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Nehemiah: Right Place, Right Time 1

CONNIE: How important are walls to the way you live? Walls that keep the bad out--or the good in? Join us today as we look at the life of Nehemiah, God's wall-builder. Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko. You know Connie, I suppose one of the greatest days in recent history had to be that day about ten years ago now, when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.

CONNIE: It certainly was a great day.

LONNIE: Oh it was awesome. Up there in the league with the man on the moon.

CONNIE: Or you know all of us remember where we were on certain days in history, and that’s one of them. As human beings, we naturally rebel against walls that restrict us or separate us, don’t we?

LONNIE: There’s a natural yearning to “breathe free.”

CONNIE: But on the other hand, walls can be a good thing--when they’re put up for protection.

LONNIE: I think anyone who’s ever had their home broken into, or been a victim of any crime, can sympathize with that. We like to have certain kinds of walls around us that keep us safe, and keep us warm during the winter.

CONNIE: Today we’re looking at the book of Nehemiah--and Nehemiah was God’s wall-builder in Jerusalem. He made it his personal responsibility to see to it that the city’s fortifications were rebuilt to protect the inhabitants.

LONNIE: To help us get a handle on the historical perspective of this book, we’re going to listen in now as Ken Wade and John Aitken review the story of Nehemiah.

KEN: Pastor John Aitken I want to welcome you to our studio today. I’ve had the privilege a number of times of sitting in a class you teach at our church, always into a lot of history aren’t you?

JOHN: Yes. You need to know background material because whenever you look at things in a vacuum, you cannot clearly define what the clear issues were.

KEN: That’s right, and you teach also in a high school setting, teach young people get them excited, and take them…

JOHN: You have to make the Bible walk and live.

KEN: You’ve often walked people through the Holy Land and other places…

JOHN: Oh yes! To see where these actual things happen.

KEN: Yeah, it really brings it to life and I appreciate that, and as we look at Nehemiah I thought, you know, probably of the books in the Bible a lot of people don’t even know when Nehemiah happened, and what is this book all about.

JOHN: Well Nehemiah was a cup bearer for the king, he was a very special…
KEN: King of the Persians

JOHN: He was very troubled when he got a report…

KEN: About what was happening in Jerusalem.

JOHN: …about what was happening to his people in Jerusalem, and the lack of progress on building the wall, and getting the temple…
KEN: Walls in shambles.

JOHN: …Back in shape again.

KEN: And the amazing thing is, this Jewish man who is serving in the court of the king of the Persian empire, goes in looking sad one day, and the king notices and he manages to persuade the king to send him to be the governor of Jerusalem.

JOHN: The Bible is full of heros like this. Who would have ever thought that a cup bearer would end up being the kind of hero, that would actually write his first person story that we have right here in scripture.

KEN: And so Artaxerxes gives a cavalry detachment, and Nehemiah heads off to Jerusalem, and it doesn’t take him long to figure out what the problem is does it?

JOHN: That’s right, and he is in the middle of a firestorm, the Samaritans are upset, and he’s got all kinds of conflicts going on, but he gets down to working within just a few days. He has the work on the wall going, and going very well.

KEN: One of the fascinating parts of the book, of course, he goes out at night; nobody knows what he’s doing, he rides his horse around the city at night you know with out a flashlight basically, and sees how bad things are. And he comes back, and the next day; this guy would have been a great motivational speaker in our day don’t you think?

JOHN: Yes, he would have been. And then once he got the program going, he turns around and says well, I’ll go back and report to the king. And he goes back home, and what he had forgotten one little thing about, was he had just arrived. And everyone of course since he was made temporary governor, he was respected. The minute he left the whole operation came to a screeching halt.

KEN: There are some big names that come up in this book. There’s Tobiah, there’s Samballat, in opposition to what Nehemiah’s doing. And when Nehemiah leaves, this is the amazing thing. Where does Tobiah end up?
JOHN: He ends up actually taking quarters in the temple itself…

KEN: Living in the temple of God. He’s the great opponent of the work that’s being done to reestablish Jerusalem. How does that kind of thing happen?

