there was a lawone of those stupid Median lawsthat no man was to come before the king with a sad countenance. It was supposed that the king must be so serenely happy himself that none might come there unless they were happy, too. Nehemiah had been able to observe this rule, but on this occasion he did not, because he could not.

Neh 2:2-6. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,)

Who was, probably, queen Esther, and therefore abundantly agreeable that such a work should be done for her own nation. The king said unto me.

Neh 2:6. For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me: and I set him a time.

He was a valued servant. They did not wish to part with him, and if he would go for a time to do this business, yet they take security that he should return. There are some servants that I know of, who, if they were to go away, their masters would not be particularly anxious that they should come back again. It is well when a man is so in favor with God that his piety acts upon his ordinary life, and he becomes in favor with men also. That is a poor, miserable religion that does not make its possessor a good servant. Yes, in whatever station of life we may be placed, we ought to be far more valuable to those round about us on account of our fearing God. May we always be of such a character that, if we were gone, we should be missed. I set him a time.

This exposition consisted of readings from Neh 1:1 to Neh 2:8.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Neh 2:1-8

Neh 2:1-8

NEHEMIAH ARRIVES IN JERUSALEM WITH AUTHORITY TO REBUILD THE WALLS OF THE CITY;

ARTAXERXES GRANTED NEHEMIAH’S REQUEST

“Now I was cupbearer to the king. And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was beside him, that I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. And the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid. And I said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto me (the queen sitting beside him), For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they let me pass through till I come unto Judah; and a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the castle that pertaineth to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.” (Neh 1:11 to Neh 2:8)

In all of the wonderful things that God did for the children of Israel, there are few things any more astounding than this. That a Persian king should have reversed a former decision stopping the work of the Jews on the walls of their city, and then have sent a trusted emissary, accompanied by a military escort, and endowed with full authority to reconstruct the walls and fortify the city of Jerusalem – only God could have caused a thing like that to happen.

“In the month Nisan” (Neh 2:1). This was four months after the time mentioned in Neh 1:1, during which time Nehemiah had fasted and prayed “night and day” that something could be done to aid Jerusalem. During this period, Nehemiah had diligently tried to maintain his customary happy appearance; but his great grief finally became evident in his appearance.

“I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king” (Neh 2:1). Jamieson has a description of how a cupbearer performed his service. “He washed the cup in the king’s presence, filled it with wine, then poured from the cup into his own left hand a sufficient amount. Then he drank that in the king’s presence and handed the cup of wine to the king.”

“Then I was sore afraid” (Neh 2:2). “It was contrary to court behavior for a servant to appear sad.” “Being sad in the king’s presence was a serious offense in Persia (Est 4:2); and, besides that, Nehemiah was well aware that the request which he would ultimately make of the king might indeed anger him.”

“The place of my fathers’ sepulchres lieth waste” (Neh 2:3). This reply kept Nehemiah’s concern in the personal, rather than the political, sector.

“For what dost thou make request” (Neh 2:4)? This was the moment of truth for Nehemiah. If the king was displeased, Nehemiah would lose his head; and therefore his first reaction was that, “I prayed to the God of heaven.” There can be no doubt that God answered his prayer; because, “That prayer brought about one of the most astonishing reversals of royal policy in all history.”Furthermore, it happened in Persia, of all places, where their favorite proverb was, “The law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not.”

“Send me unto Judah … that I may build it” (Neh 2:5). A more daring request was never made. It had been only a few years since, “Artaxerxes had commissioned Rehum and Shimshai to bring a stop to the rebuilding and fortifying of Jerusalem (Ezr 4:8-23).” The amazing thing is that Artaxerxes granted Nehemiah’s request, lock, stock and barrel – all of it.

Perhaps it is permissible for us to speculate a little on why Artaxerxes did so. Of course, the great reason is that God willed it; but, as is always the case, God uses ordinary men and events to achieve his purpose. Some of the satraps beyond the River had grown too powerful. “There is evidence that Megabyzos, one of the satraps beyond the River, had recently revolted; and the creation of a strengthened and fortified Jerusalem under a friendly governor might have appeared to Artaxerxes at that particular time as a wise strategy.”Also, by separating Judah from the powerful coalition of the peoples known collectively as “Samaritans,” and by fortifying it, the aggressiveness of the Samaritan coalition would be dramatically checkmated. And of course, Artaxerxes’ commission to Nehemiah definitely “Involved the separation of Judea from Samaria.” This substantially weakened the power of Sanballat.

“The castle which appertaineth to the house” (Neh 2:8). This is a reference to the combination palace and fortress, “That protected the Temple and overlooked the northwest corner of the courts … Herod later rebuilt it in N.T. times, and it was known as the Tower of Antonio. Nehemiah contemplated using it as his residence.”

Some critics have questioned how it came about that Nehemiah was in possession of such detailed knowledge of specific buildings in Jerusalem; but a man in Nehemiah’s high official position was in possession of all kinds of options for procuring any kind of information that he might have desired.

“The queen also sitting beside him” (Neh 2:6). Polygamy was popular among Persian kings, nevetheless they also had one principal wife whom they designated as “the Queen.” “The legitimate queen of Artaxerxes was Damaspia.” Williamson noted that the word is used here in the plural, and that upon occasions the word was applied to some favorite woman in the harem, or even to the queen-mother of the king, as in the Book of Daniel. Some have concluded that the presence of the queen here indicated that this was a private banquet. Rawlinson’s comment was that, “It appears that Artaxerxes Longimanus had only one legitimate wife, a certain Damaspia.” He backed this up with a reference to a statement by Ctesias in Persian history.

“And I set him a time” (Neh 2:6). Nehemiah’s first term as governor lasted twelve years; but it seems unlikely that he would have set such a time for his journey. Nehemiah evidently promised to return within a much shorter period, after which his leave of absence was extended. The speed with which he tackled the problem of building the wall suggests this. The journey itself would require three or four months each direction, and allowing enough time for the fortifications, suggests that his request must surely have been for, “a year or two.”

E.M. Zerr:

Neh 2:1. It will be well to consult the chart again, noting that we are in the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes. Wine was before him means he was having an indulgence of his favorite refreshment. At such times Nehemiah performed his personal duty, to fill a cup and hand it to the king. Such a service was not a difficult one, and to render it to a king with the temperament this king seemed to possess would be a pleasant task. For these reasons Nehemiah had never shown such a state of sadness as he did at this time, which attracted the attention of the king.

Neh 2:2. Having noticed the expression on the face of Nehemiah, that it was unusual, the king made some remarks about it. lie knew that his servant was not sick physically, therefore concluded the condition to be one of the heart. That was what he meant by the expression sorrow of heart, that it was a condition of great worry. Sore afraid means he was greatly concerned. He had not realized how much the worry of the report had affected his general attitude and facial expression.

Neh 2:3. With all due respect for his king, Nehemiah told him the cause for his sorrow. The place of burial was always considered as something sacred even by the heathen. It was an important explanation, therefore, for Nehemiah to make this report.

Neh 2:4. The king asked him what he wanted to do, and the indications are that he encouraged him to expect great privileges. Upon such a weighty matter Nehemiah did not feel ready to decide without divine guidance. That is why he prayed to God.

Neh 2:5. After his prayer to God, Nehemiah asked the privilege of going to Jerusalem to have it repaired in the walls.

Neh 2:6. The request of Nehemiah was granted. The hearing must have been very impressive. Artaxerxes had called for his wife to sit by him while the conversation was had. An esteemed personal attendant upon the king of Persia was about to be given leave of absence for a time, the length of which was to be determined by the servant. Neh 5:14 shows the time set was 12 years.

Neh 2:7. A man who has been in the employ of a great king should not be seen out from his territory without good cause. The secondary officers of Artaxerxes who were in the immediate vicinity of the capital might easily be made to understand why such a servant was at large. It would be different with the ones beyond the river, which means west of the Euphrates River. To avoid any difficulty, therefore, Nehemiah asked for letters showing his right to travel even as far as to Judah. Not only that the officers would not try to stop him, but would furnish him a conveyance.

Neh 2:8. The king granted to Nehemiah the letter he requested, which Included the order for material from the keeper of the forest. Since this forest was a place of timber, and also since the original word is related to our English word “paradise,” the reader might appreciate it if I take some space to quote from the authorities on the origin and meaning of the word, as follows: “PARADEISOS. ‘(Thought by some to be of Armenian, but by most, to be of Persian origin); 1. Among the Persians, a grand enclosure or preserve, hunting ground, park, shady and well-watered, in which wild animals were kept for the hunt; it was enclosed by walls and furnished with towers for the hunters.’–Xenophon, Cyropedia, 1-3-14; Anab. 1-2-7-9. ‘2. Universally, a garden, pleasureground; grove, park: Josephus, Antiquities, Book 7, Chapter 14, Section 4. Sus. 4-7-15; Sir 24:30; and so it passed into the Hebrew language, Neh 2:8; Ecc 2:5; Son 4:13; besides in the Septuagint [Greek translation of the Old Testament] mostly for . . .; thus for that delightful region, the garden of Eden, in which our first parents dwelt before the fall: Gen 2:8. 3. That part of Hades which was thought by the later Jews to be the abode of the souls of the pious until the resurrection: Luk 23:43. But some (e. g. Dillman) understand that passage of the heavenly paaradise. 4. An upper region in the heavens:2Co 12:4 (where some maintain, others deny, that the term is equivalent to HO TRITOS OURANOS in V. 2): with the addition of TOU THEOU, genitive of the possessor, the abode of God and heavenly beings, to which true Christians will be taken after death. Rev 2:7.’–Thayer. ‘Paradise, a region of beauty; Armenian PARDES, a garden or park around the house, planted with grass, herbs, trees, for use and ornament. In the Hebrew form . . . , and Greek PARADEISOS, it is applied to the pleasure gardens and parks with wild animals around the country residences of the Persian monarchs and princes, Neh 2:8; Ecc 2:5; Son 4:13; Xenophon Cycropaedia 1-3-14. In like manner of the Jewish kings, Josephus, Antiquities, Book 7, Chapter 14, Section 4. Book 8, Chapter 7, Section 3. Hence In the Septuagint [Greek translation of the Old Testament], of the garden of Eden, PARADEISOS for Beb. . . . in Gen 2:8; Josephus, Antiquities, Book 1, Chapter 1, Section 3 . . . Hence in the later Jewish usage and in the New Testament, paradise is put for the abode of the blessed after death, viz. 1. The inferior paradise, or the region of the blessed in Hades, Luk 23:43. Josephus, Antiquities, Book 18; Chapter 1, Section 3. 2. Specifically, Ho PARADEISOS TOU THEOU, the paradise of God, the celestial paradise, where the spirits of the just dwell with God, 2Co 12:4, equal to in verse HO TRITOS OURANOS 3; see Rev 2:7 where the imagery is drawn from Gen 2:8.’–Robinson. (Pers., in Heb. . . .), a park, a forest where wild beasts were kept for hunting; a pleasure park, a garden of trees of various kinds; a delightful grove, Ecc 2:5; Son 4:13; used in the LXX [Septuagint] for the garden of Eden, or of delight, Gen 2:8; in the New Testament, the celestial paradise, that part of Hades in which the souls of believers enjoy happiness, and where God dwells. Luk 23:43; 2Co 12:4; Rev 2:7.’ “–Greenfield. Note: from above it can be seen that PARDES in the Old Testament is similar if not equivalent to PARADEISOS in the New Testament. We know that the parks of the Persians have been discarded or will be, yet no one argues from that fact that the Paradise of God, whose name has been taken from those parks, will ever be discarded. A similar line of reasoning should be had with reference to the origin of the Greek word for Gehenna, which will be introduced in the New Testament Commentary. A word may originate from some thing or practice that finally ceases to exist, and yet still be applied to something that is permanent or endless in its existence.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Nehemiah’s sadness could not wholly be hidden. He had not been habitually a sad man, as he himself declares; but the sorrow of his nation manifested itself as he stood before the king.

