When we begin reading the book of Nehemiah, we need to realize first that we're kind of jumping in midstream to a story. And you might say, well yes, the story of Israel, their exodus, their time in Canaan, their exile and now their return. But even more so, it's the story of those who returned, a story that begins in Ezra, the story of their coming back and their rebuilding. And most likely, Ezra and Nehemiah were written together as one book, as one story of the returnees, those who came back. the story of them during this time of the Persian Empire. And as one example to illustrate that, we read about Ezra in the book of Ezra, but really the climax of his ministry, his reading of the law before all the people, we don't find that until the book of Nehemiah. So I think it is helpful, and most commentaries agree, to see the books of Ezra and Nehemiah as one book, as one story. But as we talk of these people who returned, we should make sure we make clear that it's not just one return. There are many returns that are recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And also that not everybody returns to the land of Canaan. We can read at the beginning of Ezra that Sheshbazar returned with the group. And then there was a group under Zerubbabel and Yeshua. And then over 80 years later, another group returns, this time with Ezra. And now we start with this story of Nehemiah a few years later after Ezra. And those who did return, they faced many hardships in the land. They came back, but they were still a subject people. They were still under the rule of the Persians, the Persian kings. And if you read through the book of Ezra, you see that sometimes they were benefited. The Persian kings treated them well. Cyrus issued the decree that everybody should return. Go, rebuild the temple. And yet there were other Persian kings that said, no, stop what you're doing. No more rebuilding. And they faced not only the fickleness of the international policies, but they faced opposition when they got back to the land of Canaan. There were other peoples in the lands, other neighboring nations. Other neighboring nations that threaten them, that accuse them before the Persians, that oppress them in many ways. But they also faced the problem of their own continual disobedience. As we read through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we see that. We see that Ezra and Nehemiah especially had to confront these people. with their sinful attitudes. And they had to do it not only once, but multiple times. That even in the rebuilding work, there were those that were apathetic to it, who didn't care about it, who were more interested in their own affairs. And so we need to keep all of this in mind as we look at these people, these people who rebuilt. And by the time of Nehemiah, They had had some success. They came back originally, and in about 20 years they were able to rebuild the temple and dedicate it and have a celebration and joy as they saw it. And yet, in the beginning of our text, almost 90 years after their return, we find that they're still living amongst the rubble of Jerusalem, that the walls are still down. The gates are still burned. And as we begin this study, it's helpful for us to see some similarities between our time and that of Israel in this day. Because the church is parallel to Israel. The church nowadays lives under various governments. We here in the United States live under the U.S. government. Others of our congregation here live under the Nigerian government. The church is throughout this world, and it is subject to the fickleness of the governments of this world. And so we find that. We find oppression also in the places that we live, and we also find sin within us. But as we point out the parallels, we still, as we go through, we'll point out the dissimilarities too. Israel was looking to rebuild, to rebuild a political entity, to rebuild cities and a government. They were a political people of God. That is the way God had structured them in the Old Testament. And yet, we the church have been called to be a spiritual entity. We have buildings, we have government, but ours is not a political system. We are worried of spiritual things. And so, as we bring all this context and begin looking at our text, we will see Nehemiah, a restorer of Zion. And we'll look at his concern first and then his prayer and then the action that he begins in chapter 2. And as we look at these things, we'll notice not only how Nehemiah points beyond himself. We'll see that as he looks to a greater restorer. but also how we ourselves can be stimulated, how we can be rebuked in our priorities, in our concerns, to follow Nehemiah as he pointed us to one greater than him. So our text begins with Nehemiah in Susa. And Susa was the capital of this great Persian empire. And it was also a long ways from Jerusalem. One commentator says it was about 900 miles, a distance that would be a four-month journey. So it was not just around the corner. He was a long ways from Jerusalem. And yet he's concerned, or he shows interest in Jerusalem. As we see in verse 2, people from Judea come. People who have been there, they visit this city, they visit Nehemiah. And so he asks, he asks about those who are in Jerusalem. And he finds that the news is bad, that it is grave. The people are in great trouble, and the people are living in a city that is a disaster. Now, it's important to note here that the great trouble that they face wouldn't have to just be opposition. They could be speaking also of their divisions, of their sinful attitudes. And we could also ask the question, why is it news that Jerusalem is in a destroyed state? As we mentioned, Jerusalem was destroyed earlier, and it was destroyed when the exiles returned, and yet it still seems to be destroyed. Well, it may be that there had been a movement to rebuild it, And that movement had failed and had led to other destruction. We read about this a little earlier in Ezra, in Ezra chapter 4. We won't read the whole section, but beginning around verse 7, we have the account of opposition that the Jews faced. And there were those that brought accusations against them. And they said, if these people rebuild this wall in this city, then they will rebel against the king. And so the king at that time, Artaxerxes, who we will find out is the same king Nehemiah serves, said that