JOHN: Well you’ve got four little quarters there, of places where oil is stored, and where priests are purified and others. And it’s turned into a condo for this fellow, who has money by the way, and he would like to put his stamp on this new operation, that he sees. He’d like to get in on it.

KEN: And so…This guy I kind of picture him you know if you were watching an Indiana Jones movie. He’d be the little Arab trader that kind of comes in and greases all the wheels. And he’s, through his influence, through his family connections, through his power, he’s worked his way in. Now are there some implications in that for our day and age today?

JOHN: Indeed. It tells you how quickly you can lose sight of what the real goal is. And the goal was to reestablish Judaism to get a center, to get their culture going again, after years of dispersion, and being scattered. But he was more pragmatic. Tobiha saw himself as, hey we could establish a new economy here and we could get things rolling.

KEN: We could get business flowing for you, just tag in with my family connections here. And he was an Ammonite, and Nehemiah comes back and he reads in the law, no Ammonite is to be a part of this new economy.

JOHN: One thing that we might be able to misinterpret by reading this without the background, it’s not that Nehemiah is anti other cultures, is that he wants to establish this one culture, and he realizes the pragmatism is not going to work. Does that sound familiar in our day? Because the culture war is going on in our country here in America, the same way is what is the role of being pragmatic or doing something for this nation that’s called a godly nation.

KEN: And within the church of course, you see that sort of conflict all the time you know. Do we do what those with money say, or do we do what we think we should do what God would really have us do? Well Nehemiah’s a tremendous story of a man who stood up and said we’re going to do what’s right. Thanks very much for your commentary. Very interesting book actually when you get into the history, and a lot to learn from it.

JOHN: Oh, it’s interesting. Thank you so much.

LONNIE: That was Roxana Pavel on the violin, accompanied by her sister Monica. These two young ladies are originally from Romania, and I heard them play at our Midnight Cry evangelistic series in Chicago. They’re just teenagers, but they both have music scholarships to prestigious schools.

CONNIE: And what an appropriate song to follow Ken and John’s discussion of the Nehemiah--the wall-builder. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”
You know, Connie, we’ve studied some pretty amazing history over the past ten months on our program, as we’ve been working our way book-by-book through the historical portion of the Old Testament. And now we’re almost to the end of that section of the Bible.

CONNIE: That’s right. Nehemiah is the next-to-last book in the historical series. In two weeks we’ll be looking at the last historical book, Esther, and we’ve decided to put all 17 of these programs together in a package on CD and cassette to share with our listeners.

LONNIE: That’s a little bit of a bonus from our original announcement two weeks ago--we thought we’d only put 16 programs on, but we’ve tucked Esther in as well, and the price is still the same. All 17 programs for just $32.00--less than $2.00 per program.

CONNIE: I’ve got to say, Lonnie, that this series has been very educational--and inspirational--for me. It’s given me a much better grasp of the Old Testament than I’ve ever had before.

LONNIE: It’s been a great experience for me, too. I feel like we’ve been able to draw on the core message of each book and show how each one fits in the salvation story.

CONNIE: Putting all these programs together in a package creates a great resource for anyone who wants to read and understand the Old Testament.

LONNIE: You can order this program package today, at the bookstore on our website at VOP.COM, or by calling this toll-free number 1-800-872-0055.

CONNIE: Here’s the number again:1-800-872-0055, and we’ll give our mailing address at the end of the program.

LONNIE: Today we’re looking at the book of Nehemiah--a book about building walls. But are walls important in our modern world? In one sense they are, as family life specialist Kay Kuzma pointed out recently in a conversation with David Smith.

DAVID: Hi Kay, welcome to the Voice of Prophecy.

KAY: Well thank you.

DAVID: It’s always great to have you on the broadcast.

KAY: Oh, I love it.