It has been suggested that this was part of his plan. Such an interpretation strains the narrative, for Nehemiah confessed that when the king detected signs of mourning he was fled with fear. Yet through fear a splendid courage manifested itself as he told the king the cause of his grief, and boldly asked to be allowed to go up and help his brethren. The secret of the courage that mastered the fear appears in his statement, “I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king.”

His prayer being answered, he took his departure for Jerusalem. His sagacity is displayed through all the subsequent story. It appeared first on his way to Jerusalem. He arrived quietly, and not trusting to the reports which had reached him, he made private investigation. Having ascertained the true state of affairs, he gathered the elders together and called them to arise and build. Opposition was displayed at once by surrounding enemies, and with strong determination Nehemiah made it perfectly clear that no co-operation would be permitted with those who derided the effort. It is impossible to read this story without learning how the work of God should be prosecuted under difficult circumstances.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

a Patriots Self-Sacrifice

Neh 2:1-11

The seventh month answers to our March or April, so that four months had passed since Nehemiah had set himself to special prayer. Between the kings second question and Nehemiahs answer, the simple-hearted cup-bearer found time to pray to the God of heaven. Then, with the assurance that God was with him, he did not scruple to ask great things: that he might be sent to the city of his fathers to build it, and that he might receive all the materials necessary for its construction. But he is careful to record that his requests were granted, not by the clemency of the king, but according to the good hand of God. Do we recognize that good hand enough? We get glimpses here into the inner workings of this mans heart. He felt that God had put His holy purpose there. He did not hesitate to confess this to the Jews and amid the opposition and scorn of their foes; he strengthened himself in his God, sure that He would not have brought him so far to put him to shame. Be sure you are on Gods side, and nothing will be impossible to you.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Chapter 2

The Failed Testimony

It pleased the God of heaven, in bringing about an answer to His servants petition to attract the attention of the Persian ruler to the grief-stricken face of Nehemiah. Kindly the monarch inquires after the cause of this change of countenance, for the son of Hachaliah had been wont to exhibit a cheerful mien, as became one whose confidence was in the Lord. Why is thy countenance sad, asks the king, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Fearful of his sovereigns displeasure, his cup-bearer replies, Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? (ver. 23). Nehemiah could not be indifferent to a matter of this kind. He was no misanthropical pessimist-rather indeed the very opposite-but he could not be unmoved by the terrible break-down on the part of his loved people and the desolate condition of that city that should have been the glory of the whole earth.

But, observe, he did not stand aside and write pamphlets on the failure of his brethren; nor wash his hands of the whole matter and conclude that because the failure had indeed come in, he was justified in giving up all concern about the testimony committed to Judah. Not at all. His was a grief deep and genuine; but it was one that led to exercise before God, and an earnest desire to be an instrument in the hand of the Lord for the establishment of the truth and the recovery and encouragement of the feeble few who had broken clown so sadly in the very place where Jehovah had set His name.

And so when the king inquired, For what dost thou make request? he did not answer till he had prayed to the God of heaven. What an atmosphere of prayer surrounds this man! It is his constant resource throughout all his varied experiences. He walked with God because he talked with God. Now, assured of the Lords mind, he made request for permission to visit the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, that he might build it. This was morally very lovely. He desired to build, to edify. Any one with a small measure of discernment can stand off and either bewail or criticize the failures of others, but one must needs be in touch, with God to be a true builder. Such an one was Paul, a wise master-builder, and he, by the Spirit, directs that all things be done unto edifying. Knowledge, he tells us, puffeth up, but love edifieth (or, buildeth up). This is an all-important truth.

Many there are who entered on the path of separation with high hopes and fond expectations; eagerly they drank in the precious truths the Holy Spirit of God was making known in the place where He had liberty to work as He would. But today, alas, alas! many of these have turned away disheartened, and that because of breakdown on the part of brethren whom these others deem less clear of sight, less devoted and less intelligent than themselves. So they stand off and bewail the divided condition, the worldliness, the cold-heartedness that has come in. But to what end? Such a course profits neither those who so judge, nor those judged. Better, a thousand times better, to rise up in the spirit of Nehemiah, and throw oneself in the breach as a builder. The heart may be grieved and the countenance sad, but there will be a deep-toned joy in seeking thus to enlighten, instruct, and edify weaker brethren; endeavoring in the fear of God to close up the breaches sin has made, and occupy saints with the blessed Gatherer Himself instead of the failure of those gathered.

Yes, as the days darken and the dispensation fast hastens to its close, it is men of the Nehemiah stamp who will be of real value to the people of God, and who shall thus save themselves and those who hear them.

In the presence of his consort, Artaxerxes gave the desired permission, stipulating a defined leave of absence, in which Nehemiah would be free to carry out the desire of his heart, and go to his brethren as a true prophet to speak words of exhortation, edification and encouragement (ver. 6). All that may be needed for the work of building is granted by the king, even as the King of kings, who is also head of His body, the Church, delights to supply His walling workers with all things that pertain to the ministry committed to them. And here we note that Ezra and Nehemiah were men of like mind in tracing every blessing to the good hand of God (ver. 8).

The intervening journey soon completed (for a burning love urged him on), Nehemiah crosses the river and presents the kings letters to the governors of the mixed Samaritan people, who had been settled in the land of the ten tribes since the days of Esar-haddon. At once we read of two men who are grieved and displeased; they were Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite, called contemptuously, Tobiah the servant. When they heard of his arrival, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel (ver. 10). As these men caused Nehemiah much trouble and concern later on, it will be well to inquire here as to who or what they might represent, and to ask if any such adversaries are likely to be encountered to-day in connection with the defense of the present truth?

Sanballat is called a Horonite, generally sup- posed to mean a native of Horonaim, a city of Moab. Of Tobiahs ancestry we are left in no doubt. We have therefore in these two foes representatives of those hostile races of whom it was written, The Moabite and the Ammonite should not come into the congregation of God forever, as we are reminded later in chapter 13:1. The prohibition in Deu 23:3-6 gives the reason for this: An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever: because they met you not with bread and water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopatamia, to curse thee. Nevertheless the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee. Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days forever.

Reading such a command, we naturally ask why such a doom upon Moab and Ammon for refusing aid to Israel when about to enter the land of promise? Why should it have been expected of them and not of others? The answer is very simple. There were ties of blood that gave Israel to expect their assistance, but these ties were utterly repudiated. Moab and Ammon were the natural sons of Lot, but by his own daughters! They were really then bastards, and not sons (Heb 12:8). They surely speak to us of those professing to be children of God, but not born of the Spirit. And so they ever, as born only of the flesh, persecuted the spiritual seed. They are the representatives of fleshly religion, of carnal profession, and as such they detest reality, and hate the truth that Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. They feel they have as much right to the ordinances of God, and as much liberty to participate in His service and worship as any; but they are only natural men with a veneer of religiousness, and such have ever been the bitterest opponents of what really honors Christ and glorifies God. They abound to-day as they have abounded all down the centuries, and their object is still, as ever, to corrupt if they can, and to destroy if they cannot corrupt.

Leaving Sanballat and Tobiah for the present, gnashing their teeth in their rage and vexation, we follow Nehemiah to the city of God. Reaching Jerusalem, he rested three days. Then, conferring not with flesh and blood, but taking a few men with him, though telling none what God had put in his heart, he arose in the night and went out to view in silence the ruin that had come in. This night journey around the walls of the city is deeply pathetic. Who that has any real care for the people of God has not known something of it? The nobles and rulers and all the people are wrapt in slumber, but this lonely man, whose heart God has touched, keeps his midnight vigil, and goes from gate to gate and tower to tower, noting with deepest sorrow and concern the breaches sin has made. I went out by night, he says, by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the kings pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned (vers. 13-15). It was no carping critic viewing with indifferent feelings the defenselessness of his brethren; but a man of purpose and prayer, beholding what stirred his soul to its depths, with the desire to build up what carnal ease and self-seeking had permitted to fall into ruin.

It was not till after this night view that he called the people, with their rulers and the priests of the Lord together, to give them cognizance of his mission. He does so most delicately. There are no reproaches, no Pharisaic and odious comparisons or contrasts, but he identifies himself fully with them and says: Ye see the distress that we are in; how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach (ver. 17). Such an one is a God-sent and Spirit-qualified leader. He does not say, You are in distress; but We are. He does not command, Go, and build, but he entreats, Let us build. He does not say, You are a reproach, but he pleads, Let us be no more a reproach. And then he tells of the good hand of his God upon him, and of the kings commission.

The people are aroused and encouraged, and cry at once, Let us rise up and build; and so they join hands with Gods dear servant for the work he has planned. No doubt there was not the exercise of soul in all that conditions called for; but the work must be done nevertheless, and there will be more exercise as they go on.

And now we hear of Sanballat and Tobiah again; and with them a third adversary, Geshem the Arabian. This man is either an Edomite or an Ishmaelite, more probably the latter; but in either case he speaks of the flesh warring against the Spirit. Both Ishmael and Esau were types of the natural man-hence of the flesh-and were opposed to Isaac and Jacob, the seed of promise. Geshem is elsewhere in this book called Gashmu. When this unworthy trio hear of the work contemplated at the place of the Name, they indulge in sarcastic merriment. Nehemiah noted that They laughed ns to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king? (ver. 19).

Heretofore the line of demarkation between the outwardly separated Israelites and these mixed nations had been almost obliterated; hence there was peace and quietness. But now a man has come who contemplates rearing afresh the wall of exclusion, and this is bitterly resented, though at first they attempt but to laugh down the determination of the remnant. To all their sneers Nehemiah calmly replies: The God of heaven, He will prosper us; and therefore we His servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem! (ver. 20). He has thrown down the gauntlet and declares his uncompromising attitude in a manner not to be misunderstood. Henceforth he will be hated as only those can hate who resent having their false religious claims made nothing of!

The out-and-out worldling does not hate what is truly of God so bitterly as the Christless professor who has a name that he lives but is dead. Such cannot bear spiritual realities; for when confronted with them the hollowness of his profession is exposed, like Dagon when the ark of Jehovah was set down before it. This explains the bitterness with which these adversaries opposed the work of God going on at Jerusalem.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Neh 2:4

God gives us every day, and all day long, something to choose about, and the reason is because He wants to try us, to see whether we do right, to exercise our minds and see whether we act according to the Bible.