they must, and we can look here to verse 23. We'll start with verse 21. Now issue an order to these men to stop work so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order. Be careful not to neglect this matter. Why let this threat grow to the detriment of the royal interests? As soon as the copy of the letter of King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum and Shemshai, the secretary, and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and compelled them by force to stop. So this account here in Ezra is just a few years earlier. And so the news that these people brought back from Judah may relate more closely to that. It's not speaking of the destruction long ago, though that is the basis for it. But the people had tried to rebuild recently. They had tried to rebuild the walls and they had been stopped forcefully with arms, possibly leading to other destruction of the city. And so in our text, Nehemiah hears this news and he's overcome. He sits down and he weeps. And later we'll see that he does more than just that. And as we look at his grief here, as his concern from this report that he's given, we must emphasize what his concern was for. Was this nationalistic pride that he hated to see his people in this strait? Was this an ethnic issue? I don't think so. Instead, what he has here is a concern for God's people, the people of the covenant community. And if you notice in the way he phrases his question in verse 2, he asks about the remnant, the ones who had been left over. And these are terms that we find in Scripture that speak of what God would do for his people. That he would bring judgment and yet he would leave over a remnant. He would preserve some for himself, for this people. And words very similar to this were used earlier in Ezra 9 verses 8 and 15 as he prays about the remnant that is in Jerusalem. And so, Nehemiah is here concerned with those who have been shown God's grace. Those who have been preserved through this judgment, this national judgment of the exile. And those who have taken up and returned to the land. Those who have gone back to rebuild. Those are the ones that Nehemiah is concerned with. God's people in God's land that are now facing great evil, that are in disgrace. They're beaten down. They're struggling to survive. And the question about the city, why ask about the city? Well, it really does relate to the people. People without a city for defense are open to all of the local opposition who can easily run through and attack. And also as a people, this is their disgrace. They don't have a capital with walls. Their temple is amongst rubble. They are seen as cursed, as despised by all the nations around, those who are surrounding them. And so Nehemiah wants to build them up. He wants to encourage the people of God to protect them. And as we will see going through the book of Nehemiah, it's not just physical protection, not just physical building up. But it is spiritual too, building them up in the law, in God's law, in their obedience, in their commitment to it. And so as we look at Nehemiah's concern here, I think we can see a reflection of God's concern for his people. That God is the one, as Nehemiah will later say, who has given him this heart, who has placed this burden upon him for his people. God was the one who was raising up Nehemiah. And God is the one who would raise up someone even greater than Nehemiah, who would address the problems of the people that Nehemiah could not address. As you read through Nehemiah, you see that the people, though they rededicate themselves to God's covenant, they again fall away. They again sin. God's people needed one to provide for them, not just their physical hardships, but to give them new hearts, to restore them to a relationship with God. And this is what we find in Jesus Christ. And we'll talk more in our next section about that. But we should also be struck with this as we look at it, as we are confronted with Nehemiah's actions here. How do we respond to the oppression, to the state of the church that we find? How do we respond to its disobedience? How do we respond to the trouble that it faces? Where is our concern placed? Is it in the things of this world? Or do we grieve for the church? Do we grieve for its troubles, for its stumblings, for its failings? Do we look and pray for it? Now, we don't seek to build up walls around the church like Nehemiah in that sense, but we do build up the church in so many ways as we build up its body, as we build up its leaders. And so we can be confronted by Nehemiah's actions here. Nehemiah, who was 900 miles away from what was happening in Jerusalem and yet was concerned about that. May we be concerned about Christ's church. Not only here in our body, though there are many needs. Not only in our denomination, but those around the world. Those who are facing the trials and tribulations of this world. But Nehemiah's concern leads him to prayer. And so we look at our next section here. He leads to really his first action. And by this first action, we learn much about Nehemiah. Because though many of the problems are political, they need to be rebuilt. They need to get a request from the king in order to rebuild. Though all of these things are very worldly in that Nehemiah first addresses the most important need. As we look at his prayer, we see that first he addresses Israel's relationship with God. That first they must have a prayer of confession before he moves on to other things. And so, as we look in here, in his prayer that begins with verse 5 and going on, The first section is a confession, is this national confession of Israel's sins. How can they be built up? How can they be restored until they have been made right with God, until they appeal for his forgiveness? And the wording of this prayer, this part of his prayer, has many ties to an earlier prayer, that of Solomon, as he had dedicated the temple and as he was praying to God. He asked that God would have his ears and his eyes open to his people so that when they sinned, when they were sent away into exile, and when they repented in exile, God would listen, that God would forgive. And if we looked back at 1 Kings 8 and into 9, we see that God responded and promised that he would. That he would listen. He would put his eyes and ears there. And so Nehemiah, in confessing Israel's sin, is really clinging to