Before you begin:

I’m going to do a lot of writing below. I am not a biblical expert, teacher, or scholar. I am a sister in Christ if you call Jesus Lord and Savior; that is my sole qualification. So, I’d like to invite you into an exercise, not just a reading experience. Read the material below with an open heart to the Holy Spirit, rather than to me. Let Him do as He desires and take what He gives. I’m going to put some questions interspersed in between the exposition. 

They will be italicized like so. 

Give them a read, maybe write them down in a journal, pray, look up Scripture. Why don’t you try and see what happens? Maybe, just maybe, He has something meaningful for you to hear in all the mess.

Alright. Here we go.

Nehemiah – Background

Written by Nehemiah, the book of Nehemiah is believed to have been written around 445-420 B.C. The timeline of the Old Testament can be a bit confusing at times, so let me lay out a small guide to what it happening around the time of Nehemiah.

Firstly, Zechariah and Haggai are two prophetic books written to the first wave of returning exiles to Jerusalem, encouraging them to rebuild the Temple and rebuking them for unclean conduct, among other things. These prophets were a part of this first wave which went around 538 B.C., this was under the rule of the Persian empire during the reign of Cyrus the Great. The book of Ezra covers some of the actions of the people that Zechariah and Haggai had to address before picking up partway through with the second wave of returning exiles, whom Ezra arrives with after the completion of the Temple building around 458 B.C., nearly 100 years after that first wave arrived. This group was under Artaxerxes I, still in the Persian Empire. Finally there came Nehemiah in roughly 444 B.C. with the third wave of exiles. He served as governor of the area and was primarily concerned with building the wall, and then with rebuilding Jerusalem and restoring proper worship. Nehemiah takes place while Artaxerxes I was still king of Persia.

Originally, Nehemiah was cupbearer to King Artaxerxes I, and held a position of great power, comfort and influence in the court of the king. Perhaps so much influence, if the noticing was not simply an act of God, for the king to notice and comment with concern on Nehemiah’s fallen countenance after learning about the state of his people. 

To give more perspective, the Persian Empire during its height spanned three continents, 2.9 million square miles and is estimated to have held nearly half of the entire population of the world at that point Biblestudy.org. Please be aware, friends, that this is shared to give an indication of how much wealth and influence Nehemiah would’ve had in his position. He was the cupbearer to the king who ruled half the world. According to the Biblehub, a cupbearer in ancient times held positions of great trust and influence to their kings, they were not simply food service employees; they were among the most trusted and honored of officials and/or attendants in a king’s court.

That was Nehemiah. In fact, Nehemiah so respected and so trusted that when the king granted he go and rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, pretty much his only recorded question for Nehemiah is, “When will you be back?” Nehemiah gave that kind of position up, lived on a relatively shoestring budget, in a broken-down city, surrounded by yohos and enemies. Why?

A Burden of Needs

The book of Nehemiah opens with a brief account of Nehemiah and a conversation with his brothers who came to the winter capital of Susa from Jerusalem. The answer ruined him. His brothers reported that the Jewish people who’d returned to Jerusalem lived in disgrace, with their walls torn down and little but the Temple of God standing. 

Here is the first question for you to consider. Write it down. Pray. Even please read your bible a bit. And then respond.

How often, brothers and sisters, do you have a burden that ruins you? 

And here is the second:

How often do you see a broken situation and fail to see the Lord in the midst of it, for all of the rubble?

Nehemiah was deeply grieved by his people’s state. It moved him not only to weep and grieve and wail. It moved him to take his case before God – fasting and praying. And it moved him to act – take his case before the king.

When he did so, Nehemiah was released to go home and rebuild by the king, and even more so equipped and blessed by this same king. And so, Nehemiah left one of the most comfortable places in the world at that time to go to a trash heap with a bunch of yohos who couldn’t do make a paper cut-out if you handed them the outline (sounds a great deal like myself, really). And he stayed there, dedicating all he was and everything he had for this commitment, this cause- to rebuild Jerusalem and her people.

Friends, consider what a picture of sacrificial love this is, how well Nehemiah embodied “love the Lord your God with all you are and love your neighbor as yourself.” He wasn’t willing to live in comfort, security and home while his people languished without them. In the same way, Jesus gave up the throne of Heaven and endured the shame of the cross so that He might grasp the prize set before Him. 

Brothers and sisters, that prize is us.

Is there a reason that we should be different from these examples? Jesus had compassion on the people of His day, even the really, really evil or pathetic ones. He has compassion on us. Just as Nehemiah did for his lost and losing people.