I. The first rule about choosing is not to choose at all if you can help it, but to let God choose for you, because nine times out of ten when boys and girls or men and women choose for themselves they choose badly.

II. If you must choose, if it is your duty to choose, always before you choose lift up a prayer to God to help you and guide you as to what you shall choose. Remember what Nehemiah did. When the king asked him what he wanted, he lifted up a prayer to God that He would not allow him to ask foolishly, but that He would enable him to make a wise choice.

III. When going to choose, always think of other people as well as of yourselves, and try to choose unselfishly.

IV. Whenever you are choosing, choose that which will give you trouble at first, or, to put it in Bible language, choose the Cross.

V. Whenever you choose, choose for your soul. Choose for eternity. Choose the Lord Jesus Christ. After alt, it is not we who choose Christ; it is Christ who chooses us. We do choose Him; but when we see all the secrets revealed in heaven, we shall see that it is as our blessed Lord saith (Joh 15:16): “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit.”

J. Vaughan, Sermons to Children, 1875, p. 149.

References: Neh 2:4.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1390; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 220; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 254; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 138, and vol. ix., p. 94. Neh 2:12-16.-Ibid., p. 269.

Neh 2:17

Jerusalem for us is the Church. “The wall of Jerusalem is thrown down,” the fugitives said to Nehemiah. Is not this the message which many voices bring us today from all quarters of Christendom? Let us see what the example of Nehemiah ought to teach us.

I. The sorrow of Nehemiah is the first thing which strikes us in his history. Jerusalem is desolate; that is sufficient cause for his heart having no rest. Do you understand such sorrow as Nehemiah’s? Do you know what it is to groan as he did over the desolation of Jerusalem? The lightness of our sorrows may be measured by the feebleness of our works, for those only can act powerfully upon this world who carry everywhere its misery and its sorrows in their soul. Nehemiah suffers, but in self-humiliation. Jerusalem lies waste through the fault of the elders, who ought to have saved it; and he, a stranger to their unfaithfulness, accuses himself of it. “Lord,” says he, “have mercy on us, for we have sinned.”

II. But Nehemiah does more than lament. He acts, and to act he knows how to sacrifice all. To the peace which he enjoys he prefers the dangers of a struggle without a truce, to the brilliant future which awaits him the reproach of his people. The spirit of sacrifice-this is the second feature which he gives us as an example; moreover, it is that which always distinguishes those who wish to serve God below. These alone are able and worthy to raise the walls of Jerusalem, who, as Nehemiah, will know how to sacrifice all for God.

III. Notice the greatness of Nehemiah’s faith. This greatness must be measured first by the paucity of his resources, and then by the vast obstacles which he encounters. In face of mockers, in face of shrewd men, in face of politicians, listen to his language: “The God of heaven, He will prosper us, but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.” Like Nehemiah, we have beheld the ruins which our epoch has piled up, but their very magnitude fills us with hope. Come, and let us raise again the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.

E. Bersier, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 1.

Neh 2:17; Neh 6:15; Neh 12:43

I. Consider the fact of declension, decadence, degeneration, from a Divine type. Of this we have two instances: in Israel and in the Church. (1) Under the old dispensation, Israel in the Divine intention signified those in whom a great idea was realised. Proofs that this ideal unity was never lost sight of may be seen (a) in the life of Elijah; (b) in the life of St. Paul. (2) A parallel instance of declension from a Divine type we have in the Church. Decadence-partial and temporary decadence, at all events-seems to be a condition of the Church’s existence here below. Earth is strewn with the shattered wrecks of heaven’s ideals. It is well. The disappointments of history teach us to look forward and upward.

II. In the restoration wrought by Nehemiah we have (1) a type of all God’s true repairers; (2) lessons for all such repairs. Notice (a) the builders worked under arms; (b) they worked under the harmonious co-operation of priesthood and laity, we might almost say, in modern language, of Church and State.

III. Notice, lastly, the triumph. There had been discouragement from without and within. When the Church’s builders are up and doing, Sanballat will not be silent. Tobiah’s bitter epigram will not be wanting. But after all discouragement, the day of triumph dawns upon these waiting hearts. The strength of the Lord had been their joy; the joy of the Lord became their strength. Is it not even so with the Church? God’s people have a mind to work. The Church shall be repaired. One day God’s summer light shall strike upon the topmost row. Christ, the Divine Healer, will own the work of restoration by miracles of love at the sheep-gate and the pool of Siloam. The theology of the Incarnation will prove itself by enabling men to understand what is otherwise a tangled mass of contradictions-the character and life of Jesus.

Bishop Alexander, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 241.

References: Neh 2:17.-S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., Appendix, No. 11:2:18.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 173; A. Rowland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 54; A. J. Griffith, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 137. 2-Parker, Fountain, June 28th, 1877. Neh 3:8.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 235. Neh 3:12.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. xv., p. 346. Neh 3:15.-M. G. Pearse, Sermons to Children, p. 24; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 790; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 103.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 2

1. The Kings question (Neh 2:1-2)

2. The Kings permission (Neh 2:3-8)

3. The arrival in Jerusalem and the night-ride (Neh 2:9-16)

4. The resolution to build the wall (Neh 2:17-18)

5. The ridicule of the enemy, and Nehemiahs answer (Neh 2:19-20)

Neh 2:1-2. The last sentence of the previous chapter, For I was the kings cupbearer, belongs to this chapter. Nehemiah is seen exercising the functions of the Kings cupbearer to minister to the joy and pleasure of the monarch. Notice that it was four months after his prayer. Hanani had visited his brother Nehemiah in the month Chisleu, the ninth month, and Nisan is the first month of the Jewish year. How many prayers he must have offered up during these three months! How patiently he waited for the Lords time! He carried a heavy burden upon his heart, expressed in a sad countenance, which was at last noticed by Artaxerxes. Why is thy countenance sad, seeing that thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart, said the king. Then was Nehemiah sore afraid fearing the kings displeasure.

Neh 2:3-8. Nehemiah answered the king and acquainted him with the reason of his sadness, why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? From the meek answer Nehemiah gave we learn that his forefathers were inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he belonged therefore to the tribe of Judah. Instead of the angry outburst Nehemiah feared, the king asked graciously, For what dost thou make request? How his heart must have been stirred when the king uttered these words! He had prayed four months before that the God of heaven grant him mercy in the sight of this man. And now the answer to his prayer was at hand. When the king had asked for his request, Nehemiah prayed again to the God of heaven. He found time to pray between the words of the king and the answer he gave him. His lips did not speak, his knees were not bowed, nor did the king see any other sign that Nehemiah prayed. Yet there was earnest believing and prevailing prayer. It was an ejaculatory prayer, the souls cry to God, carried swiftly by the Holy Spirit to the throne of God. This man of God every step of the way cast himself upon God; prayer was his constant resource. Such is our privilege. As we walk in His fellowship we too shall pray and look to the Lord as Nehemiah did. It is a blessed occupation to cultivate a prayerful mind; indeed it is the breathing of the new life. Whatever our experiences, the heart which is in touch with God will always turn to Him even in the smallest matters. After Nehemiah had stated his request the king granted what he had asked. His prayers were answered; God had touched the heart of the monarch. So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. The requested letters to the governors beyond the river to convey him till he came to Judah, and to Asaph the forester to furnish him with timber needed for the work, were granted to him. In this, like pious Ezra (Ezr 7:6; Ezr 8:18; Ezr 8:22) Nehemiah saw the power of God displayed–according to the good hand of God upon me. Faith not only depends on God, but also sees, His gracious hand and gives the glory to Him. In faith Nehemiah could say my God, like Paul in writing to the Philippians (Php 4:19).

Neh 2:9-16. He crossed the river Euphrates and traversed Transpotamia till he reached Samaria. He delivered the letters. Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the servant, the Ammonite, Samaritans, are here mentioned for the first time. Sanballat may have been the governor of the Samaritan mongrel race. They were grieving exceedingly at Nehemiahs appearing, when they heard he had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

Sanballat (hate in disguise) is called the Horonite, an inhabitant of Horonaim, which was a southern Moabite city (Isa 15:5; Jer 48:3; Jer 48:5; Jer 48:34) and Tobiah, the servant, an Ammonite. They came from Moab and Ammon, blood-relations of Israel, being bastard offspring of Lot. The Moabite and Ammonite were not to come into the congregation of God forever; the curse rested upon them. They did not meet Israel with bread and water when they came forth from Egypt. They hated the people of God, and had hired Balaam the son of Beor to curse Israel (Deu 23:3-6). They were the bitter enemies of Israel, which explains the displeasure of Sanballat and Tobiah when Nehemiah came with the kings credentials. They represented typically those who profess to be children of God, but are not born again; their profession is spurious and carnal, and as mere religionists, with a form of godliness but destitute of its power, they are the enemies of the cross of Christ and of the real people of God.

Nehemiah continues his narrative. So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. We can well imagine, though he does not inform us of it, that these three days were more than days of rest from the strenuous journey. They were days of waiting on God, renewed prayer for guidance and wisdom. He was alone with his God. When the three days of waiting were over he began a night ride to inspect the condition of the different gates and the wall. When all was quiet and people asleep, this servant of God went on this memorable night inspection, accompanied by a few men. No one knows what God had put in his heart; he kept it a secret. There was no boast that he had come to do a big work, and no heralding of his plans. The man of faith, who trusts God, can go and act without making known what the Lord has commissioned him to do. He alone rode on an animal; the others walked. It must have been a sad journey as he passed from gate to gate in the walls. Desolation and debris everywhere. The gates were burned to ashes, and finally the rubbish in the way was so great that the animal he rode could no longer pass through. And how he must have sighed when his eyes beheld the ruin and havoc, the results of the judgment of God on account of Israels sin!

And how many other true servants of God have spent nights like this in considering the failure and ruin among Gods people, burdened with sorrow and deep concern, sighing and groaning, with hearts touched like Nehemiahs, ready to do the Lords will.

Neh 2:17-18. The rulers, the Jews, the priests and nobles were ignorant of all he had done. On the morning after that night journey, he called the people together to tell them what the Lord had put in his heart. But with what meekness and tenderness he speaks to them! He does not reproach them or charge them with unfaithfulness and neglect. He does not assume the role of a leader, but identifies himself with the people. Ye see the distress that we are in–he might have said, You see the distress you are in. Then he told them of what God had done. But we find not a word of credit to himself, nor of the lonely hours spent during that sleepless night. Then the people resolved to rise up and build.

Neh 2:19-20. Sanballat, Tobiah and a third one, Geshem the Arabian (an Ishmaelite) were at hand with their sneers. They laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? Will ye rebel against the king? They realized that Nehemiah had come to build the wall of exclusion, and bring the people back to their God-given separation; therefore these outsiders began at once to antagonize the messenger of God. Magnificent is Nehemiahs answer. The God of heaven, He will prosper us. He puts God first. Knowing that they were doing His will in rebuilding the wall, he had the confidence and assurance that God was on their side and none could hinder. Therefore we His servants will arise and build. This was their determination to do the work. But ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem. It is the refusal of their fellow help. Though they might have claimed a relationship with the people of God, yet did they not belong to Israel. Their help was not wanted. What a contrast with the unseparated condition which prevails in the professing church in what is termed work for the Lord in which the unsaved and ungodly are asked to participate!