God's promise there. What he had said he would do, what he would do for Solomon when these people sinned. Solomon had asked God, and God had said, yes, I will hear. And so here, in confidence, he prays for their forgiveness. As he mentions, not only the sins of the people, but even the sins of his own house, even himself. But then we get the next section, beginning in verse 8, where again he clings to a promise that God has given to him. He brings that up before God. And he is alluding back to Deuteronomy, to when Moses was instructing the people before they entered the land. And in Deuteronomy, we see Moses talking about their future disobedience and that God would punish them for that. And yet, God would not leave it there. God would also restore. God would bring them back. God would gather them in. And so, in verse 8, we have him calling on God to remember that promise. That promise that he gave through Moses. That if you are unfaithful, and really we could actually translate this maybe better as a prophecy. that Moses gave you will be unfaithful and I will scatter you among the nations right but when you return to me and obey my commandments then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon I will gather them from there and bring them to this place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. So we see Nehemiah again clinging to God's promises as he looks at the state of the people, and yet he knows what God has promised for them. And so he calls on God to remember that, to bring it about, to do it, to cause it to be. And he ends in verse 10 and following alluding again to another passage this time to Deuteronomy 9 verse 29 where Moses talks about his intercession before God when the people sinned at the time of the golden calf and God was going to wipe them out said he would wipe them out what did Moses appeal to, he appealed to God's calling of Israel. He says, they are your servants and your people who you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. And so Nehemiah, in that same way, as Moses interceded, now intercedes for the people. As he calls upon God, you have chosen this people. You have given these promises. You are the one who brought them out of the exile. Now, dear Lord, please do what you have promised. Restore them. And it's only after we get all the way through this that we then get to a more immediate request of Nehemiah. An immediate request that again in many ways looks back to the prayer of Solomon. Because Solomon, when he prayed that God would hear the people, He prayed that when they're in exile, God would give them favor before the ones who were ruling over them. The ones who were their captors. And so, Nehemiah here in verse 11 at the end says, Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. So again, appealing to what Solomon had prayed for, what God had said he would do. And it's only at this point that we now begin to see what action Nehemiah is going to do. It's only at this point that we find out who he really is, what position he has. He's standing, he's going before this man. Who is this man? Well, we find out in the next verse. I was cupbearer to the king. And we find out in the next verse after that, which king in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of king Artaxerxes. Nehemiah has this powerful position. He is the one who brings the king his food. a most trusted, a most loyal servant of the king. And yet this king, this grandiose king of all the Persian empire, in Nehemiah's prayer, is just this man. This man, because he is just that before the God of all. And so we can move on here into Nehemiah's action, as we find it in chapter 2. And as we do that, as we go in there, it's helpful for us to notice the timing. Now, most of you probably don't know when the month of Nisan is, or earlier what we had in the month of Kislev. But there's four months difference between them. Nehemiah first heard this report and now, four months later, he is beginning to act upon it. Nehemiah has been prayerful about it. He has been planning. He has been seeking to see what he can do for God's people. And now he is ready to put his plan into action. to go before the king and ask to be sent to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, to go and restore the people. But as we look at his action here, we need to remember the danger involved. It, first off, is no small request to be sent by a king to go rebuild a city. And secondly, this was a city that Artaxerxes earlier in his reign, as we saw in Ezra 4, had said was a rebellious city, one that had tried to rebuild and Artaxerxes had said, no, stop the rebuilding, stop it by force. And so Nehemiah is here going to try to ask the king to reverse his policy, to now rebuild what he had said to stop. And even though he has this high trusted position of cupbearer, it would still be most unusual for him to make a request of the king of this scale. How would the king take it? How would he present this request? He, in many ways, could lose not only his position, but his life. And so we find in Nehemiah's approach great wisdom. He has prayed to God that God would do this. He knows that it is only by God's grace that it will come about. And yet he approaches the task with all the wisdom God has given to him. And I think the first thing we could say is he has waited for a long time for the right opportunity. And this may also be seen in the little side note in verse 6. It says, then the king with the queen sitting beside him. That probably signals a more intimate occasion. Maybe a time when the king would be more inclined to allow this request. And so Nehemiah has waited. He has waited for then. And we also see he doesn't come out straight away with his request. His request comes after the king asks him a question, after the king draws him out, because the king sees that he is looking sad. And the king says, this can't be anything but sadness of heart. What is it that is your problem? Now notice in verse 2, sorry, in verse 1, at the end of verse 1, that we have another little note in there. The last phrase of verse 1. I had not been sad in his presence before. So the king notices something different about Nehemiah, that he's sad now. Now, we might say, well, has he not been sad before because he had just heard the news about Jerusalem and now he's sad about Jerusalem? But if you remember, there's