They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Nehemiah1:3-4
Solomon's reign led to a split nation. The faction in the North (Israel) were destroyed by the Assyrians in 721BC and the faction in the South (Judah) suffered defeat at the hands of the Babylonians in 586BC and were dragged off into exile. After 70 years the Babylonians were defeated by the Persians who let the Israelites return to Jerusalem.
But Jerusalem just didn't get going again. The people were depleted, deflated, depressed. They didn't rebuild the temple or the city walls until God sent people who would RE-START them.
Nehemiah is the hero who united them to rebuild the city walls. It's important to note that Jerusalem was a formidable city when the walls were intact (it took the Babylonians 18 months to get into the city and in 70 AD the Romans had a similar struggle.)
What kind of person was Nehemiah to bring about such a wonderful RE-START of the nation?
Our two verses give us a clue:
Nehemiah cared deeply and Nehemiah prayed passionately.
Nehemiah was cupbearer to the Persian King. His future in Persia looked rosy. Why should he care about a burnt-out has-been people in a defenceless wreck of an old defeated city? But he did. He was the one who made the enquiry in the first place and the reply broke his heart.
He turned to God in hungry and passionate prayer (not only physically hungry because he was fasting :-) but because his soul longed for God!)
--> Lord, you can bring powerful RE-STARTS with passionate and prayerful people - change my heart O God!!!
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