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Nisan

first month i.e. April.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Nisan: Est 3:7

the twentieth: Neh 1:1, Ezr 7:1, Ezr 7:7

I took up: Neh 1:11, Gen 40:11, Gen 40:21

Reciprocal: Neh 5:14 – from the twentieth Neh 13:6 – the two Psa 102:17 – He will Pro 12:25 – Heaviness Dan 9:25 – from

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE KING’S CUP-BEARER of those days had to be a man of integrity, who would see that nothing undesirable or poisonous was inserted into the King’s wine. The tidings he had just received had so affected him that his sorrow was seen in his face. Noticing it, the king was of course suspicious and enquired what moved him to sorrow; as we see in the opening verses of chapter 2. A position was thus created that had definite danger in it, and Nehemiah was ‘very sore afraid’. However, he told the king of the tidings that he had received, which accounted for his sad countenance that had revealed the sadness of his heart.

The king did show him mercy as he had desired, and invited a request from him. This was a challenge, and Nehemiah’s response to it is very instructive. The record is, first, ‘So I prayed to the God of heaven’, and then, ‘I said to the king… ‘ God first, and the king second. This silent prayer must have shot up to heaven in a matter of two or three seconds, quite unknown to the king or anybody else, and it was evidently as speedily answered from heaven, so that the request he made was the right one, and to meet with a favourable answer.

Would to God that we and all other true saints of God were so truly and simply living in touch with our Lord on high that in any and every emergency, needing a quick decision, we could at once with a minimum of words, remit the case to Him for His decision, and guidance for ourselves. We should more often see His hand moving on our behalf, even as for Nehemiah: as the rest of the story unfolds.

Invited by the king to make a request, Nehemiah asked, with due deference, that he might be permitted to go to Jerusalem with the king’s authority to rebuild it; that authority to be expressed in letters, not only to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, but also to governors beyond the river. The ‘river’ here is doubtless the Euphrates, and so the governors were those that ruled in the direction of Palestine. What considerations moved the king’s mind are hidden from us, that we may more clearly realize that, whatever they were, it was the power of God that controlled him, in response to Nehemiah’s brief and sudden prayer.

The king was so favourable to Nehemiah’s request that he sent captains and horsemen to speed him on his way. We may remember that though Ezra had returned earlier under the same king, carrying much treasure under his authority, he had not requested such official protection, since he had openly avowed his faith in the protection of God during his journey. Evidently Nehemiah, an official in the king’s court, had not the spiritual education and understanding that Ezra possessed as a priest, devoted to the law of his God, yet both equally could speak of ‘the good hand of my God upon me.’ If the heart be right, God will guide and support His servant, whatever be the measure of his intelligence and faith. This fact should encourage us today. Our faith and understanding may indeed be small, but let us see that our hearts are marked by true devotion to Christ and His present interests. As the fruit of devotion, intelligence will surely increase.

But, immediately there is action, as the result of devotion and some understanding, opposition is sure to appear. It had been so when at the start of the revival Zerubbabel and his party went back; it was so again, as verse Neh 2:10 reveals, though the men who led the opposition were different. Sanballat was an Horonite; that is, we understand, an inhabitant of Horonaim, a town of Moab; while Tobiah was an Ammonite. So here we have representatives of the two sons of Lot, begotten under shameful circumstances, as recorded in Gen 19:1-38, setting themselves against what God was doing. A man had come ‘to seek the welfare of the children of Israel’, which at that moment God had in view, and therefore the adversary was against it, and used these two men, who as to their origins were distant relations of Israel. It has often been the case, sad to say, that those nearly related to the saints of God have been foremost in their opposition against them.

It is worthy of note that this antagonism existed before Nehemiah revealed the exact purpose for which he had come. He abode in Jerusalem three days and then he arose secretly in the night and made a tour of the city that he might see for himself the exact state of things. The rulers of the Jews, as we are told in verse Neh 2:16, had no knowledge of what he did, nor of the plan before him. It was only when he had seen the state of things for himself, that he set before them what he proposed, and said, ‘let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.’

The building of the wall was then the great object before him. The house of the Lord had already been built, but it stood in a desolated place, the walls of which were broken down and its gates consumed by fire. The day had not come then, nor has it come yet, when ‘the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her’ (Zec 2:5), so a wall was needed that the city might again be seen as the place where God had set His name, and His house might, in this typical way, be separated from the defilements of the surrounding world. From the time that God said to Abram, ‘Get thee out… ‘ (Gen 12:1), separation to Himself has always been God’s mind for His people. Since the rejection of Christ this has come to light with increased emphasis, so that we now read, ‘the friendship of the world is enmity with God’ (Jam 4:4).

Having proposed the rebuilding of the wall, Nehemiah was able to tell the rulers, ‘of the hand of my God, which was good upon me.’ This plainly conveyed to them that God was behind the project, and they responded, saying, ‘Let us rise up and build.’ They were prepared really to put their hands to the work. Pious thoughts and understanding are not enough. They had to put their hands to the task, and work. It is even thus with us today. To understand God’s mind and purpose is not enough; we must be prepared to give ourselves to the active service which is indicated. Here, we fear, is a very weak spot in many Christian lives.

As it became increasingly plain that work was really going to be undertaken, so the opposition increased, and in verse Neh 2:19 we find Geshem the Arabian joining with the Maobite and the Ammonite. This is remarkable for the inhabitants of Arabia were largely the descendants of Ishmael and Esau, and to this day the bitterest foes of the Jews are the various Arab tribes. And further, in prophetic scriptures Edom, Moab and Ammon are linked together. In the coming day, according to Dan 11:41, the king of the north will overthrow many lands, but these three will escape him; only to be subdued by Israel, regathered and unified, according to Isa 11:14.

In our chapter, however, the opposition for the moment only took the form of mockery-‘they laughed us to scorn, and despised us.’ This type of opposition all too often has considerable effect, even upon the people of God; but only if they are living and acting as before men. Nehemiah and his friends were acting as before God in what they proposed to do, as we see in the last verse of our chapter. Their reply was, ‘The God of heaven, He will prosper us.’ They anticipated in their measure the triumphant word of Rom 8:31. ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ In the light of that they were about to act; and they reminded the adversaries how complete was the breach that lay between them and themselves.

We may take the three things that Nehemiah mentioned as having an application at the present time. It is as true today as when the Psalmist wrote, that ‘men of the world’, who so often oppose Christ and His saints, ‘have their portion in this life’ (Psa 17:14), and no portion at all in the things of God. Hence in these things they have no ‘right’, and their thoughts and opinions are valueless. Nor, when the things of God are finally established in glory, will they have any ‘memorial’ therein. They will be outside it all for ever. Let us never be diverted from the work of God, nor even ashamed, by the ridicule of men, who oppose Christ and His service.

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

Rebuilding the Wall

Neh 2:1-20

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

As we study the Book of Nehemiah we learn the truth of that old saying, “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.” This was true in the matter of rebuilding the wall. Let us suggest seven steps that lead to the work.

1. Hanani’s report. This we considered previously. It was because of the word of Hanani that Nehemiah was so deeply moved concerning the wall, and the state of his brethren in Jerusalem. Thus we see God’s first step was the bringing back of some of the brethren whose report created an interest in the heart and mind of a great man.

2. Making Nehemiah’s countenance sad. Nehemiah could not cover up the great burden that fell upon him. His prayer to the Lord is recorded in chapter 1, and it displays an earnest soul and a yearning heart. When, therefore, Nehemiah appeared before the king, his countenance bore his grief. This was the first time that he had ever been sad in the presence of the king. Therefore the king said unto him, “Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.”

Just as Hanani was used to touch the heart of Nehemiah, so Nehemiah was used to touch the heart of Artaxerxes, the king.

3. The king’s interest. At first Nehemiah was afraid as he stood before the king. Nevertheless, he said, “Let the king live for ever why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?” Then the king said unto Nehemiah, “For what dost thou make request?”

“If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, * * that I may build it.”

4. Granting letters to various groups. Here is an important step. The king not only gave Nehemiah permission to go, but he sent a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest to give him timber to make beams for the gates of the palace, and for the walls of the city. Then he sent letters to the governors that they should assist Nehemiah. Step by step we are to see how God led the way.

5. Giving an escort. Besides the letters, Nehemiah was escorted by captains of the army and horsemen. This, of course, added much to the safety of the journey, as well as to the prestige that would be granted God’s man.

6. Viewing the city by night. When Nehemiah arrived he did not let the rulers know his objective immediately. He first went out by night and examined the walls which were broken down, and the gates which were burned with fire. Then he returned.

7. Communicating with the rulers. When Nehemiah had everything in hand he said unto the nobles and rulers, “Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.” Afterward Nehemiah told them how God had directed him, and how Artaxerxes, the king, had spoken unto him. Then they said, “Let us rise up and build.”

When God stretches forth His hand, who can hold it back? It was God who heard the cry of His people. It was God who was coming to the rescue. All unknown to the people in Jerusalem, God had moved upon the heart of the king, and upon the heart of the king’s servant.

I. BUILDING THE WALL (Neh 3:1-2, etc)

You cannot read all of this chapter, of course. However, you can go over it personally, and see how the building was done. Here are two headings which will give you the gist of the chapter.

1. Doing things systematically. Whatever else you see in this chapter, you will see that Nehemiah in arising to build carried out a system which is above reproach. Every man and his company wrought in a distinct place. Everything was perfectly organized. Nehemiah laid his plans, and each one was set to work at a certain place.

God is always systematic in everything He does. There is nothing hit or miss in all His universe. God blends the colors of His flowers in perfect symmetry, and He creates nature in a harmony of effect that is most marvelous to the eye. Do you remember when the Lord Jesus commanded the five thousand to sit down upon the grass that He put them in groups of fifty? Our Lord is the God of order, and not of confusion. Our own bodies are proof of this-a systematic organism operating in many parts, under one head.

2. Doing things cooperatively. In the case of the building of the wall, everyone had his own work systematically assigned, yet everyone wrought in connection with the one next to him, and so on around the wall. Should not this be the spirit which we should observe in the house of God? It is not only a matter of working, but of working harmoniously.

Christ is the head of the Church. We, as believers, are members of His body, yet we are all “fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

II. ENEMIES TO THE WORK (Neh 4:1-6)

Where is he who ever started any definite work for God who did not have his enemies? Satan is our adversary, and he goeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

1. The enemy who sought to hinder and to mock. We read: “When Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews.” He said the builders were feeble folk. He ridiculed their fortifying themselves, and of their rebuilding the walls with the stones taken from the rubbish. Tobiah the Ammonite was with Sanballat, and he said, “Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.” Thus they mocked.

