Today in God's Word—April 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
April 14, Nehemiah 1
” 0 Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Now I was cupbearer to the king. - Nehemiah 1:11
Nehemiah's call to action came in the form of bad news. His brother Hanani and some other Jews came back to the Persian capital city where Nehemiah served as cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah asked them about the situation of the people back in Judah. They told Nehemiah about the trouble and shame of the people, and that the city's walls were still in ruins after such a long time. Nehemiah’s heart was broken.
Nehemiah wept, mourned, fasted and prayed for days after he heard the bad report about conditions in Judah. I love Nehemiah’s prayer recorded in Chapter 1. I believe you and I can learn a lot from this man's anguished prayer that will help us pray when we find ourselves in distress from disappointment and bad news.
First, Nehemiah extolled God's awesome power, faithfulness and love. When we are troubled, we need to see God clearly and realize our God is much bigger than our troubles.
He acknowledged that God's covenant blessings were conditional, and confessed that he and his fellow Israelites had not met the conditions. But he humbly confessed his sin and the sins of the nation. Nehemiah admitted their ruin as a nation was the result of their sin. Nothing is hidden from the eyes of God, so we might as well humble ourselves and admit the truth about our disobedience when we pray.
Then Nehemiah called on a promise God made along with the threat to scatter his unfaithful people. True to his word, God had scattered them after their long history of apostasy and idolatry. But the Lord had also made a promise
that Nehemiah now claimed in his prayer. "If you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.“ God was faithful in his word to scatter the disobedient, and Nehemiah was confident that the Lord would be faithful to his promise to gather the penitent. There is great power in praying the promises of God.
I love all those things about Nehemiah's prayer. But there is something else I want you to see about our hero’s prayer. Remember runaway Elijah’s distressed prayer under the juniper tree, when he told the Lord he was the only one left serving him? Nehemiah’s prayer was very different from Elijah’s. Nehemiah knew there were other faithful servants of God praying just as he was. He knew he was not alone. So he prayed, "O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Nehemiah didn't claim to be the only one righteous, or the only one whose prayer would be heard, or that he was the only spiritual person left in Israel. He acknowledged that there were others. This saved him from pride, self-righteousness and slander.
Then the prayer comes around to where it began, in an indirect way. Remember, Nehemiah started by magnifying God. As he came to the end of his prayer, Nehemiah asked for “mercy in the sight of this man” (the king). The king was a powerful man. Nehemiah knew that well. His job as the king’s cupbearer gave him access and close contact with the mighty king. But Nehemiah knew that the king was just a man. He knew God was in control, even of the heart and will of a king.
So the bad news from Judah set in motion the faithful prayer and action of a man whom God
would use to build the wall and strengthen the people. Nehemiah's prayer set the stage for the third wave of exiles who would return to Jerusalem to get a long overdue job done.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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