four months difference between when he hears the news and when he comes before the king. Was it that he hadn't seen the king in all those four months? Well, that's a little unlikely since he's the cupbearer, the one who brings the king his food. And so I think we can see in here, again, the wisdom with which Nehemiah approaches this task. He's been waiting for the right time, and as he waits, he's been hiding his sadness. A king does not like sour servants. He is not going to perform his duties badly. And yet now, when he sees the right opportunity, he expresses his sadness before the king. He finally shows it to the king, seeing if the king will respond. And the king does. Why are you sad? And in Nehemiah's response, he doesn't right away ask his request. Instead, he says, may the king live forever. Why shouldn't I be sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruin and its gates are burned? He doesn't ask, well, I want to go rebuild it. But he just states what it's like. And notice he doesn't use the name of this city, the city that might ring a bell in the ear of Artaxerxes. It's instead the city of his fathers where their graves are. He's worried about his ancestral city, not revealing his primary interest in the people who are there, their current oppression, their current hardship. But the king sees in Nehemiah's response that he does one something. And so the king calls him out. Verse 4, what is it you want? Let's get to it. And now Nehemiah needs to take this step. He needs to ask. He needs to go ahead and put it before the king. And we noticed at the end of verse 2, he was very much afraid. And now before he does this step of asking this big thing of the king, what does he do at the end of verse 4? Then I prayed to the God of heaven. He utters a silent prayer as he begins to ask his request of the king. And so he asks that if it is pleasing to the king, he will be sent to this city where the graves of his fathers are so that he can rebuild it. And we find our relief in verse 6 that the king responds favorably. How long's the journey? When will you be back? How long will it take? And so Nehemiah, in confidence now, boldly asks for more things. He shows the kings the plan that he has made. This isn't just some desire of his heart. He's thought about it. He's planned it out. He knows what he needs. He needs safe conduct letter. He needs building supplies. He needs all these things. And so he boldly puts them before the king. And the king grants all of these requests. these requests of Nehemiah. And when most commentators come to this point, they ask, well, why would the king do that? Why would the king reverse his policy and now send Nehemiah to Jerusalem to rebuild it? And they begin theorizing, well, at this time in Artaxerxes' reign, there was a rebellion in Egypt. And Jerusalem is right on the border with Egypt. And so he's seen in this sending his most trusted man to Jerusalem to build this fortified city. And also the Greeks were troubles around this time. And so Jerusalem's near the coast, and so it's another fortified city. And they go on and on and look at that. And that's all very interesting. But it's not our text. It's not what Nehemiah tells us. Nehemiah knows why it is the king grants his request. Why the king is showing grace to his people. As we see there in verse 8. And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my request. Nehemiah has a bigger perspective in this. He can see God's working in history. The political is all there, but God is the one who is behind it. God is the one who brings it about. God is the one who looks after his people, who raises up this restorer for Zion. And so we should be encouraged by that. As we see at this time, God raising up Nehemiah to go back to help protect the people who had returned. To build them up not only physically, but also in their obedience. And yet we look beyond Nehemiah to the one who would complete all that was needed. That one who would come who would accomplish through his blood the forgiveness that Nehemiah was appealing to. The forgiveness that God was promising. And he would do that through his own blood. And one who would complete all the law for his people so that as they continually struggled and failed that they could look to Christ's accomplished work. And this one who has accomplished all this, the one who has made us right with God, Jesus Christ, our Lord, he's also the one who calls us to work with him, to participate in his gathering of the church, to participate in the building up of the saints, the gospel call to all lands. And I would say we can look at Nehemiah's actions here as we seek to go about that faithfully. Nehemiah didn't see his job in the world as something he should shun. He doesn't give up his job as cupbearer and run to Jerusalem. Instead, that is what he is called to. That is his vocation. And yet he uses it when it is needed, when he sees that God's people are in need and that God has put him in this position in which he may help them, in which he may build up his people. And he doesn't just rely, you could say, on God's promises. He is fully relying on God's promises, but he doesn't stop there. As we saw, he uses his wisdom. He uses the skill that God has given him. He uses that for the betterment of God's people, for God's church. And so, may we also do that. May you also do that. God has placed you in many positions in the world. Now, this is not a call to squeeze benefits from the church out of your vocation. Nehemiah didn't do this on a daily basis. But as the church has needs, as the church is beaten down, as it is abused, may you have concern like Nehemiah and may you have insight in how God may use you and that God may use how you have been placed in this world, how the gifts, the abilities that you've been given. And as you do that, may you do it as those who are watched over by the great restorer, the one who has come and completed all, so that we can look forward to a fullness, a fullness that Nehemiah didn't see there in Israel, a fullness that is accomplished in Christ, and yet we now don't see here all the time in this world, That we don't see at all in this world. A fullness of consummation. The blessing that will be when Christ returns. And so may your standing, your hope in Christ spur you on as you seek the blessing of Zion, God's people, his church. Amen.