Let me ask you another question:

What need is on your heart?

Read Matthew 9:27-37. See where Jesus says, “According to your faith let it be done to you.” And in vs.37 “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” This needn’t look like a big cause. You may not have an immediate answer. Maybe the Lord is even slowing you down because you’re already doing what you need to and you just need to walk it out. I don’t know, ask Him.

Yet here is where an important point that needs to be made: Nehemiah didn’t go without opposition. There are actually two little “friends” who we see throughout the narrative, called Tobiah and Sanballat, who consistently throw rocks in the cogs whenever and wherever they can. Each of us too, will have these rocks. But more importantly than that opposition? Nehemiah also didn’t go without backup. That is because Nehemiah worked for the king, and the King. If you follow Christ then so do you. 

Is there something you need to ask for from the King today in order to fulfill His call to you or to meet a need somewhere in your world?

Remember what the word says in 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV), “Cast your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” And also in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” I think it’s interesting that Nehemiah 11 records that there were specific men who directed and led in exactly this: thanksgiving and prayer.

The point is this: Nehemiah left one king to follow Another and his burden for his people was not an accident, nor were his position, influence and experience. But the things he had, while used by God, were not a substitute for God. Even though he went in with all of this blessing, support and help, he again did not go without opposition. 

Even so, his enemies were not left unanswered or unguarded against; he didn’t forget them. He just also gave them over to God and asked for protection and justice. Nehemiah recognized the value of his service and the sacrifice of it, but he also knew very well that it was as he should do.

A Burden of Debts Owed

There’s an interesting book of the Bible the Lord has taken me to a few times in last few days: Obadiah. Look it up for a minute if you will. I’ll wait.

Tiny, huh?

But there’s something important here that I would like to use to link the opposition thought from the previous section to what is about to be said. Sometimes we feel that God does not care about the sins of others against us, that is not true. Friends, God doesn’t forget His enemies. That means, because God is for us His children, He doesn’t forget ours. A side note to this is that our perceived enemies may not be our real ones, but that’s another discussion.

Now, with that loving justice of God in mind, let us consider the second type of burden Nehemiah carried. And that is the burden of debts owed, the burden of societal and individual brokenness and sin. 

Where have you been owed a debt?

Let’s consider how Nehemiah handles this burden.

Firstly, what Nehemiah does not do is very, very interesting. He doesn’t blame God for his people’s state as if God acted unjustly. Remember Obediah, and see how it shows that God has not forgotten the justice to be meted out. 

Instead, Nehemiah rightly recognizes that the people’s current state is due to past actions that have consequences. Furthermore, he demonstrates wisdom in seeing that the answer to these consequences isn’t trying to think their way out of it or blame the Lord, but to come before the Lord repenting, remembering His promises and covenant, remembering His character, and asking for help.

Do you have a burden you need to bring before God this way?

Let’s step back for a moment and clarify something about that. This is not a warning against bringing yourself and your emotions before the Lord. Emotions are what they are, and the Lord can handle them all, even misdirected anger, bitterness and or blame. Don’t fix what you can’t. Ask Him to do what He can. Think of Genesis 1 where He brings darkness out of light, life out of death, order out of chaos.

What this is is simply a reminder that while we have space to bring ourselves before the Lord as we are and indeed are called to (see Luke 5:32, John 6:37, Psalm 51:17, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Romans 8:1). Here’s the caveat our feelings, circumstances and bringing ourselves before the Lord: they do not supersede who He is.

May I be honest? Beloved friends, feeling God is to blame does not mean He is. Feeling God is unfair does not mean He is. So let’s pause on that for a moment and consider what that means before we link the thought back to Nehemiah.

Can you think of an area where you blame God for a thing He is not to blame for? Do you need to lay this out before Him again, emotions as they are and all? Or would the Spirit lead you to do something else, like praise and thanksgiving? Take a moment to pray, ask, write and reflect.

As you walk through this world by faith, have the faith to boldly come before the throne as you are, knowing that the blood of Christ has given you this right. But don’t stop there, because stopping there does not bring full freedom or intimacy with your Creator. There’s another step that requires coming into the presence of the Lord to accomplish, I believe, because I think it is only possible when looking at the Lord and beholding Him. That step is this: to humbly lay before God, recognizing He is always just, always holy, always righteous, and praising who He is.

When you can. As you can. By the power of Spirit, because only He can bring this about in us, recognize and acknowledge that when God calls Himself righteous, He means that He always acts rightly. Always.

