Nestled deep within the pages of the Old Testament is a story that doesn't get told very often. It is the story of an ordinary man who surveyed the spiritual landscape of his own life, of his fellow countrymen's lives, and of his nation. He then wept bitterly.
He was distraught over the fact that there was virtually no moral distinction between God's people and the people who chased after the pagan gods and their images. He wept over the spiritual apathy that had become so epidemic in the very place that for centuries had been known as a place of lively, spirited, and sacrificial worship. And he was broken over his own personal inadequacies, over where his personal choices had led him, over his mistakes, over his shortcomings, over his willful sins, and over his misplaced priorities.
His name was Nehemiah. An entire book of the Bible is devoted to telling his story.Nehemiah was an Israelite who had been uprooted from his homeland and exiled to a foreign land. While there he became cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, King of Babylon. It was Nehemiah's job to taste the wine that was to brought to the king to insure that it hadn't been laced with poison. You might say that Nehemiah's job had a high turnover rate. He never knew when his next bite might be his last bite! It was only by the grace of God that Nehemiah was even alive.
Dire circumstances.
One day Nehemiah was visited by some of his friends from Judah. With great eagerness Nehemiah questioned them about Jerusalem. He asked them how their hometown of Jerusalem was doing. He asked them if the Jews who had survived the exile were getting things back in order and settling down. Nehemiah was hoping for the best, but everything he heard that day was bad news.
In Nehemiah 1:3 (NIV) Nehemiah is told, "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." In Nehemiah 1:4 (NIV) Nehemiah tells us what he did upon hearing the news. "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven."
We must understand that Jerusalem has always been the center for Jewish worship. Jerusalem was the promised land that God swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For Jerusalem to be overrun by pagans, for the temple and its walls to lay in ruin, for its people to be scattered in fear among the nations, for immorality to be prevalent there, for its gates to lay in ashes, this struck a deep and painful cord within Nehemiah.
Last Friday I watched the movie "Pearl Harbor". In the movie there are magnificent scenes of Pearl Harbor in its full glory. Sailors are marching about, the national anthem is being played, flags are being hoisted, ships are gleaming, and sailors are scrubbing the ship decks. As the cameras panned from one ship to the next and from one deck to the next, I couldn't help but be filled with a sense of national pride. At that time Pearl Harbor was a symbol of American strength, pride, invincibility and accomplishment. It embodied the hopes and aspirations of countless men and women.
But suddenly and without warning the glory of Pearl Harbor is reduced to ashes. Japanese zeros appear in the sky, relentlessly dropping one torpedo after another on unsuspecting ships and their crews. They swoop down over innocent sailors as they are fleeing for their lives and they ruthlessly pelt them with lead bullets. Japanese bombers sank some of our greatest ships like the Arizona, forever entombing hundreds of trapped, screaming soldiers in the process. There were people throughout the theatre weeping and sniffing. It was very intense.
Nehemiah had a very natural reaction to the news about Jerusalem. He wept. It was difficult knowing that godless foreigners had raided the city of his fathers. These were foreigners who had no respect for the God of Israel. These were foreigners who had no respect for the temple and its rich symbolism. It was difficult knowing that the once glorious city of Jerusalem was sitting in ashes.
Do we have a national crisis brewing?
At this time it would seem that we are not in the middle of a national crisis. The stock market is a little jittery, and we've been playing cat-and-mouse games with the Chinese government. But for the most part things are very stable. But could it be that there is another type of national crisis brewing?
What about the state of the family in America today? Or the state of marriage? Or the state of the Church? Or the state of our moral landscape? In our culture today there is a blending of all beliefs and values and religions to the degree that it is unfashionable to stand for much of anything today. Researchers like George Barna note that there is very little that is distinctive about Christians today. In virtually every category of morality, Christians and non-Christians behave the same way, give or take a percent. Barna also notes that the Church in America at large is in decline. Churches are closing at record rates. People are abandoning their roots. The secular masses continue to swell to record numbers. Christ-less religions like Islam, Buddhism, and New Age are thriving. Biblical illiteracy is now assumed in most circles.
The media has adopted an intolerant, if not hostile stance toward Christianity. Our children are being raised to think homosexuality is a viable lifestyle. That environmentalism is an acceptable religion. That the cause of their existence was a random, meaningless collision of molecules. That sexual promiscuity, adultery, premarital sex, and fornication are desirable behaviors. That instant gratification is what they deserve. That pornography is art. That abortion is a nothing more than a choice. That civility is for the weak. That morality is a personal preference and that there are no moral imperatives.
There are many who think that I have just described the ideal America! But when we begin surveying our spiritual and moral landscape through God's eyes we realize that as it was with Jerusalem in Nehemiah's day, so it is with our country in our day. Our land lies in ruin and much disgrace. Like Nehemiah we have much to pray, fast, mourn, and weep over.
Spiritual solutions.
As he wept and mourned for his homeland, Nehemiah resolved to find a spiritual solution to this national crisis in Jerusalem. He channeled his pain and anger toward God. He fasted. He prayed. He looked to God's word and searched for answers. He tried to recapture God's vision. He tried to see the spiritual landscape through God's eyes. He tried to grasp both the nature and the severity of the problem at hand.
In prayer Nehemiah was able to get a specific handle on the problems in Jerusalem. He at once saw a connection. His unconfessed personal sins were a contributing factor to the overarching spiritual and moral fallout in Jerusalem. He personally wasn't as detached and blameless and unaccountable as he thought he was. He recognized that for things to change he would have to take responsibility.
In Nehemiah 1:5-11 (NIV) is Nehemiah's prayer. "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses."
"Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name. 'They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man."
Notice the stance that Nehemiah took before God in prayer. He first confesses his sin, his personal shortcomings, his mistakes, and his failures. It is our nature to want to pass the responsibility for the state of our churches, families, schools, homes, and nation onto someone else. "It's the media's fault. It's the politicians' fault. It's my father's fault. It's my mother's fault. It's your generation's fault, not mine. It's the Church's fault. It's the schools' fault." We have become quite adept at passing the buck.
It is interesting to note that the closer we draw to God, the more we recognize just how deeply we have personally participated in the problem through our sins. We realize that we have failed to provide positive leadership to change things. We realize that our spiritual apathy has led to the expansion of the influence of sin. We realize that our lack of zeal for God's laws and that our lack of love for God is what generated the crisis in the first place. We realize that we stand before a holy God, guilty and in need of grace. And this is no easy thing. It requires great courage.
A promise of hope.
In the scriptures, Nehemiah found a promise that applied to his circumstance. In his prayer he quotes that promise of God. "Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.' "
Nehemiah reasoned that God would still make good on that promise. He reasoned that things could change dramatically in his homeland if only he would align himself and help align his people with God's purposes. As he prays this promise, a plan begins to emerge in his mind of how he might facilitate an entire nation returning to God in repentance and obedience. He would get permission from the king to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. He would secure letters from the king so that he could acquire the timbers and materials necessary for the project. And then he would return to Jerusalem and unite the people, reinvigorating their hope, and casting a vision for a restored city, a city that would once again glorify God.
This morning you will be pleased to know that Nehemiah's God is also our God. His promises lie dormant in his word until that day that we claim them for ourselves. Our responsibility is to sift through God's word so that we can discover precisely what it is God wants to do through us and in us in our depraved world. We can trust that God is ready and able to accomplish his great purposes through us once we discover and align ourselves to his will.
For Nehemiah it was rebuilding a city wall. What is it for us today?
Rebuilding our lives.
As we read the story of Nehemiah, we notice that nothing is accomplished without faith. When Nehemiah, a mere subject in the king's court, asked the king for permission to return to his homeland, he was risking his very life. When Nehemiah asked for letters to secure timbers and materials to rebuild the walls, he was again risking his very life. But Nehemiah succeeded. Why? Because the gracious hand of God was upon him. And when local officials tried to interfere with Nehemiah's plan, he again succeeded. And he succeeded for the same reason. God was with him. At every point Nehemiah trusted God and God proved himself to be trustworthy.
Once in Jerusalem Nehemiah casts a vision for the rebuilding of the wall. Literally everyone unites behind this great cause. Men, women, and children each do their part. Soldiers, priests, perfumers, goldsmiths, rulers, slaves, even a man and his daughters helped. No one was left out of the action, and the job was completed in an unbelievable fifty-two days!
Nehemiah 6:15-16 (NIV) says, "So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, 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."
No sooner had the walls been rebuilt, we find a long procession of Jews returning to the city. Some 42,360 people, excluding women and children, returned to the city. The people came bringing all their possessions and their hopes for a new covenant with God. They confessed and they mourned and they grieved over their sins. They repented by wearing sackcloth and ashes and made oaths to God never to violate his commands. They dedicated the city to God's glory and praised God so loudly that their worship could be heard miles outside of the city's gates. A revival of unprecedented magnitude had just begun. As a result of Nehemiah's leadership, an entire nation of people who had been disgraced by sin returned to their God and experienced new life.
In this story of Nehemiah we find a very useful outline of application. First, Nehemiah surveyed his spiritual and moral landscape. His country was in full disgrace. His people lived in disobedience and fear. They had turned from God. Second, Nehemiah captured God's vision for his situation. He prayed. He fasted. He read God's word. He began seeing his world through God's eyes and took responsibility for his many sins. Third, Nehemiah aligned himself with God's purposes. He stepped out in faith. He acted according to the vision and plan that God had placed on his heart. He claimed God's promises from his word for himself and his people. Last, Nehemiah experienced revival. He got in on the ground floor of a fresh new movement of God's Spirit. He experienced God's refreshing and renewal.
The application for us is that God is looking for a few good Nehemiah's to pioneer a fresh movement of his Spirit in our world today. He is looking for you to be a leader in your family, in your marriage, in your community, in your school district, in your workplace, and in your church. He is looking for you to fall to your knees, praying, fasting, weeping, repenting, and confessing your sin. He wants you to be seeking a kingdom vision that will once again unite men and women everywhere with their God, starting with you and your family. He is looking for you to boldly step out on faith and begin acting according to the vision that he will place on your heart. And the goal is revival in our land, in our churches, and in our communities.
Over the years God has not changed. The God of Nehemiah is our God. He is a God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. No struggle in your life is too great for God to handle. No problem is too large for him. No task too daunting for him.
Why not start where Nehemiah started? With prayer, fasting, and confession.