Has not God told us that there will come enemies in the latter days who will mock? These enemies ridicule the message which we preach relative to the Lord’s Return. They scoff at the inspiration of the Book from which we preach. They belittle the efficacy of the Blood of Christ which is our security and salvation. He, who labors with God, will find a mocking world about him.

2. Meeting mockery with prayer. When Nehemiah heard of their mockery, he prayed, “Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head.” Prayer is always a reproach to sinners.

3. Toiling on. The fact that the enemies did not hinder the labor of the Jews we read in Neh 4:6. “So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.” How refreshing it is, and it is still true, that our enemies cannot hinder, effectively, the work of the Lord. Through prayer and faith we may press our way on to victory.

III. THE DARKNESS DEEPENS (Neh 4:8-11)

1. Sanballat and Tobiah soon found allies to contend with them against the Jews. The Arabians, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped. They were angry and conspired together to fight against Jerusalem. Perhaps, Satan was getting a lesson from the saints. The Jews stood a united band shoulder to shoulder, and heart to heart. They soon saw that the enemies likewise began to combine in their conspiracy. The devil will leave nothing unturned or unsaid to upset the work of God.

In the garden of Eden Satan was intent upon wrecking the peace and the harmony of man’s first estate. He followed this plan in the history of Israel. He brought, later on, every possible antagonism against the Church. The Master said that in the world we would have tribulation. The world hated Him, and it will also hate us.

2. Prayer and worship. Neh 4:9 says, “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night.” In Neh 4:4 Nehemiah prayed; in Neh 4:9 he prayed and watched. Was not this the message of Christ to Peter, James, and John? He told them to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation.

There was a dual strategy, for while the enemies were seeking to combine against the Jews, the devil sought to spoil the morale of God’s people. Thus we read, “And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.” This was Judah’s statement. On the other hand, the adversaries said, “They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.”

IV. HOW TO MEET THE ENEMY (Neh 4:13-15)

Nehemiah did not become discouraged when Judah began to cry out, and the adversaries began to connive against them. He strengthened the brethren, then he met the difficulties.

1. First, he strengthened the weak places in the wall. Everyone of us should do the same. If we see the enemy coming upon us, we need to study those points in our character which are weak, for those are the places where Satan will assuredly attack us. No part of a wall is stronger than its weakest place.

2. He provided the Jews with swords, spears, and bows. We, too, must go forth panoplied for battle. We must carry upon our heads the helmet of salvation. We must wear the breastplate of righteousness. We must have our loins girded with truth. We must have our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, and with the shield of faith we must stand ready for the conflict.

3. He encouraged the people. Nehemiah “rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”

It was to Joshua, that the Lord said, “Be strong and of a good courage.” The victorious army is a confident army, a believing army, and an expectant army. What have we to fear? “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

4. He disconcerted the enemy. When the enemy heard that their strategy was known to Nehemiah and to the Jews, and that their plans had been brought to nought, they knew not which way to go. So it was that the Jews returned to their work.

V. A NOVEL WAY TO TOIL (Neh 4:16-18)

When Nehemiah discovered the treachery of his adversaries, from that time on he placed half of the people to build the wall, and the other half to bear the shields, spears, and bows. Some went forth to work; others were ready for war. In fact, those who toiled had swords at their right sides. They would not be caught napping.

Beloved, we wonder how many of us in this enlightened day would be willing to risk so much, and to toil under such difficulties. These Jews, for the glory of God and the good of their people, never gave up.

1. They were ready to rally at the trumpet sound. In Neh 4:18 we read “For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.” Thus it was that Nehemiah said to the nobles, the rulers, and to the rest of the people, “We are separated upon the wall, one far from another.” For he said, “In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us.”

As they wrought, they listened, that in case the trumpet should sound they might drop their implements of toil and seize their swords. All of this made the enemies afraid to attack them. They wanted to come upon them unawares. They wanted to find the people unarmed, but when they saw them ready for battle, the fear of God fell upon them.

2. They were robed and ready day and night. This is described in Neh 4:21-23. They watched as they worked, then, when the stars appeared and night came on, everyone lodged within the city walls, and they slept in their garments, ready to leap forth at a moment’s notice. None of them took off their clothes save when they put them off for washing. Let us be so prepared in our service for the Lord.

VI. DIFFICULTIES WITHIN (Neh 5:1-3; Neh 5:6-7)

Some one has said that the enemies without the walls may be easily overcome, but when the enemies enter within the walls, then there is danger indeed.

1. Dealing unjustly with their brethren. Nehemiah was about to discover an inside condition which was most deplorable. As the days went on a great cry came from the people. The wives of the common people also cried out. Nehemiah was alarmed when it became known to him that the nobles and the rulers were exacting usury from their brethren. They were demanding liens upon their property, and the Jews were in a terrible plight. They were paying taxes to their enemies, the Gentiles, and they were paying taxes to their own rulers and nobles.

2. Dissensions and ravings. This inside condition caused a great cry. The people felt that they were being sold into bondage. They felt themselves unable to redeem their lands and their vineyards. They cried out against those who had authority over them.

3. Cleaning up on the inside. In Neh 5:6-9 we find how Nehemiah immediately set out to correct the sins of the people who had placed their own brethren under bondage. God gave him the victory, and the rulers said, “We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest.”

Is it not often true in our churches that when we seek to stand together against sin and Satan, that then the devil somehow or other will begin to stir up strife inside the ranks of the faithful? May God help us that we may be clean in our conduct one toward another.

VII. SINS REPROACHED (Neh 5:9)

Nehemiah said unto the Children of Israel, “It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?” Beloved, the eyes of the Lord are upon us, but so also are the eyes of the world.

1. The checkered history of the Jews. Perhaps no chapter in the Bible more clearly sets forth the inside corruption of the Jews than that of Eze 36:1-38. Had Israel remained true in her own light, God never would have allowed her to be conquered by her enemies. Israel, however, allowed sin to take a deep root within her own portals, so God cast her off.

We read in Eze 36:17, “When the House of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before Me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore I poured My fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, * * and I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries.” What did Israel do? They profaned God’s holy Name among the nations.

Let us now look at the Church for a moment.

God called the Church out of the nations. He called us to be a special people unto Himself, a chosen generation, and a holy nation. He wanted us to be a light shining forth in the night.

What do we see? The Church itself is corrupted. In many places it is difficult to distinguish between the Church and the world. Professing Christians live as the world lives. Thus, the Church, whose mission it was to exalt the Name of Christ, has profaned His Name among all the nations.

In the case of Nehemiah and the Jews of his day, they straightened out and cleaned up, and God was with them. This will be true of Israel once more, for God will take out their stony heart, and give them a heart of flesh, and they who have profaned His Name will glorify His Name. May God grant that the Church may shake off the dust from her garments and step forth once more as a people separated unto God walking in righteousness and true holiness.

AN ILLUSTRATION

A SWORD NOT TO BE JUDGED BY THE BELT

Israel’s sword was for use, not for display. We remember Mr. Spurgeon’s words: “‘We do not judge a sword to be good merely because it hangs by a golden belt, or because it is set in a jeweled hilt.’ Neither is a doctrine to be valued because a fine orator delivers it in gorgeous speech with glittering words. A lie is none the better for being bespangled with poetic phrases and high-sounding periods. Yet half our people forget this, and glittering oratory fascinates them. Alas, poor simpletons!

The same blunders are made about men, who should ever be esteemed according to their native worth, and not according to their position and office. What mistakes we should make if we considered all the hangers-on of great men to be themselves great, or all the followers of good men to be themselves necessarily good. Alas! the Lord Himself had His Judas, and to this day swords of brittle metal hang at the golden girdle of His Church. A man is not a saint because he occupies a saintly office, or repeats saintly words.

No; the test of a sword’s goodness is to be found in battle. Will its edge turn in the fray, or will it cut through a coat of mail? Will our faith bear affliction? Will it stand us in good stead when we are hand to hand with the enemy? Will it avail us in the dying hour? If not, we may suspend it on the glittering belt of great knowledge, and hold it by the jeweled hilt of a high profession; but woe unto us!

Lord, give me the true Jerusalem blade of childlike faith in Thee, and may I never rest content with a mere imitation thereof.”

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

Neh 2:1. In the month Nisan Which answers to part of our March and April. So that there were almost four months between the time of his hearing the fore-mentioned sad tidings respecting the defenceless condition in which Jerusalem lay, and his requesting leave of the king to go thither. The reason of this long delay might be, either that his turn of attending upon the king did not come till that time; or, that till then he wanted a fit opportunity to move it to him. That wine was before him He was at dinner or supper, and called for wine, which was ready for him. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence But always appeared cheerful and well pleased, as young men, so advanced, are wont to do.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Neh 2:1. Nisan. See the chronology, Exodus 12. Artaxerxes was well disposed towards the Jews. He had sent Ezra to Jerusalem in the seventh year of his reign; he now sends Nehemiah in the twentieth year, and with a larger commission.

Neh 2:6. The queen also sitting by. Menochius supposes this queen to be Esther, whose interest contributed towards the grant of Nehemiahs commission: and as he made very great haste in raising the walls of the city, it is highly probable that he returned to Shushan according to the set time, and procured a permanent commission to govern the Jews. We find him appointed to this government in the same year, and he continued in it twelve years: Neh 5:14. He then returned to the king, and shortly afterwards went again to Jerusalem: Neh 13:6-7.

Neh 2:7. Let letters be given me, without which he could not pass the fortified places; nor receive assistance from the Persian garrisons.

Neh 2:8. The kings forest, his hunting seat, connected with a palace and parks of pleasure. Xenophon names the kings of Babylon as hunting the boars in their forests.

Neh 2:9. The river, the Euphrates.

Neh 2:13. The gate of the valley of Jehoshaphat, through which the brook Kedron flows, and receives the foul waters of the Gihon, after washing the streets of the city.

Neh 2:14. The gate of the fountain, of Siloam.

Neh 2:15. By the brook, Kedron. Thus he went all round the city, and entered at the gate of the valley through which he went out: Neh 2:13.

REFLECTIONS.

Nehemiah having gained the favour of heaven, awaited opportunity till his daily prayer, and frequent fasting, should attract the attention of the king. God in regard to providential blessings may seem slow to help his people, but his help is happily timed. Nehemiah was a man of great prudence and modesty. Not willing to obtrude himself precipitately on the royal notice, his dejected appearance, a natural consequence of his grief, spoke for him, even before a fit opportunity, as he thought, presented to urge his supplication. This was most evidently an answer to prayer. And when the king enquired the cause of his dejection, he said it was because his fathers sepulchres and the walls of the city lay in ruins, reciting at the same time the particulars of those calamities which had originated in the revocation of the edict of Cyrus, obtained by the malice and falsehoods of Sanballat and others. Grace harmonizes with prudence, but is opposed to obstinacy and folly.