And we come back to the burden owed. 

Sometimes, when we have anger toward someone, something, or God, it is because there is a burden of debt. Perhaps your mother was not a good one. Perhaps your boyfriend has abused you. Perhaps your employee has stolen from you. 

Listen. Remember Obediah.

God is just, my beloved friends. And He has not forgotten what has happened; He sees and knows that there is a debt owed. Wrong has been committed, and now there is a deficit that must be paid. This is why God can call Himself just, because He knows and tracks all these deficits and will see them paid not as we think they should be, but exactly as they actually should be.

Here is where the Gospel of Christ is so important; where Jesus is so important. 

My dearest friends, we are all bankrupt and drowning in the debt of burdens owed. Our own debts to others and those others owe us. We’ve just considered the burdens and debts of others toward us. The burdens that make us sick and depressed and enraged. The ones we scream and cry and throw up our fists at God for. Now take a step back. Breathe. Then go read this verse: Romans 2:1.

Oof.

Now I am going to ask another question. And this one is harder.

What are the debts that you owe to others? 

Here is the horrifying, heartbreaking truth- We are broken, sick, lonely, destroyed and, yes, burdened by debts owed. And here is the sad, terrifying thing- we will never meet net neutral. It cannot be repaid through our own effort. No one, not even one, is righteous. The first few chapters of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity speak to this very thing. The bible is simply rife with it.

Jesus once told a parable, which I will paraphrase. A very wealthy king called in his servant who owed him a debt of such massive proportions that, according to some scholars, if he worked every day for the rest of the next thousands of lifetimes, he would never pay it back. In fact, the interest would be so massive that he would only accrue more debt despite his best efforts to pay.

Stop.

Read that again and then consider Romans 3:21-31. Once you have, return to Romans 2 and read through Romans 2:1-11.

This is why repentance is so key. Repentance not only recognizes that there is a wrong that has been committed- it acknowledges and cries out for payment for a debt unpaid to the only One who can afford to pay it- God Himself. And He has, praise God, through Jesus. Paul talks to this very fact in Romans 7:21-8:2.

Nehemiah did not know the Chirst, but he did know that the Lord his God was just and merciful. He knew that his people were in agony, that a wrong had been done and the consequences were dire and a debt was owed. And he responded by acknowledging these things before the Lord and asking for forgiveness and mercy. He did what the math-illiterate servant should’ve done: he asked the King to forgive the debt of him and his people.

Sometimes our debt is inherited. Sometimes it is forced upon us. We always have our own. Listen- the answer is all the same: Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Consider Romans 5:8 and then John 3:16-17.

You see, Nehemiah recognized something throughout his recorded journey starting in chapter 1 that we often fail to see and which was talked about a bit in the last Podcast- “By Faith.” He recognized in his opening lines the very important fact that the state of Israel was not a matter of God’s unfaithfulness or lack of righteousness or lack of power, but actually a matter of something else entirely.

I say this because we see that he calls God the Lord of heaven, which is a title that recognizes that He is sovereign over all others. And then he references back to the Deuteronomy content of the covenant. The Old Covenant was based upon mutual exchange – God would keep and love and bless the people of Israel and Israel was simply to love God wholly and keep His commands. 

That there is the key friends- Nehemiah recognized that their state, as grievous and heartbreaking as it was, was not the Lord God of Heaven’s fault. It was because the people of Israel had not loved the Lord wholly and kept His commandments.

I’ve already said it, but I must say it again. Friends, never fail to realize as you grieve, wail and rage, that there is never a time that the Lord has done evil, nor will there ever be. As God states in Job- notably AFTER Job has grieved and raged against Him- He is sovereign and He owes no one an explanation for His actions. But our gentle and kind Lord even so seeks to be known by His creation, and so He does tell us something we need to know and can understand: that He is always good, always sovereign, and always wise.

Do not take all of this and walk away with the incorrect belief that all bad things happen because someone sinned or didn’t love God enough. Far be it from me to claim all sickness happened because someone was not holy or that being customized by abuse, miscarriages, or natural disasters and the like are because someone sinned.

This is all simply an example from Nehemiah that there comes a time where we must rightly recognize the place of debt and even still lay it at the foot of the cross, asking Jesus to pay the price for our debt or someone else’s debt to us. And even when there is no obvious, or even any, answer to the sickness, the loss or the pain, even still our Savior can carry our burdens. And we? We can still recognize who He is and who He is not.

Where can you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, have the faith to do this today?