Nehemiah

Introduction: The story of Nehemiah takes place shortly after the time of Daniel when the Jews have been permitted to return to their land. Nehemiah tells us the story himself. In the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, I, Nehemiah, was the king’s cup bearer. I took the wine and gave

it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before so the king asked me, "Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart." 3”May the king live forever! My face is sad because the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire." The king said to me, "What is it you want?" So I prayed, and said to the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it." And it pleased the king to send me. So I set a time and went to Jerusalem with the king’s army officers and cavalry escorting me. After staying

there three days I began at night to examine the walls of Jerusalem which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. No one knew where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work. But when certain men of the surrounding nations named Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Gesham heard about it,

they mocked and ridiculed us saying, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble-burned as they are?" What they are building? why if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"

Then Nehemiah prayed, “Hear us, O God, for we are despised. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their

sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders. So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. When Sanballat and Tobiah heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were

being closed, they were very angry and they plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem. But we prayed to our God and I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the

exposed places, After I looked things over, I said to the people, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes." From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water. 6: Then Sanballat sent me a message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages." But they were

scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. And I prayed, "O Lord now strengthen my hands." One day a man said to me, "Let us go into the house of God, and let us close the temple doors, because men

are coming to kill you." But I said, "Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!" I realized that God had not sent this man, but that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him to intimidate me. Then they would give me a bad name to discredit me. So the wall was completed in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding

nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.