Having before seen that the zeal of Nehemiah was disinterested, we here see that it was free from ostentation. He came to Jerusalem as a private person, though accustomed to the pomp of so great a court. He spent three days in acquainting himself with the situation of his people, and surveyed the fortifications by night to avoid the notice of the enemies spies. Having now availed himself of perfect information, and arranged his plans, he assembled the elders and priests, and told them of the good hand of God, in the renewal of Cyruss grant. This was a burst of glad tidings to the afflicted. Overpowered with joy, their hearts kindled with a hallowed patriotic flame, and they said with one voice, Let us rise up and build. Little till now did this poor and despised city think what a friend the Lord had sent from the east. While they slept, little did they dream who was perambulating their demolished walls, and fired gates; and little did they imagine the strong defence he was about to throw round the Zion of God. Just so Christ comes more especially in seasons of affliction to his church. He surveys at a hopeless time the low and dejected state of Zion, and opens the rich designs of grace that he may revive his people with joy, and prompt every soul to energy and zeal in his work. Oh how valuable are the spiritual and the temporal shepherds of the Lords flock. They built the wall, without acquainting the wicked with it. Zion shall flourish, while Samaria shall grieve.

Sanballat in Samaria, and other governors, who had wished to keep Zion in servitude, heard of the great works by actions rather than words; and they laughed at the efforts of the people, for they intended to demolish the works as before. But while they laughed, and hoped, they secretly grieved, and were haunted with despair. Hence their first efforts were to throw discouragements on the work by accusations of revolt against the king. The sight of Israels prosperity was insupportable to their pride. In the artifice, malice, and persecution of those wicked men, we have a general portrait of the enemies of the church. And as God frustrated all their foul designs, so he will be the help and defence of his people in every age of the world. Their hope is to ruin the work of the Lord, when it does not accord with their interest; but the ruin shall recoil on their own heads, and in blots of shame which cannot be wiped away. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; they shall gnash with their teeth; the desire of the wicked shall fail.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Neh 1:11 b Neh 2:8. Nehemiah Receives Permission from Artaxerxes to Go to Jerusalem and Rebuild the City Walls.

Neh 1:1. the twentieth year of Artaxerxes: 444 B.C.I had not been aforetime sad: this cannot be got out of the Heb. which says simply I was not sad; the meaning would appear to be that Nehemiah, knowing as a courtier that it was contrary to usage at court for a royal servant to appear sad in the presence of the king, had determined that he would not offend in this manner even though he had received the bad news about his brethren in Judah; nevertheless, his looks betrayed him in spite of his resolution; hence his words, then I was very sore afraid when the king noticed this. To the best of his knowledge Nehemiah had not appeared sad.

Neh 1:2. And the king said . . .: better, nevertheless the king said. . . .

Neh 1:3. Let the king live for ever: cf. Dan 2:4; Dan 3:9.

Neh 1:6. For how long shall . . .: Neh 5:14*.

Neh 1:8. the castle: cf. Neh 7:2; the word in Heb., birah, is a loan-word, perhaps from the Babylonian; in the Greek it is called baris, so too, by Josephus. This castle was intended as a defence for the Temple (the house). That Nehemiah should have had all these particulars ready to explain to the king without ever having been in Jerusalem is not easy to account for. Probably the Chroniclers hand has to some extent filled in the details.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

This exercise of Nehemiah continued for four months following the information he received, and finally came to a head in the month Nisan (corresponding to March or April), when Nehemiah was serving wine to the king and the king observed that his face was sad (v. 1). When the king asked him why he was sad, he became dreadfully afraid, for one to appear to be sad in the presence of the king might be considered a mortal offense, and a proud king may have condemned to death such a person.

However, Artaxerxes was not so arrogant a men, but kindly considerate, and when Nehemiah told him, “Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs lies waste, and its gates burned with fire?” (v. 3), this immediately awakened the king’s sympathies. He knew well what Nehemiah was talking about, for he himself had authorized Ezra to go to Jerusalem with the object of furnishing the temple. More than this, God was answering the prayer of Nehemiah, though he had waited for some time for the answer. We too may have to wait for answers, but waiting on God is an exercise necessary to strengthen our faith.

It must have been a surprise to Nehemiah to have the king ask him, “What do you request?” (v. 4). Immediately Nehemiah prayed a short, involuntary prayer (of course not audibly), and made his request, “If it please the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to he city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it” (v. 5). The king made no objection to this, though he asked how long Nehemiah would require for this project, for he wanted him to return. Nehemiah set him a time, though we are not told what it was, nor does Nehemiah record anything of his later return to Shushan. The wall was rebuilt in the short space of 52 days, however (ch. 6:15). How long after this Nehemiah remained in Jerusalem we are not told.

When Nehemiah saw that the king was favorable to him, he was emboldened to ask that the king would give him letters to the authorities in the territories through which he would pass, and also “a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy” (v. 8). It is good to see that Nehemiah realized that the king’s approval of this was due to “the good hand of my God upon me.”

The king also sent an escort of army captains and horsemen with Nehemiah (v. 9). It is not recorded that Nehemiah asked for this. Ezra before him says, “I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, ‘The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him'” (Ezr 8:22). But since Nehemiah was given this escort without requesting it, then it would have been unseemly for him to refuse it. No doubt he regarded this as connected with the Lord’s promise for his protection. Likely he took less time for his journey than Ezra did, who had a large company with him; also the soldiers and horsemen would be able to travel more swiftly.

Immediately Nehemiah arrived at Jerusalem, however, there was a threat of opposition, for we read that Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official “were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel” (v. 10). These enemies of God were anxious to keep Israel in a state of misery, just as Satan desires to keep believers from enjoying the blessing of the Lord.

NEHEMIAH INSPECTS THE WALLS

(vv. 11-16)

It was three days before Nehemiah began the labor he had come for. He would require some rest after so long a journey, and it is important for us too to cultivate a restful spirit before embarking on any service for the Lord. Also, he did not begin publicly. By night he took only a few men with him to view the walls and gates of the city, not telling any of the officials of the city what he was doing (vv. 12-16). But he was concerned to find precisely what would be necessary in the project before him.

In Nehemiah’s inspection of the walls and gates of Jerusalem, he found that the report he had heard was correct: the walls were broken down and the gates burned with fire. What a picture of the wall of separation between believers and unbelievers being broken down, and the principles of truth such as are seen in the gates (to allow in what should be in and to keep out what should be out) burned, that is, willfully destroyed! Do we see such things in professing Christendom today? Sadly, it is true practically everywhere! Can we repair these walls and gates? Certainly not in all of Christendom; but we can do so in whatever small sphere of responsibility the Lord may give to us.

ENCOURAGED AND RESPONSIVE

(vv. 17-20).

Receiving the knowledge he had, Nehemiah did not delay to urge the city officials that the walls should be immediately rebuilt. They knew the conditions that existed, and he encouraged them by telling them, “Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem.” He would be fully with them in this worthy endeavor. He told them also of God’s good hand upon him in the concern God had put in his heart, and also in the favorable words of the king to him encouraging this work. The Lord had also prepared the officials, for they responded, “Let us rise up and build” (v. 18), and “set their hands to this good work.” How good it is when the saints of God are prepared to act upon God’s word delivered by a true servant of God.

However, this spirit of obedience to God awakened further enmity in the forces of Satan. Sanballat and Tobiah were joined by another man, Geshem the Arab, this time not only expressing feigned sorrow, but mocking and despising the Jews for doing work like this (v. 19). They even accused them of rebelling against the king, a totally false accusation, for the king had encouraged the building of the wall. But Satan will resort to every kind of falsehood to gain his own ends.

Nehemiah did not, however, appeal to the fact of the king’s approval, but went higher than the king to answer them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us: therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem” (v. 20). Thus the enemy was put to silence for the time being.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

THE PREPARATION OF THE WAY.

Nehemiah 2

In the first chapter we have seen the secret exercises by which the vessel is fitted for the special work in hand. Now we are to see the good hand of God in preparing the way before His servant.

Before receiving an answer to his prayer, Nehemiah has to wait for a period of four months. God’s people must not only pray, but watch unto prayer. God hears and God answers, but it will be in God’s own time and God’s own way. And God’s answers often come in a manner, and at a moment, little expected by ourselves.

Nehemiah was pursuing his everyday duties as cupbearer to the king when the opportunity is given to open his heart before his royal master. Seizing the occasion, he tells the king that the sadness of his face reflects the sorrow of his heart, for he says, “The city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire.” The king, apparently interested, at once replies, “For what dost thou make request?”

This brings to the front a fine feature in the character of Nehemiah – his habitual dependence upon God. After four months exercise before God, Nehemiah surely knew what he desired; nevertheless, before expressing his desire, he tells us that he “prayed to God of heaven.” Then it was that he replied to the king on earth, and asks to be sent to Jerusalem to build the walls. In reply the king grants his request, sets him a time, and gives him letters to the governors and the keeper of the king’s forest to help forward the work. At once Nehemiah recognises that the ready compliance of the king was the result of the good hand of God. Before making his request Nehemiah had turned to God, and now that his request is granted he acknowledges the good hand of God. We may remember to turn to God in our difficulties and forget to acknowledge the goodness of God when they are met. It is well to enter a difficulty in a spirit of prayer, and to come out of it in a spirit of praise (1-8).

The details of Nehemiah’s journey to Jerusalem follow. He is accompanied by captains of the king’s army and horsemen. We are expressly told that the king sent the captains and the horsemen, not that Nehemiah had asked for them. Nehemiah was travelling as the king’s cup-bearer, and probably the king was thinking more of his dignity than of Nehemiah’s safety. Even so, God can use the dignity of a king and the requirements of royalty to provide for the welfare of His servants. That the circumstances demanded some such protection is manifest, for we are at once told of the enemies of God’s people who are grieved exceedingly that a man had come to seek the welfare of God’s people (9, 10).

It is noticeable that as dispensations wear to their close, there is less and less public intervention on part of God. Israel’s six hundred thousand take their journey from Egypt to Canaan accompanied by the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night; and every stage of that wondrous journey is marked by miraculous interventions of God. It is far otherwise in the days of Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. They, too, take their several wilderness journeys from the land of captivity to the land of Jehovah, but no visible and overshadowing cloud protects them by day, and no pillar of fire lights their way by night. They must be content to use the ordinary means of travel such as the time and country supply. Moreover, as the days advance, the outward circumstances grow weaker. Zerubbabel leads back a goodly company of forty-two thousand; with Ezra there are only one thousand and eight hundred, and now Nehemiah must be content to travel alone. In his day if any escaped from captivity, it was as solitary individuals. Yet if there are no outward and direct interventions of God, if the circumstances are weak, it becomes a greater occasion for the exercise of faith. Hence we see faith becomes brighter as the day becomes darker.

Arrived at Jerusalem, Nehemiah tarries three days. He has a great and serious work before him, and he will take no precipitate action nor show undue haste. He is about to bear testimony to the distress of God’s people and the ruined condition of Jerusalem. He is about to arouse the people of God to action, and direct them in their work. But he must first witness for himself the desolations against which he is to bear witness, so that he may do so in the spirit of the Servant who at a later date could say, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.”

