For a full description of the (Y3) reading plan, see the “About” page.
- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Neh. 1
Nehemiah also came before God in prayer, confessing the sins of the people as a whole. We see this quite a bit in the Old Testament. On thinking about this it occurred to me that confessing our sins in this way when we come to God with a request is an acknowledgment that we don’t deserve His goodness, grace, or mercy. It shows an understanding that the only reason we can come to God with our requests and the only reason we might receive a positive response from Him is because of who He is. And who He is is an infinitely good and loving God who has promised to redeem an undeserving people as His own. Thus, He hears and responds to those, “who delight to revere [His] name.” (From Neh. 1:11).
Neh. 2-3
Four things stood out to me reading through this passage.
- All of this rebuilding took a really long time! Zerubbabel returned to Jerusalem to begin rebuilding God’s temple in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia. Then Ezra arrived on the scene in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, with the rein of King Darius in between. Nehemiah did not return to start rebuilding the wall around the city until the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes.
- Like Ezra, Nehemiah repeatedly said, “the gracious hand of my God was on me.”
- Like Zerubbabel, Nehemiah turned away the foreign inhabitants of the land. He told them, “…you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.” (Neh. 2:20b).
- The rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall was a true community effort, with each group doing their share of the task. It made me think of how building God’s Kingdom and reaping His harvest is also a community effort. We all work together, each in his own way, on a common cause for a common purpose.
The life we live as Christians is not unlike the returned exiles’ experience. It can be a long, laborious road, fraught with opposition. If we are doing things right, however, we work together in unity in spite of that opposition, each according to the tasks God gives us to do. And God will fulfill His promises in and through us by the power of His gracious hand.