DAVID: Listen Kay, we’re talking about walls here on our program this week, and I wanted to ask you, because I know this is your specialty. Why are walls so important in terms of having good family relationships or human relationships?

KAY: Well walls are like boundaries, that keep you from hurting others, or to keep you from allowing others to hurt you.

DAVID: O.K.

KAY: So we must have good healthy boundaries. One of the things that I was thinking about was Jesus when He was in Jerusalem at twelve years old. His mother came running in, after losing him for three days, blaming Him saying, “Why have you done this to your father and I”…

DAVID: “Don’t you know that we care”.

KAY: …and Jesus could have reacted and said, “Mom chill out, or mom your embarrassing me, or hey it’s not My fault, where have you been for three days”? But He did not react to His mother’s anger. He chose to respond, and that’s a boundary we can have, to respond to others rather than reacting, and it will be a boundary to protect us from hurting others.

DAVID: How does that actually work in terms of in the family, a parent and a child. How do you do that? Give us a hands on example.

KAY: Well when a parent gets angry, a child can even learn to smile, to say, “Mom are sure that’s what you mean”? Basically it brings the anger down to a level that you can respond too. It’s your negative emotions that are so hurtful to others, and that’s what can hurt you, and that’s what can hurt others. Here’s another example. When others are trying to hurt you, how not to let it hurt. Again from the Bible, why did Jesus say turn the other cheek?

DAVID: That’s a tough one.

KAY: Or if someone takes your tunic, give them your cloak also, or if they ask you to…

DAVID: …walk one mile, go two.

KAY: …and basically Jesus was saying, don’t let others control your life. You take control, use this as a boundary. If they ask you to walk a mile you have no choice, but you can say hey, “I’ll carry the burden for two miles”. Now you are in control, and the Lord wants us to be in control of our lives, and these are boundaries that keep us in control.

DAVID: There’s always a challenge to express appropriately that boundary, isn’t it.

KAY: Yes it is. But we can remember it’s usually our negative emotions that get us into problems. What we need to do is, learn to respond rather than react.

DAVID: Kay always a blessing to hear from you.
KAY: Thank you.

Nehemiah--Right Place, Right Time--1

At the beginning of the story, Nehemiah didn’t think he was in the right place at the right time. He wished he was somewhere else. But it turned out that he was in JUST the right place at JUST the right time. Has that ever happened to you?
Nehemiah was a servant, a descendant of people who had been forcibly removed from their homeland and held captive in a foreign country.

But somehow, despite his lowly beginnings, he had achieved a very responsible position in the court of Artaxerxes, the ruler of the powerful Persian Empire.

In fact, he served right in the presence of the king. He was called the king’s cupbearer, which was a position that required great trust. Kings were always fearful of being poisoned, so it was Nehemiah’s job to make sure that no one slipped anything suspicious into Artaxerxes’ morning glass of grape juice.

Nehemiah lived in the king’s palace in Shushan, which is in Iran today. He was living in the lap of luxury, with a cushy job that no doubt had outstanding retirement benefits.

But he wasn’t happy. Especially when he heard that things were going badly back in the homeland of his ancestors.

It was late in the fall of 445 BC that messengers arrived from Jerusalem, more than 1200 miles away. The journey they’d made was something like setting out from Albuqurque, New Mexico to walk to Los Angeles, VIA Denver, Colorado! Over hills, across deserts, through gang-infested mountain passes. They obviously were men with a mission, to have made such a journey.

They fulfilled their mission by reporting to Nehemiah that the walls of Jerusalem had recently been broken down, and the gates burned with fire. Nehemiah was shocked and dismayed. The news brought tears to his eyes. But more than that, it drove him to his knees. Notice what he did, I’m reading his account in Nehemiah 1:4:

So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (NKJV)
It was while he was fasting and praying that Nehemiah began to see God’s plan for his life--maybe God had placed him in just the right place at just the right time, after all. Could there be a way that God could use him in spite of his captivity?

Friend, there is such a great message in this Old Testament book of Nehemiah. No matter where you are, no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. No matter how distressed you are by things that are happening to you or your family or friends. God still has a purpose for you. God still can use you. If you will be like Nehemiah, who gave himself totally into God’s hands--throw yourself on the mercy of the Almighty. Weep, pray, fast, call upon the Lord as Nehemiah did. I guarantee, God has a good purpose and plan for your life.

When King Artaxerxes saw how distressed his cupbearer was, he sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem, along with a detachment of cavalry and a staff of servants. In fact, he appointed Nehemiah governor of Judah, with full authority to patch up the wall and fortify the city.

Now Nehemiah found himself really in the right place at the right time. A man of action, he soon had everyone else around him active too--on both sides of the wall!

By that I mean that he soon had his fellow-countrymen working to rebuild the wall, but that stirred up the people outside the city too. They marched up to the city in battle array, intent on stopping the reconstruction work.
But notice how Nehemiah responded. This is taken from Nehemiah 4:9:
But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. (NIV)

What a practical, balanced man. Some might say, “Oh, just pray about your problems and let God take care of them.” You know, “Let go and let God.”
Others might say “Now’s no time for prayer, we need to keep our eyes open all the time!”

But not Nehemiah. He believed in the power of prayer, but he didn’t just leave it at that. He armed his workmen. “I posted my people by families,” he wrote, “armed with swords, spears, and bows” (Neh 4:13, NEB).

This combination of prayer and preparedness saved the day, and the attackers departed without shooting a single arrow. Nehemiah finished the walls in fifty-two days.

But there’s more to the story than just an account of a brave and wise builder.
Three other items come up in the book that peel back the curtain and allow us to see what made the difference--what made this man such a success.

In chapters 5 and 6 we read two stories that reveal a lot about Nehemiah. The first concerns Nehemiah’s attitude toward his opportunity to serve his people. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he discovered that many of the people were impoverished--many had been forced to mortgage their lands, and even sell their children into slavery just to pay their taxes and debts. Under those circumstances, Nehemiah chose not to use any of the revenues of the land for his own benefit. Instead he dipped into his own IRA to pay all his expenses, plus the expenses of his staff.

His faithfulness stands out in stark relief against the unfaithfulness of another group of people whom he had to deal with in Jerusalem. Notice this from Nehemiah’s prayer found in chapter 6, verse 14:

Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me. (NIV)

Now, Tobiah and Sanballat are the real bad guys of this story. They’re the men who brought their armies up to Jerusalem to try to stop the rebuilding. But notice who else was on their side: “the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets.”

Now, you would expect that when Nehemiah arrived and started rebuilding the city, all the prophets and prophetesses would have joined right in with him. But there was something peculiar about these particular prophets.

I guess you could call them prophets for profit. They had started taking pay from Tobiah and Sanballat. Their message was corrupted by the temptations of money. They no longer spoke for the Lord, but for the highest bidder!
They were just the opposite of Nehemiah, who did the Lord’s work for the sheer joy of doing it.

And that’s where the third story comes in. It’s found in chapter 8.
When the wall was finished, all the people gathered together, and the scribe Ezra began reading the words of God’s law to them. When the people heard it, they began weeping and mourning, because the law revealed their sinfulness.
But notice how Nehemiah responded to that crisis:

And Nehemiah . . . said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep. . . . Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Neh 8:9,10. NKJV)

Did you catch that? Did you notice where Nehemiah found the strength to do all that he did? He didn’t find it in the law of God. He didn’t do the things he did because he was afraid of what would happen to him if he didn’t.
No, Nehemiah found his strength in the JOY of the Lord. The strength for all that needed to be done.

How is it with you, my friend? Is your strength sometimes lacking? Are you discouraged with life? Do you sometimes get to thinking about your sins and feeling discouraged?

Take a page out of the book of Nehemiah--the man whom God put in the right place at the right time. Find the joy of the Lord and let that be your strength. Learn to serve the Lord with joy and gladness--not for profit, or out of fear, but out of the pure JOY of knowing Him.