Thus it came to pass that Nehemiah arose by night and some few men with him, and without informing others of what God had put in his heart to do, he makes his way to the gate of the valley, and from different points he “viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down,” and the gates that were consumed with fire. He will acquaint himself with the extent of the ruin. He pursued this mid-night journey until there was no place to pass. Faced with such desolation the natural heart might well conclude the case to be hopeless, beyond the power of man to remedy. For man, as such, it was indeed hopeless; but God had put it into the heart of Nehemiah to undertake this work, and God can enable a man to carry out that which he puts into the heart to do. It was the assurance that God had given him this work to do that was the secret of Nehemiah’s power. There was no need to consult with any man about a work that God had given him to do. Counsel from men could add nothing to God, but might well weaken and discourage Nehemiah. Men would probably have told him that it would be wiser to let the matter alone, he would only distress himself by looking at the ruin, and stir up trouble among the people of God, and opposition against them, by attempting to rebuild the walls. Thus it was that Nehemiah takes his night journey in secret, to acquaint himself with the desolations of Jerusalem, and neither the rulers, nor the people, knew whither he went or what he did (11-16).

Having made his inspection the time has come to speak before the elders. He bears witness to the distress of the people, and the desolations of Jerusalem with its walls waste and its gates burned, and he encourages them to arise and build the walls that reproach be removed from the people of God (17).

Moreover Nehemiah tells them the hand of God was good upon him. The hand of God in government had used Nebuchadnezzar to break down the walls and burn the gates, but the hand of God in goodness was upon Nehemiah to build the walls and set up the gates. Having heard of the hand of God the rulers say, “Let us rise up and build.” “So they strengthened their hands for this good work.” Nothing will so strengthen our hands for a good work as the recognition of God’s hand directing the work. God has put it into the heart of one man to do the work, and now God strengthens their hands to carry out the work (18).

But, alas, there are others who are ready to oppose the building of the walls, and such treat Nehemiah and his companions with scorn and contempt. The leader in this opposition is not a heathen but a Samaritan (Neh 4:1; Neh 4:2), one whose religion was a corrupt mixture of idolatry and the worship of Jehovah. In the eyes of the world he would doubtless be viewed, according to his profession, as a true worshipper of Jehovah. Nehemiah, however, is not deceived, for he says, “Ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem” (19).

As then, so now, the greatest opposition to the maintenance of separation between the world and the people of God comes from the professing Christian who is in alliance with enemies of God’s people.

Nehemiah, however is not to be laughed out of carrying out God’s work, nor deterred by the contempt of men. Nehemiah realizes that if the men of the world oppose, the God of heaven will prosper the work (20).

In our day also, may we not say, that in spite of the ruin and desolation among the people of God, and In spite of all opposition, those who seek to build the walls and set up the gates for the maintenance of the holiness of God’s house, will have the God of heaven to prosper them?

Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible

2:1 And it came to pass in the month {a} Nisan, in the twentieth year of {b} Artaxerxes the king, [that] wine [was] before him: and I took up the wine, and gave [it] unto the king. Now I had not been [beforetime] sad in his presence.

(a) Which was the first month of the year, and contains part of March and part of April.

(b) Who is also called Darius, Ezr 7:1 and was the son of Hystaspis.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

3. The request of Nehemiah 2:1-8

Nehemiah prayed for four months about conditions in Jerusalem before he spoke to Artaxerxes about them (cf. Neh 1:1; Neh 2:1). Artaxerxes’ reign began in the seventh Jewish month, Tishri (late September and early October), of 464 B.C. [Note: Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, pp. 28-30, 161.] Therefore Nehemiah presented his request in late March or early April of 444 B.C.

Nehemiah was probably very fearful (Neh 2:2) because Artaxerxes could have interpreted sadness in his presence as dissatisfaction with the king (cf. Est 4:2). [Note: J. Carl Laney, Ezra and Nehemiah, p. 77.]

"Persian works of art such as the great treasury reliefs from Persepolis indicate that those who came into the king’s presence did so with great deference, placing the right hand with palm facing the mouth so as not to defile the king with one’s own breath . . ." [Note: Edwin Yamauchi, "Ezra-Nehemiah," in 1 Kings-Job, vol. 4 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 684.]

Nehemiah realized that the moment had arrived for him to ask Artaxerxes to revise his official policy toward Jerusalem (Neh 1:11; Ezr 4:21). This too could have incurred the king’s displeasure. Nehemiah’s walk with God is evident in that he talked to God as he was conversing with the king (Neh 2:4; cf. 1Th 5:17). Neh 2:4 contains a beautiful example of spontaneous prayer, one of the best in the Bible.

"One of the most striking characteristics of Nehemiah was his recourse to prayer (cf. Neh 4:4; Neh 4:9; Neh 5:19; Neh 6:9; Neh 6:14; Neh 13:14)." [Note: Ibid., p. 685.]

"Quick prayers are possible and valid if one has prayed sufficiently beforehand. In this case Nehemiah’s prayer is evidence of a life lived in constant communion with God. Nehemiah had prayed for months, but he knew he was completely dependent on God’s work in the king’s heart at this moment." [Note: Breneman, p. 176.]

Divine working and human planning are not necessarily contradictory.

"Prayer is where planning starts." [Note: J. White, Excellence in Leadership, p. 35.]

Nehemiah returned to Artaxerxes 12 years after the king had appointed him governor of Judah (Neh 5:14; Neh 13:6). Nevertheless he may have also gone back sooner than that (Neh 2:6). One writer calculated the date of Artaxerxes’ decree to rebuild Jerusalem as March 5, 444 B.C. [Note: Harold W. Hoehner, "Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and New Testament Chronology," Bibliotheca Sacra 132:525 (January-March 1975):64.]

"This date marks the beginning of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks (Dan 9:24-27). Sixty-nine of those seventy weeks (173,880 days) were literally fulfilled when Jesus entered Jerusalem, presented Himself at His ’royal entry’ as Israel’s messiah, on March 30, A.D. 33. The prophecy of Daniel was fulfilled to the very day (cf. Luk 19:40-42). The seventieth week of Daniel, the Tribulation (cf. Mat 24:4-28; Revelation 6-19), will find its fulfillment in the future." [Note: Laney, pp. 78-79.]

The fortress by the temple (Neh 2:8) was a citadel that stood just north of the temple. Its name in Hebrew was Birah (or in Greek, Baris). It was the forerunner of the Antonia Fortress that Herod the Great built and to which Luke referred in the Book of Acts (Act 21:37; Act 22:24). [Note: See Dan Bahat, "Jerusalem Down Under: Tunneling along Herod’s Temple Mount Wall," Biblical Archaeology Review 21:6 (November-December 1995):45-46. This interesting article walks the reader through archaeological discoveries along the Western Wall of Herod’s Temple Mount from south to north.]

". . . there were good political reasons for Artaxerxes to grant Nehemiah’s request. Inaros had led a revolt in Lower Egypt in the late 460s, aided and abetted by Athens. The Persians had largely squashed this rebellion by 455, but pockets of resistance held out in the delta marshes thereafter. Then, early in the 440s, Megabyxos had led a revolt in Syria, which was probably put down just before Nehemiah made his request. Also, just about 445 the Athenians negotiated the Peace of Kallias with the Persians and hostilities between the two powers ceased. At this point in time Artaxerxes certainly recognized that a stronger Judah populated by loyal Jews would help to bring greater stability to Syria and would provide a bulwark on the border with Egypt." [Note: Vos. p. 91.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

THE PRAYER ANSWERED

Neh 2:1-8

NEHEMIAHS prayer had commenced on celestial heights of meditation among thoughts of Divine grace and glory, and when it had stooped to earth it had swept over the wide course of his nations history and poured out a confession of the whole peoples sin, but the final point of it was a definite request for the prospering of his contemplated interview with the king. Artaxerxes was an absolute despot, surrounded with the semi-divine honours that Orientals associate with the regal state, and yet in speaking of him before “the God of heaven,” “the great and terrible God,” Nehemiah loses all awe for his majestic pomp, and describes him boldly as “this man.” {Neh 1:10-11} In the supreme splendour of Gods presence all earthly glory fades out of the worshippers sight, like a glow-worms spark lost in the sunlight. Therefore no one can be dazzled by human magnificence so long as he walks in the light of God. Here, however, Nehemiah is speaking of an absent king. Now it is one thing to be fearless of man when alone with God in the seclusion of ones own chamber, and quite another to be equally imperturbable in the world and away from the calming influence of undisturbed communion with Heaven. We must remember this if we would do justice to Nehemiah, because otherwise we might be surprised that his subsequent action did not show all the courage we should have expected.

Four months passed away before Nehemiah attempted anything on behalf of the city of his fathers. The Jewish travellers probably thought that their visit to the court servant had been barren of all results. We cannot tell how this interval was occupied, but it is clear that Nehemiah was brooding over his plans all the time, and inwardly fortifying himself for his great undertaking. His ready reply when he was suddenly and quite unexpectedly questioned by the king shows that he had made the troubles of Jerusalem a subject of anxious thought, and that he had come to a clear decision as to the course which he should pursue. Time spent in such fruitful thinking is by no means wasted. There is a hasty sympathy that flashes up at the first sign of some great public calamity, eager “to do something,” but too blind in its impetuosity to consider carefully what ought to be done, and this is often the source of greater evils, because it is inconsiderate. In social questions especially people are tempted to be misled by a blind, impatient philanthropy. The worst consequence of yielding to such an influence-and one is strongly urged to yield for fear of seeming cold and indifferent-is that the certain disappointment that follows is likely to provoke despair of all remedies, and to end in cynical callousness. Then, in the rebound, every enthusiastic effort for the public good is despised as but the froth of sentimentality.

Very possibly Nehemiah had no opportunity of speaking to the king during these four months. A Persian sovereign was waited on by several cupbearers, and it is likely enough that Nehemiahs terms of service were intermittent. On his return to the court in due course he may have had the first occasion for presenting his petition. Still it is not to be denied that he found great difficulty in bringing himself to utter it, and then only when it was dragged out of him by the king. It was a petition of no common kind. To request permission to leave the court might be misconstrued unfavourably. Herodotus says that people had been put to death both by Darius and by Xerxes for showing reluctance to accompany their king. Then had not this very Artaxerxes sanctioned the raid upon Jerusalem which had resulted in the devastation which Nehemiah deplored and which he desired to see reversed? If the king remembered his rescript to the Syrian governors, might he not regard a proposal for the reversal of its policy as a piece of unwarrantable impertinence on the part of his household slave-nay, as an indication of treasonable designs? All this would be apparent enough to Nehemiah as he handed the wine-cup on bended knee to the Great King. Is it wonderful then that he hesitated to speak, or that he was “very sore afraid” when the king questioned him about his sadness of countenance?

There is an apparent contradiction in Nehemiahs statement concerning this sad appearance of his countenance which is obscured in our English translation by the unwarrantable insertion of the word “beforetime” in Neh 2:1, so that the sentence reads, “Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.” This word is a gloss of the translators. What Nehemiah really says is simply, “Now I had not been sad in his presence”-a statement that evidently refers to the occasion then being described, and not to previous times nor to the cup-bearers habitual bearing. Yet in the very next sentence we read how the king asked Nehemiah the reason for the sadness of his countenance. The contradiction would be as apparent to the writer as it is to us, and if he left it Nehemiah meant it to stand, no doubt intending to suggest by a dramatic description of the scene that he attempted to disguise his sorrow, but that his attempt was ineffectual-so strong, so marked was his grief. It was a rule of the court etiquette, apparently, that nobody should be sad in the kings presence. A gloomy face would be unpleasant to the monarch. Shakespeares Caesar knew the security of cheerful associates when he said:-

“Let me have men about me that are fat,

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o nights;

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;

He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.”

Besides, was not the sunshine of the royal countenance enough to drive away all clouds of trouble from the minds of his attendants? Nehemiah had drilled himself into the courtiers habitual pleasantness of demeanour. Nevertheless, though passing, superficial signs of emotion may be quite reined in by a person who is trained to control his features, indications of the permanent conditions of the inner life are so deeply cut in the lines and curves of the countenance that the most consummate art of an actor cannot disguise them. Nehemiahs grief was profound and enduring. Therefore he could not hide it. Moreover, it is a kings business to understand men, and long practice makes him an expert in it. So Artaxerxes was not deceived by the well-arranged smile of his servant; it was evident to him that something very serious was troubling the man. The sickness of a favourite attendant would not be unknown to a kind and observant king. Nehemiah was not ill, then. The source of his trouble must have been mental. Sympathy and curiosity combined to urge the king to probe the matter to the bottom. Though alarmed at his masters inquiry, the trembling cup-bearer could not but give a true answer. Here was his great opportunity-thrust on him since he had not had the courage to find it for himself. Artaxerxes was not to be surprised that a man should grieve when the city of his ancestors was lying desolate. But this information did not satisfy the king. His keen eye saw that there was more behind. Nehemiah had some request which as yet he had not been daring enough to utter. With real kindness Artaxerxes invited him to declare it.

The critical moment had arrived. How much hangs upon the next sentence – not the continuance of the royal favour only, but perhaps the very life of the speaker, and, what is of far more value to a patriot, the future destiny of his people! Nehemiahs perception of its intense importance is apparent in the brief statement which he here inserts in his narrative: “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” {Neh 2:4} He is accustomed to drop in suggestive notes on his own private feelings and behaviour along the course of his narrative. Only a few lines earlier we came upon one of these characteristic autobiographical touches in the words, “Now I had not been sad in his presence,” {Neh 2:1} soon followed by another, “Then I was very sore afraid.” {Neh 2:2} Such remarks vivify the narrative, and keep up an interest in the writer. In the present case the interjection is peculiarly suggestive. It was natural that Nehemiah should be startled at the kings abrupt question, but it is an indication of his devout nature that as the crisis intensified his fear passed over into prayer. This was not a set season of prayer; the pious Jew was not in his temple, nor at any proseuche; there was no time for a full, elaborate, and orderly utterance, such as that previously recorded. Just at the moment of need, in the very presence of the king, with no time to spare, by a flash of thought, Nehemiah retires to that most lonely of all lonely places, “the inner city of the mind,” there to seek the help of the Unseen God. And it is enough; the answer is as swift as the prayer; in a moment the weak man is made strong for his great effort.

Such a sudden uplifting of the soul to God is the most real of all prayers. This at least is genuine and heartfelt, whatever may be the case with the semiliturgical composition the thought and beauty of which engaged our attention in the previous chapter. But then the man who can thus find God in a moment must be in the habit of frequently resorting to the Divine Presence; like the patriarchs, he must be walking with God. The brief and sudden prayer reaches heaven as an arrow suddenly shot from the bow, but it goes right home, because he who lets it off in his surprise is a good marksman, well practised. This ready prayer only springs to the lips of a man who lives in a daily habit of praying. We must associate the two kinds of prayer in order to account for that which is now before us. The deliberate exercises of adoration, confession, and petition prepare for the one sudden ejaculation. There we see the deep river which supplies the sea of devotion from which the momentary prayer is cast up as the spray of a wave. Therefore it was in a great measure on account of his deliberate and unwearying daily prayers that Nehemiah was prepared with his quick cry to God in the crisis of need. We may compare his two kinds of prayer with our Lords full and calm intercession in Joh 17:1-26 and the short agonised cry from the cross. In each case we feel that the sudden appeal to God in the moment of dire necessity is the most intense and penetrating prayer. Still we must recognise that this comes from a man who is much in prayer. The truth is that beneath both of these prayers-the calm, meditative utterance, and the simple cry for help-there lies the deep, true essence of prayer, which is no thing of words at all, but which lives on, even when it is voiceless, in the heart of one of whom it can be said, as Tennyson says of Mary, –

“Her eyes are homes of silent prayer.”

Fortified by his moments communion with God, Nehemiah now makes known his request. He asks to be sent to Jerusalem to repair its ruins and fortify the city. This petition contains more than lies on the surface of the words. Nehemiah does not say that he wishes to be appointed Governor of Jerusalem in the high office which had been held by Zerubbabel, but the subsequent narrative shows that he was assigned to this position, and his report of the kings orders about the house he was to dwell in at Jerusalem almost implies as much. {Neh 2:8} For one of the royal household servants to be appointed to such a position was doubtless not so strange an anomaly in the East, in Nehemiahs day, as it would be with us now. The kings will was the fountain of all honour, and the seclusion in which the Persian monarchs lived gave unusual opportunities for the few personal attendants who were admitted into their presence to obtain great favours from them. Still Nehemiahs attitude seems to show some self-confidence in a young man not as yet holding any political office. Two or three considerations, however, will give a very different complexion to his request. In the first place, his city was in a desperate plight, deliverance was urgently needed, no help appeared to be forthcoming unless he stepped into the breach. If he failed, things could hardly become worse than they were already. Was this an occasion when a man should hold back from a sense of modesty? There is a false modesty which is really a product of the self-consciousness that is next door to vanity. The man who is entirely oblivious of self will sometimes forget to be modest. Moreover, Nehemiahs request was at the peril of his life. When it was granted he would be launched on a most hazardous undertaking. The ambition-if we must use the word-which would covet such a career is at the very antipodes of that of the vulgar adventurer who simply seeks power in order to gratify his own sense of importance. “Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.” {Jer 45:5} That humbling rebuke may be needed by many men, but it was not needed by Nehemiah, for he was not seeking the great things for himself.

It was a daring request, yet the king received it most favourably. Again, then, we have the pleasing spectacle of a Persian monarch showing kindness to the Jews. This is not the first time that Artaxerxes has proved himself their friend, for there can be no doubt that he is the same sovereign as the Artaxerxes who despatched Ezra with substantial presents to the aid of the citizens of Jerusalem some twelve or thirteen years before.

Here, however, a little difficulty emerges. In the interval between the mission of Ezra and that of Nehemiah an adverse decree had been extracted from the compliant sovereign-the decree referred to in Ezr 4:1-24. Now the semi-divinity that was ascribed to a Persian monarch involved the fiction of infallibility, and this was maintained by a rule making it unconstitutional for him to withdraw any command that he had once issued. How then could Artaxerxes now sanction the building of the walls of Jerusalem, which but a few years before he had expressly forbidden? The difficulty vanishes on a very little consideration. The kings present action was not the withdrawal of his earlier decree, for the royal order to the Samaritans had been just to the effect that the building of the walls of Jerusalem should be stopped. {Ezr 4:21} This order had been fully executed; moreover it contained the significant words, “until another decree shall be made by me.” {Ezr 4:21} Therefore a subsequent permission to resume the work, issued under totally different circumstances, would not be a contradiction to the earlier order, and now that a trusty servant of the king was to superintend the operations, no danger of insurrection need be apprehended. Then the pointed notice of the fact that the chief wife-described as “The Queen”-was sitting by Artaxerxes, is evidently intended to imply that her presence helped the request of Nehemiah. Orientalists have discovered her name, Damaspia, but nothing about her to throw light on her attitude towards the Jews. She may have been even a proselyte, or she may have simply shown herself friendly towards the young cup-bearer. No political or religious motives are assigned for the conduct of Artaxerxes here. Evidently Nehemiah regarded the granting of his request as a direct result of the royal favour shown towards himself. “Put not your trust in princes” {Psa 146:3} is a wholesome warning, born of the melancholy disappointment of the pilgrims who had placed too much hope in the Messianic glamour with which the career of poor Zerubbabel opened, but it does not mean that a man is to fling away the advantages which accrue to him from the esteem he has won in high places. Ever since the Israelites showed no scruple in spoiling the Egyptians-and who could blame them for seizing at the eleventh hour the overdue wages of which they had been defrauded for generations?-“the people of God” have not been slow to reap harvests of advantage whenever persecution or cold indifference has given place to the brief, fickle favour of the world. Too often this has been purchased at the price of the loss of liberty-a ruinous exchange. Here is the critical point. The difficulty is to accept aid without any compromise of principle. Sycophancy is the besetting snare of the courtier, and when the Church turns courtier she is in imminent danger of that, in her, most fatal fault. But Nehemiah affords a splendid example to the contrary. In his grand independence of character we have a fine instance of a wise, strong use of worldly advantages, entirely free from the abuses that too commonly accompany them. Thus he anticipates the idea of the Apocalypse where it is said, “The earth helped the woman.” {Rev 12:16}

The interest of the king in his cup-bearer is shown by his repeated questions, and by the determined manner in which he drags out of Nehemiah all his plans and wishes. Every request is granted. The favourite servant is too much valued to get his leave of absence without some limit of time, but even that is fixed in accordance with Nehemiahs desire. He asks and obtains letters of introduction to the governors west of the Euphrates. The letters were most necessary, because these very men had bestirred themselves to obtain the adverse decree but a very few years before. It is not likely that they had all veered round to favour the hated people against whom they had just been exhibiting the most severe antagonism. Nehemiah therefore showed a wise caution in obtaining a sort of “safe conduct.” The friendliness of Artaxerxes went still further. The king ordered timber to be provided for the building and fortifying operations contemplated by his cup-bearer; this was to be furnished from a royal hunting park-a “Paradise,” to use the Persian word-probably one which formerly belonged to the royal demesne of Judah, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, as the head-forester bore a Hebrew name, “Asaph.” {Neh 2:8} Costly cedars for the temple had to be fetched all the way from the distant mountains of Lebanon, in Phoenician territory, but the city gates and the castle and house carpentry could be well supplied from the oaks and other indigenous timber of Palestine.

All these details evince the practical nature of Nehemiahs patriotism. His last word on the happy conclusion of the interview with Artaxerxes, which he had anticipated with so much apprehension, shows that higher thoughts were not crushed out by the anxious consideration of external affairs. He concludes with a striking phrase, which we have met with earlier on the lips of Ezra. {Ezr 7:28} “And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.” {Neh 2:8} Here is the same recognition of Divine Providence, and the same graphic image of the “hand” of God laid on the writer. It looks as though the younger man had been already a disciple of the Great Scribe. But his utterance is not the less genuine and heartfelt on that account. He perceives that his prayer has been heard and answered. The strength and beauty of his life throughout may be seen in his constant reference of all things to God in trust and prayer before the event, and in grateful acknowledgment afterwards.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary