All right, let’s pray and then we’ll dig in. Father God, thank you for our class. What a blessing and joy it is to pause in the middle of the week. study your word, to understand more of your character, the way that you’ve used men and women to move and change and provide for your people. God, I pray tonight as we dig into Nehemiah 1 and 2, let it be a blessing for us to unfold this idea of courage in the midst of adversity and how we do that well. God, thank you for our class. We ask all this in your name. Amen. Okay, we’re recording. We are on this week, chapter one and two of Nehemiah. If you notice on your handout, it evolves week to week. This time I decided, since I knew scripture is getting hard to squeeze on a front and back, to put back in some note space. So if you’re a note taker, you now have a few lines of note space on both sides. for chapter one and chapter two. And then it’s got the questions. We might not cover all the questions, but I put them on there anyway. And I tried to add little outlines, just the high level for chapter one and chapter two. So we have something to keep up. Hopefully it’s helpful. I’ll mess with it for a bit. And then once I feel like I have a good format, I’ll probably leave it alone. But if you have thoughts, I’m always open. The first question, it’s the one highlighted there in black before we read. When was the last time you heard news about someone or something that broke your heart? What did you do with the burden? When you hear news that just wrecks you, what do you do with the burden in those moments? What do you think? What is the natural human instincts that like, maybe not the most Christ-like, but what do we see people do, even if it’s not ourselves? What do we typically do when we’re just devastated and broken and frustrated. But prayers, I mean, what a response in the moment of, like, tragedy to go to the throne of God. Yeah. I think… it’s an interesting thing. Do you, you guys all remember like, I mean, nine 11, just the anniversary has happened. How post nine 11, even people who had nothing to do with church immediately, like we’re flooding back in and asking God why, which is horrible, but neat. When you see God use terrible things to draw people back to himself. Um, I think for most of us, that’s one of the first reactions. Um, I wrote the second part of that question. I said, you know, what’s your first instinct? Fix it, ignore it, panic, or pray. I mean, yeah, Terry. If you’re a man, you want to fix it. Yeah. Like, I genuinely, I struggle with it. Even if I’m, I might be praying while I’m fixing it. Like, there’s some, which I guess, you know, pros and cons. But there’s just this, there’s an instinct in some people that it might be to pray, but rather than waiting… It’s just, okay, I’ll go ahead and get to work. Maybe that’s the right move sometimes. But I know I tend to fall into the fix it before I try and seek the Lord. And I think a lot of people do. I think it’s interesting. I know a lot of people that are avoiders of difficult things, whether it’s difficult news, paying their taxes, or replying to that voicemail they don’t want to call back. Then they kind of avoid. They would be the ignore it part. Man, you can’t work in a high school and not see panic over the littlest things. I mean the littlest things, like that boy they talked to when they were in seventh grade that they never really dated, but they had a thing. Now the other girl talked to him, and you’re like, they’re seniors. It’s been seven years, six years, and they’re still like, and they can’t panic, sheer panic. So, you know, it takes all kinds, I suppose. But our heart should be, especially as followers of Jesus, that we’re very quick to get on our knees and put ourselves on the throne of God and seek him. So Nehemiah 1 and 2 is neat because we see, and we’re going to read it just now, we see this neat moment where God’s servant is serving in the palace, and he hears of the brokenness of God’s people. He hears of what’s happened back in Jerusalem today. And he’s despondent. I mean, it deeply affects him, but it moves him to prayer. And then in prayer, it then encourages him to step out in courageous obedience, which is a really great thing. So we’re going to read and we’re just going to read chapter one first. We’ll go through that part and then we’ll do chapter two. So chapter one, Nehemiah. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah. Now it happened in the month of Shislev in the 20th year. I was in Susa, the capital, that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came. And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and remained from captivity and about Jerusalem. They said to me, the remnant there in the province who remained from captivity, from the captivity, are in great calamity and reproach. And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire. Now it happened that when I heard those words, these words, I sat down and wept and I mourned for days. And I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. I said, I beseech you, O Yahweh, God of heaven, the great and fearsome God, who keeps the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. Let your ear now be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your slave, which I am praying before you today. day and night on behalf of the sons of Israel, your slaves, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which have been sinned against you. I and my father’s house have sinned. We have worked in utter destruction against you and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word which you commanded your servant Moses saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, Though those of you who have been banished were at the ends of the sky, I will gather them from there, and I will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause my name to dwell. They are your slaves and your people, whom you redeem by your great power and your strong hand. O Lord, I beseech you, may your ear be attentive to the prayer of your slave and the prayer of your slaves who delight to fear your name, and make your slave successful today and grant him compassion before this man. Now I was the cupbearer to the king. So does anything stand out at first glance just reading through that section of Nehemiah? Anything that seems odd or maybe noteworthy? It’s a perfect example of intercessory prayer. It is. A beautiful example of intercessory prayer. A beautiful example. What about it, I mean, when we think about it that way, what makes it beautiful? Like, what about that is a fitting intercessory prayer, a prayer for others? A complete breakdown on his part. It is. It’s a total breakdown on his part. The way that it describes it so vividly, and everyone can relate to it, I think. In verse 4, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Even if we didn’t weep for days… We’ve all been in those moments where the anguish or the tumult just gets at us. And even though maybe we still go to work or we still take care of the kids, like whatever’s happening, it doesn’t mean that feeling evaporates. You know, that feeling lingers and that heaviness continues on. Everybody’s experienced that. Big and small, everyone’s experienced that. So it’s a very relatable thing. And it’s neat how quickly it turns into this very, I mean, how would you describe this prayer? When you, it starts in verse, I guess really five, and it goes and continues on. How would we describe that prayer? It’s intercessory, it’s for others. It starts with praise. You know, oh Yahweh, God of heaven, the great and fearsome God. Yep, and then confession. Yep. I mean, it’s a beautiful flowing example of how we approach God very beautifully in prayer. And I know it’s, we’ve said, I’ve heard it said before, like there’s no wrong way to pray. I mean, but also there is, there’s a deep respect and awe and approaching God. And this moment he is respecting and approaching God with a deep sense of awe. So I love that. I’m glad that we, we slowed down there for a second. So the, the way that I broke the notes up, I tried to put two little chunks. The first four verses are We can talk about it first, but they’re this idea, like we’re seeing kind of narrated for us, Nehemiah’s questioning of his brother, but then also what’s happening in Jerusalem, and he learns the whole story. And it leads him to grief and fasting and this deep burden. But then, verse 5 on, is the prayer. And it’s neat because he does not say the king’s name, but he is asking God for favor with the king. We see, I think it’s in verse 11. Grant him compassion before this man. So we have this unfolding of prayer. It’s really neat. There’s a few neat, noteworthy things I had jotted down in my notes. One, Nehemiah is serving in Susa, which is about 900 miles from Jerusalem. And we know that he’s, you know, the last verse, I was the cupbearer and the king. What do we know about cupbearers? Do you remember anything from old Sunday school? Yeah. You know, it sounds like not an important job at first. It’s like, so you bring the cup. But it’s an incredibly trusted servant of a king because it’s the one that he would trust to drink the goblet before him to make sure that it wasn’t poisoned. So this was a very, he was in a very important role. He was not just the guy who brings cups to the royal chambers, which as a child, that’s what I always read that as, which is pretty fun. So then the other noteworthy things, the report about Jerusalem’s walls in the first four verses is not a new thing, but it’s because we’ve been reading the last few weeks. I wish I hadn’t. figure out how to make this. I was on my Bible app, and there was a cool chart, and it actually showed the overlap of Ezra and Nehemiah. So I’ll try and figure out if I can somehow copy it into here later. But it was neat because they were contemporaries. Ezra was there before, after Zerubbabel, who went first and rebuilt the altar. And then Ezra comes in with the biblical reform and pulls people back to the Word. But then Nehemiah comes in. While Ezra’s still there, And he gets to the work of rebuilding the wall. So I found this map or this chart. If I can copy it, maybe I can screenshot my computer. I’ll figure it out. It was helpful because they do overlap. It’s not just like Ezra happened and then later Nehemiah happened. So when we read this part in the beginning where, I’m sorry, Nehemiah, it’ll take me a while to stop saying Ezra now that I’ve been Ezra for so long. With Nehemiah here, this isn’t new news. It’s just, it’s, It’s like fresh trouble, fresh shame. Everyone’s been there too. We’re like, there’s enough bad things that have happened that one more little thing piled on just throws you over the edge really quick. Someone mentioned that there’s no distinction with the walls broken down and the gates burned. There’s no distinction between us and the surrounding. Yes. And I saw that somewhere recently too. One of the commentaries, it was like the idea of there’s just… Not only are you not safe and protected from, but you’re also not set apart and guarded spiritually either, which is a cool physical and spiritual reality there. But it is. That was a hard pill for him to swallow. So Nehemiah’s grief here very much mirrors the posture we see of other prophets, like Daniel and Jeremiah, who very much— point us towards the sorrow of Jesus. There’s a lot of imagery that leads us to Jesus. So then, the last thing, let’s see. Yeah. It’s easy to miss, but noteworthy in this passage is Nehemiah is confessing his sin. I’m sorry, he’s confessing the sin of the community of the Hebrews. He’s not just confessing. He is not back in Jerusalem confessing. He is not neglecting the city. But he knows collectively the Israelites have sinned. Collectively their sin has led them to this point. So he doesn’t say, like, you know, forgive their sins. He says forgive our sins because he sees it as a community thing. So that’s noteworthy stuff. So a few questions when we look at chapter 1. This is such a dumb question. Man, I do this every week. I put questions in here, and then we actually get into it. And I’m like, well, that question is irrelevant now. The first question is, how does Nehemiah respond when he hears the condition of Jerusalem? We talked about it. When hard news hits your life, what’s your first instinctive response? We talked about that. It was prayer. Think about the times, though, that it’s not prayer. House fire. Big, big thing. I remember praying. It was a big deal. For some reason, big things, it feels easier for me to pray really quick. Little things, it is harder for me to pray first. You want to go in and fix. I want to go in and fix. I mean, I think about the things at work. You’re dealing with 100-something kids a day. There’s a million different nuanced scenarios, and this kid’s got this thing. And you just want to kind of go into like cross-off-your-list fix-it mode versus like, I need to go really quick for a walk. I’m going to pray about this. Make sure I’m thinking clearly before I make this choice. But it’s easy for me to slip into like, just got to get it done. That’s a good nuance to catch. Because I know too many people, myself included, when some setback happens, it’s just a little easier to complain for a minute. Or a lot of minutes. And again, psychologically and culture, you get a lot more attention for complaining these days than you do for good news. I mean, you post something like, you know, Facebook is such a weird place, but you post something that’s sad and you get lots of like sympathy and like praying for you and all the comments. You post something good happening and, you know, your aunt and, you know, grandparent, like give you a thumbs up, but it just doesn’t spread. You see it with news. Like, that’s the scariest, saddest thing is what they’ve seen with news in the age of social media. You know, now, like, we all lived in a time when you just watched Channel 2 or Channel 5 or Channel 4, and that was all you had. And now in the age of social media and, like, the resharing of stuff, they’ve seen – and I could be wrong, so if you’ve heard the stat, correct me. But it was something like a negative story spreads seven times faster than a positive story. So negative news spreads seven times faster than a positive news. So that tends to be the thing people gravitate towards. It’s weird. I don’t get it. That’s why the news is like it’s at. Exactly. Well, and if you really want to go dark with me, I teach business, so I see this in real life. It’s all about money in the end. Because if the news channel wants to keep their ratings so that way they have enough ratings, they can charge more for commercials. I mean, it makes you. Like you’re just supposed to be, anyway, it’s fine. I’m a little bit of an old man, so you’ll, it’s okay. My wife doesn’t know what to do with me. But when you think about this idea, I like question C a lot. So I didn’t, I mean, the first two questions we talked about, but question C I think is really important because it drives it really home for us. Think about the brokenness in the world that actually moves us to grief and prayer. Not necessarily something in our own life. I mean, yes, it can be in your own life. But the things in the world around us. Nehemiah, this is not sin that he directly has committed. But there’s sin in the world that crushes him. Think about the things that just break your heart. And they’re the things that bring you quickly to your knees, for better or worse. I think I told you guys a few weeks ago, there was a day, it was a Wednesday. I learned things that some students had done at school that I did not wish I had learned that they did. And it grieved me the whole way home. I came home grumpier to my own kids because it just bothered me so much. And it was one of those where I had to kind of wrestle through that frustration and disappointment and sadness and the sin of it being so ugly to get to the point where it was like, okay. I need to pray for more kids name by name every day. Like, I just have to. There’s nothing I can do about this. I’m not their parents. Like, that’s something I can do. So think about it. When you think about that question, like, what brokenness in the world today actually moves you to the point of just heavy grief? And hopefully prayer. You know, I just was staring too. That’s why I was like. The babies and the little children. Yeah. All of that. Yeah. I know. Why do parents or even people want to hurt? I know. It agonizes me. I don’t know if you’re like me. I catch myself clicking on the news story and then being really upset that I did. but not being able to stop reading the news. It’s just this horrible… I mean, that’s why we did foster care, honestly. It was just… You hear all the news of, like, there’s so many kids in the system, and you’re like, okay, we’ve got a spare bedroom. I mean, who knew that my tribe would be quite what they are? God knew. I did not know. But it should, honestly, daily… There should be brokenness and hard things in the world that push us to a grief that forces us to pray. And I think that’s the beauty. It’s got to make Satan so angry that the brokenness in the world, God uses to push us back to him. It must frustrate him so much. But we should see things that upset us and that drive us to prayer. So this last question kind of goes with that one. Do I feel the weight of what God cares about or am I numb? I think if you can’t come up with a list of like all of these things in life that the brokenness of the world around me and it upsets me, pushes me to prayer, then there’s a good chance like it has just numbed us. I know I felt that way before. We’re like just hearing the news. hearing the bad reports, knowing the things the kids have done, it just numbs you after a while. I think it’s self-protection when you kind of go numb, where you’re like, I just can’t process anymore. It’s too much. I’m just going to check out. And it’s not the right answer, but it’s natural to do. I mean, I think that’s why we have people that get into bad habits with alcohol, with food, with… Even, like, media. Just, like, I know kids who are… They don’t know Bible characters, but they know who all the Kardashians are. They’re terrible people. Like, the Kardashians are just terrible people. There’s no way to cut it. God made them, like, but terrible lifestyles. But it’s interesting. We had a… We have chapel every Wednesday at school. And my buddy Chris was the speaker today for chapel. And he… I wish I could do it justice really quickly. But he was talking about a passage at the end of 2 Corinthians 3, I think. And it was this short little moment. And he was talking about how the things that we behold are the things that we become. Which is a beautiful thought. And he did a great job. And I’m a watcher. So when I’m in chapel, I’m listening, but I’m also like, We are technically, we’re supposed to, like, if kids are getting rowdy, we’re supposed to kind of help the crowd. And they are kids. And so I’m watching. And, like, I would say half to two-thirds of the kids are like, wow, like, I never thought about it like that, which was very cool. And then the other third, I mean, who knows where they were mentally. And it just, it was like, oh, guys, like, you’re numb. Like, you’re numb. Like, you genuinely don’t care about the things that God cares about. And there’s a weight to that, but they’re just numb. But I think we’ve all been there at times. When we just go into seasons that we’re just overloaded, I think it would have been very easy for Nehemiah to go a little numb. And maybe he was for a bit. Maybe that’s how the king saw him, was just kind of like dazed and numbed by the hard news. So when we look at the second part here, the questions that lead us into
The prayer part. I want to reread the prayer in 2 little chunks just because I love thinking how he approaches this. Verse 5. I said, I beseech you, Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and fearsome God who keeps the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. Let your ear now be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your slave, which I am praying before you today. Day and night on behalf of the sons of Israel, your slaves, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which we have sinned against you. I and my father’s house have sinned. I mean, how does that strike you? I mean, we talked about this a little before, that like he’s talking about the collective sin of all the Israelites. But how does that really strike you? It takes days to confess it. I mean, it would take days to confess it.
I mean, that is an agonizing amount of, like, information. Full surrender. Full surrender. I mean, there’s no pretense anymore. He’s completely… The word I would use to describe, tumble. You know, Ezra, we saw a lot of humility in Ezra. But I think in Nehemiah, we’re going to see a lot of humility. They were not perfect men. Like, they did not do a perfect job of everything. And it’s… Ironically like this is not meant to be a spoiler alert but like you kind of get to the end of Ezra last week and it just they send the people away and then it’s over and then you know we to the end of Nehemiah and I won’t totally give it away but like and it just kind of ends so like it wasn’t as though like they they you know I did that last week too yeah it’s got to be one of those like flaps in the HVAC that like opens and closes whatever those things are there’s uh.
You know, dampers. John knew the word. I was really glad because I wasn’t going to get there. But it’s, Nehemiah is a humble man. Despite the fact that not everything goes perfect and they don’t usher in a new, like, you know, Solomon age of Jerusalem. But they are humble men who deeply care about the things that God cares about. I love that. I’ll say it again. They’re deeply humble men who care about the things that God cares about.
We should be people who care about the things that God cares about. But when we read just those few verses, 5 through 7, not only is he praising God, like Terry said before, I beseech you, Yahweh, God of heaven, the great and fearsome God who keeps the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. This is a nerdy comment. My favorite Bible word, at least top 3, Sandy knows what it is.
I mean, it’s loving kindness. Not every translation says it. Some say faithful love, which is also great. But it’s not loving kindness squished together in 1 word. And I think the Hebrew word is pronounced hesed. Say it louder. Hesed. That’s amazing. Yeah. I’m not taking language classes. I have to do it.
That’s actually pretty funny. Yeah. It’s spelled Hesed, H-E-S-E-D. But it sounds way cooler when someone says it with the accent. It’s 1 of my favorite Bible words. So I just had to pause there and tell you that. Maybe it can be your favorite Bible word too. Nevertheless, then he asks God, let your ear now be attentive and eyes open to the prayer I’m praying today. So he’s praising God and then asking him to hear his prayer. And then immediately goes into…
We have sinned against you. And again, he’s not making any excuses. He’s not trying to explain it away. He’s not trying to, what’s the word? Make excuses. Make excuses, pass blame, I guess is what I’m going for, but I can’t come up with a good word. Blame shift. Yes, that’s it, blame shifting. He just owns it. It was our sin.
I am repenting for our people. And he goes on in verse 7. So, Not only have we sinned against you, we haven’t done any of the things. We have not kept the commandments or statutes or judgments that we learned from Moses. So he owns it all. And then continues on in 8. Remember the word which you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though those of you who have been banished were at the ends of the sky, I will gather them from there and bring them to the places.
Do you hear the promise in that? It’s so neat. It reminds me of when he comes back and gathers all of us. That’s right. Me too. I read that and I get goosebumps because I’m like, that’s Jesus. Even though you have disobeyed and been scattered, I will bring you back like his lost lambs. It’s such a, oh, I love, I’m glad you caught that too. What is it?
He’s praying with his words back to him. And that’s a very powerful way to pray. To pray back God’s promises to him. Because I always think it’s really funny. It starts in verse 8. Remember the word. Which is neat in scripture when we pray. Remember God.
We all know God didn’t forget. But it’s neat because it happens a lot when people will invoke it that way. And they’ll be like, remember your servants, Lord. And it’s, I don’t know, it’s neat. Like I know there’s a little bit of theology behind that idea. Because those who don’t have full context of the Bible will look at it and go, well, did God really forget them? When we know, like, well, of course not.
But it’s this neat, like, you know, remember the product. And it’s really another way of saying, like, can we come back? Is it okay to return? And it’s beautiful because it’s both parts of it. If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, which happened. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though those of you who have been banished were at the ends of the sky, I will gather them from there and bring them back to the place I have chosen to cause my name to dwell.
What a cool way of saying that. I mean, it’s not just I’ll bring them back or we can go back to Jerusalem together and be pals. But, like, I will bring them, gather them from where they are and bring them to the place I have chosen to cause my name to dwell. I mean, it doesn’t take a Bible nerd to, like, kind of get excited because I want to be where God wants to dwell. Like, I want to be where he wants to cause his name to dwell. It’s beautiful. Man, it’s… So…
When you look at this, I keep answering questions ahead of time. On the question sheet, how does Nehemiah structure his prayer? He does walk through praise and then confession and petition. He walks through a very natural – and some people – we’ve used this with a lot of youth before. They call it the Acts prayer method. Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, thank you, and then supplication, which is a very similar structure of approaching God.
But the second question there, B, says, I would have put numbers, by the way, but I could not get Microsoft Word to stop putting letters. And I just… Sometimes when you spend like 14 minutes fighting with Microsoft Word, you’re like, letters are good. Like, you win. Didn’t matter that much anyway. Can’t believe I wasted so much time. What can the MIA teach us about praying in moments of crisis? Think about the part that I just…
Geeked out about for a little while. Specifically those last few verses we read over again a couple times. What does Nehemiah teach us about praying those things? Return to the word. Yeah. Return to the promises. Yep, return to the promises. God himself cannot argue with his own word. Yep. I mean, I think that’s, I know as a young guy, I know I’m not old, but older than I was,
I was older than I was yesterday. But I don’t think in, like, my 20s I particularly cared that much about the Psalms. Like, I liked my favorites. But, like, I don’t know, in the last, like, 10, maybe 15 years, like, the Psalms are – every year when I do my Bible reading and it runs through Psalms and, like, I don’t know, how many days this year did you spend in Psalms? Like, a week and a half?
It was really annoying. I was like, I’m mad at Bible plans now. You keep rushing through Psalms because I just want to sit and dwell. And the beauty of it is there’s so many moments, and not just in Psalms, but there’s so many spots in Scripture that remembering those things in those moments of prayer are what grounds us. Why have Scripture if it doesn’t actually ground us in a world that’s topsy-turvy and emotions that are all over the place and uncertainty and doubt?
But praying back scripture does exactly that. And it’s putting a very deep, what’s the word? Rest is not the word I want, but it’s really helping us to abide in the word, not just read the word. And that changes everything, which is very cool. So I think when I read that question, I know I wrote it, but when I read it again,
What does Nehemiah teach us about praying in moments of crisis? Go back to Scripture. Go back to the promises. Go back to the things that God said he was about. Hold on to those things. I cannot tell you how many days, and I hope somewhere I wrote them down digitally because the paper would be gone, the number of times in foster care. Our kids, we were their foster parents for 1,117 days. Like, when they came to our house, we were like, assured like this is for sure adoption we think it’ll be wrapped up in a few months not a big deal we’re like okay great and then it droned on for 3 and a half years and there are so many days that i was sitting like kids would go to lunch or something and I would just sit in the corner of my classroom and cry because you got another voicemail that was terrible i mean just horrible news and you’re expecting and we had to constantly go back to this idea um Claire and i like god is always good.
God is always good. He loves these kids more than we love them and can ever love them. And we have to just keep moving forward. And I’m not saying it was easy, but we had to continually go back to promises in Scripture because that’s a really easy way to derail yourself fast. So again, that question is an important one because we have to train ourselves. It does not happen on accident that hard things happen and we become people of great depth.
Rich humble prayer we often become people of prayer but maybe not deep humble prayer um you don’t have to answer this one out loud but question c in this moment we see Nehemiah confessing the sins of his people which leads me to have to ask you know think about the sins in your life or your family that need honest confession that’s again this is not a answer together situation.
Um, but that’s, that’s a hard question. That should be a question that we ask ourselves every day. Like every day there should be things we can list. They’re like, yes, here are ways that I did not measure up. I did not do what I was, whether, you know, gosh, one of my prayer books that we do with the kids at night, like, um,
Oh, now I’m going to forget the wording. I say it all the time. But in thought or word or deed, we’re asking for confession because it could be sins of omission. I mean, we always have messed up. Yeah. Sometimes you get to the point where you’re so aware and so engrossed in other people’s sins that you tend to forget your own. That’s a good reminder. That is a good reminder.
When you think about, and we can pick on the high schoolers, because they’re not here. They’re easy test studies in psychology. But it is easy as a high school teacher in 2026 to get frustrated at kids. And I have seen, even today, teachers not completely lose their cool, but very close to losing their cool. And I sincerely think it would be easy in those moments
when almost having lost their cool, I was not the one today who lost my cool, so I’m not speaking code. I would just tell you if it was me. It would be easy to blame the other, to only see the sin of the kids, of like, well, this is, you know, this just, versus my heart also has sin.
You know, we talk about that in my own kids all the time, the whole plank versus stick in your splinter in your eye. It’s like, honey, leave your brother alone. Like, go take care of your plank. Leave him alone. Like, go. It’s not in one specific kid. It’s all of them. I wrote this question, but I think I’m going to rephrase it. I wrote number D or letter D. Do I actually trust God’s covenant promises when things look ruined?
It’s hard. What does it look like to trust God’s promises when things look ruined? Going back to 9-11, it was hard. It was hard. Really, really hard. But then weeks after, when you saw the movement that the country made, you knew. But it is hard sometimes at first. It is. It is. I think…
And that’s a big, big example with 9-11. I think even in the little examples, like it’s, I probably overshare. So Terry, you can tell me later if I do. Terry will always be honest with me. Yesterday, yeah, yesterday. So I’ve told you before, like Jack had some really hard years from like kindergarten through like really the fire. And things turned around then. But Bear, Bear is not a problem kid.
Like, he’s squirrely and bizarre and, like, he’s a handful. But he’s not a problem kid. He just, he’s also, he’s a slow processor. So, like, whenever something has upset him, he has a hard time explaining what it is that upset him, which then makes him even more frustrated. Well, yesterday at school, he apparently, there was a kid in his class who he hit and called him an idiot.
Which was very out of character. Like that’s, he’s in 2nd grade and nothing like this has ever happened. And, you know, we get home and we talk about it and he has, there’s some consequences from us and there’s some consequences at school. And it was, it was, it was very easy for Clara, think about the mom heart, to go back really quick to the stress and anxiety and
The amped upness you felt for years when a different kid was having a hard time. And every time you got a phone call, you were just waiting for the shoe to drop. To then, all of a sudden, swells back up. And you start to feel, oh no, not again. And I was very quick to be like, honey, we have to hold on to, he is one, a very different kid.
Two, I think there’s way more to the story than what we’re getting out of him. Because getting a straight story out of Bear is like Morse code. I mean, it is. Like, bless his heart. When he’s, like, amped up, he just can’t linearly tell a story. He just can’t do it. And so we rested in that. Like, we had a good time with him last night and talked about it. And he understood. Well, this morning, I was already at school.
They were eating breakfast and it comes out, the kid that he hit and called an idiot was making fun of him. And so when Bear was a little bitty, foster care, we didn’t have a choice, they put something on his teeth to like protect them from something, but it made some of his teeth turn kind of brown in the back. And this kid was making fun of him and telling him he was dirty and didn’t brush his teeth. And I mean, so finally here, I’m like, Clara, this makes sense. Like this is exactly, I mean, Bear still shouldn’t have known what he did.
Losing recess today was the right consequence, period. But I was like, we have to hold on to what we know. I know that’s a silly example for this question, but this is real life. Like in the really big things, we can see how holding on to God’s promises matter. But even in those little moments, I still have to hold on to like, God, you’re still good. This was a weird blip. We’re going to move past this. He’s going to learn the lesson. It’s not going to happen again. Did the other kid have consequences?
As far as I know, it doesn’t sound like it. And we actually, we’re very, we get along really well with the principal and the assistant principal. And we, Claire was like, should I message? I’m like, absolutely. Like, at the very least, the other kiddo needs to know, like, you can’t pick on people. Like, you can’t make fun of kids. It’s called bullying. It’s bullying. That’s exactly what it is. It’s bullying. And Bear is shorter and, or he’s smaller than most of his class. He’s just a little guy.
And he is really tenderhearted. Of all of our kids, like, I mean, he could happily watch Paddington until he’s 40. I mean, he’s just very tenderhearted. But he, all I know is from Bear. So, again, straight story is hard, so I have to be okay with it. The other kid didn’t have to apologize or do anything. And it was like, okay, well, in the end, we’re going to hold on to, like,
God will use this. It is okay. He had a consequence. He learned that’s not how he can handle someone bullying him. But still, holding on to God’s promises in those moments, the little moments that are like, again, it’s like a Tuesday. By the end of the week, I won’t remember it anyway. But it’s still holding on to promises matter in the little things just as much as the big things. Any thoughts before we move on to chapter 2?
Okay, let’s read chapter 2.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Do they still hold on to that? Yeah. Do they walk away from that? Yeah. Do they just get angry with God and say, forget it? Well, do they really have the faith? I’m not so sure. Right. Real faith, trust in this. Yeah. Amen. It will make it all right. Yeah. There was a really, really good book I read. I read like 5 or 6 books about like loss and grief after the fire. And
It was called Therefore I Have Hope, which is quoting back to Lamentations 3, 22, somewhere there. But it was written by a guy who had been a youth pastor, and he was on a camping trip with his youth kids. So he was at a church thing, and he gets back to his phone the next morning in his truck, and it hadn’t had service where they were camping. And he has like, I mean like 50 missed calls from his wife. Never a good thing. And in the night, their 3-year-old just died.
And they still, to this day, I don’t think they actually knew what caused it. He just never woke up. I mean, it was horrible. But the book’s premise was, and I think he wrote this in his intro, that he said he had always wondered, having been through seminary, being a pastor, working in church, how would he handle tragedy?
Like, what would his response to tragedy be? And he said, I always hoped, and I’m paraphrasing. He always said, like, I hoped it would be like the sweet 90-year-old ladies at my church that just have this deep, abiding faith that’s real and tested. I always hoped it would be that way. But I didn’t know. And praise the Lord, like, it did.
And he kind of in the end wraps up. He’s like, the whole book he’s unraveling and trying to understand. I have all this theological knowledge. Like I’m a trained pastor. Like I’ve been to seminary. I know all the right answers. But now I have to actually walk it out. Oh, man. And one of the best books I’ve ever read. But in the end, I think he kind of comes to that conclusion of like, I am enormously thankful because of the Lord’s goodness that that’s how I responded.
Like, he didn’t make it easy. But he still could cling on to faith even when it was hard. So, I mean, that’s a great reminder because it’s so, so easy. And we see it happen a lot of people just letting go because it was just too hard. And it’s equally heartbreaking. Okay, chapter 2. Here, I thought we were going to, like, get out early.
All right. Chapter two. Chapter two. Now, it happened in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes that wine was before him. And I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had not been sad in his presence. So the king said to me, why is your face sad, though you were not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.
Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father’s tombs, lies waste and its gates have been consumed by fire? And the king said to me, what would you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. I said to the king, if it is good for the king and your servant, it is good before you. Send me to Judah, to the city of my father’s tombs, that I may rebuild it.
Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, how long will your journey be and when will you return? So it was good to the king to send me and I gave him a set time.
And I said to the king, if it is good to the king, let letters be given for the governors of the provinces beyond the river, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress, which is by the house of God, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go. And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me.
Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond the river and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me commanders of the military force and horsemen. Then Sanbal, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite official, heard about it. And it was a very great evil to them that someone had come to seek the good of the sons of Israel. So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. I arose in the night.
I, and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my heart to do for Jerusalem, and there was no animal with me except the animal on which I was riding. So I went out at night by the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon Spring, and on the Dung Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and its gates which were consumed by fire.
Then I passed on to the Spring Gate and the King’s Pool, but there’s no place for my animal to pass. So I went up at night by the ravine, and inspected the wall. Then I turned and entered the Valley Gate, and turned around. Now the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, nor had I as yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the rest who were doing the work.
Then I said to them, “You see the calamity we are in, that Jerusalem lies waste and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so we will no longer be a reproach.” And I told them how the hand of my God had been good to me, and also about the king’s words, which he had said to me.
Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard it, and they mocked us and despised us and said, “What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” So I responded to them with a word, and I said, “The God of heaven will give us success. Therefore we his slaves will arise and build. But you have no problem, right, or remembrance in Jerusalem.” So it’s a long section.
But I think it’s really cool because the narrative starts to pick up, and we start seeing neat things happen. So I jotted in the outline on the front page, we see there’s really 4 little chunks here. God gives Nehemiah this really special moment between he and the king. I mean, this is one of those moments where you can only – the only excuse for this is God’s providence, that God put this into the king’s heart.
Then – Nehemiah is ready and prepared, and he gives his request. And he’s very clear about what he needs. He’s clear about the timeline, and he presents it before the king. And then Nehemiah ends it in verse 8 with, “And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me.” Then we get to a little bit later, verse 11 through 16. Nehemiah goes and inspects Jerusalem’s walls, but he does it at nighttime.
And he doesn’t do it when the officials don’t know he’s out. He and only a few men went out. And he starts to figure out the plan before saying he’s only been there a couple days. And then the last bit in 17 through 20, we see Nehemiah’s response and his call to build, but also some of the opposition that shows up as well. On the back page, there are…
Way more questions than we will have time to cover, which is fine because you get to take your paper home. It is your paper forever. Do we need to turn it in? No, you don’t have to turn it in. Grading is my least favorite part of teaching. It’s terrible. What do you think? I’m going to try and wrap a few questions into one. What do you think about the moment where the king notices Nehemiah? What do you think about that? How does that strike you?
Yeah. I mean, it even says, “I had not been sad in his presence.” So he had done a good job of keeping his game face or poker face. I don’t have a poker face. I’m a terrible, terrible liar. It’s just all over my face. That has gotten me in trouble a few times in life. But I’d rather that than, I guess, being good at the other. But I love, it can only be God.
So the king says to me, “Why is your face sad, though you are not sick?” And then the second part he says is so cool. “This is nothing but sadness of heart.”
Have you ever had someone catch you? You really didn’t think you were showing it. And someone catches you like, “Something’s off. What’s going on?” I hope so. It’s very awesome and off-putting at the same time.
It’s – you don’t necessarily enjoy it because you’re like, “Oh, I have been found out.” But also it’s that whole age old like we deeply desire to be known and loved, but we fear being known and loved. So but it’s the same, like when it happens, though, you’re like, “Oh, but also, oh, thank goodness I can talk about it now.” I mean, it’s – it’s such a good thing.
It speaks to the fact that what a good servant he was and how the king could trust him. Absolutely. I mean, it’s incredible. The king trusts him enough and loves him enough to ask him. He’s the king. He doesn’t have to do squat. From what I gathered, I don’t remember where I read it, but this period in the empire was not like without – issues in far off areas. So like, I don’t know the timeline, but at least sometime around this, when Nehemiah is asking to rebuild the wall, there’s issues in Egypt. So like in that part of the empire, there was fighting, there was some revolts, there were things happening. There was one somewhere else that I’m forgetting the name of now. So the kingdom is not perfectly smooth. So there are some who in like commentaries made the comment.
It could also be that the king was thrilled to pieces to have a loyal city with walls rebuilt between Egypt and them. I mean, we don’t know that for sure. But again, it’s a neat thing in the sense of how God is working out and moving these pieces. But he loves Nehemiah enough to ask, and Nehemiah is courageous enough in the moment to actually say something.
Think about when someone’s asked you and you, you’re like dying to talk to someone about whatever you’re upset and frustrated or stressed about. And then they finally do ask you, what do you say? “Oh, I’m fine.” And there are times that is easier and the appropriate, like you’re passing someone in the hall who doesn’t actually have time to. I know that I’ve done that before where I’m like, “I will not say I am fine. I will give you a real answer.” And then you even give the Cliff Notes and they’re like, “Oh, I did not know.” And you’re like, “You did not really want to know.” But in this case, he did want to know. The king notices. It opens the door.
Think about the courage it takes, though, to say something and to not say, “Oh, it’s fine.” Like, there is wisdom in knowing when to say it’s fine. I mean, it’s not someone who really wants to know and maybe doesn’t really care. I get it. But when it’s someone…
I don’t know why. Something must have happened at some point in the last 20 years. When someone asks me how I’m doing, I try really hard not to default to “I’m fine.” I try to say, “Oh, we’re doing okay.” It’s the same, but it just feels better because I didn’t say “I’m fine.” Think about the kind of courage it takes to seize an open door like that. That takes a lot of courage. Yeah, he just kept asking. Yeah. I mean…
Like, I mean, yeah, he gives off, like, “Where is it? Let the king live forever. But why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father’s tomb, lie in waste and its gates have been consumed by fire?” And the king, of course, is wise enough to then ask for more. And he, let’s see. Oh, I forgot about verse 4. We have to stop here. The king asks him, “What would you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
We could stop there right now. Yes, he prayed before. Yes, I’m sure he had some ideas. But he didn’t just spit it out. It was a, okay. I mean, we have no idea how long that moment is. But it doesn’t matter because it’s talking to God. And God does not need him to talk to him for 45 minutes to get a clear workaround. He acknowledges the need of God. And then he replies to the king. I don’t like that spot.
I almost forgot it. This is where I need to . That’s a good thought. Yeah. So there’s also this angle of, what is the mood of the king? Because this guy has the power of life and death on everybody. That’s right. And sometimes they can take that wrong.
“Who are you coming to ask me about this?” It could have went south really quick. Very quick. And so it took courage. So it’s sort of an echo of what he does with the Lord. Not only was he humble, but he was boldly humble. And now he’s being boldly humble with the earthly king through the middle of this. So that’s really, he did take a risk. He stuck his neck out perfectly. That’s a very cool thought.
And I think he stuck his neck out in a very literal sense of, like, there’s not that many situations, I actually don’t know if I have any, that, like, me saying something will cause my imminent death. Like, I can’t think of any. Like, I don’t know if you guys can. I really can’t think of anything that would cause my imminent death for saying something. There probably is, but not here. Nevertheless, I probably hold back and don’t always say the courageous thing with far less on the line. Yeah, Terry.
Brian: Nehemiah strikes me as a very bright and willing to follow God’s direction type of guy. He doesn’t rush in. He takes 3 nights to go out and scout. He could have just come in like me and made a mess of everything, and he didn’t. I’m impressed with his willingness to follow God’s plan and not his own.
I am too. And it’s, you know, I think it’s funny. Several commentaries I looked through, they kind of hijack Nehemiah as this like how-to leadership seminar, which is not untrue. But it’s so much richer and better because it’s a man who is humble, a man who is articulate and bright, and one who is willing to be courageous and obey God.
Like, yeah, it makes great leadership seminar, but I kind of, I’ve just seen Nehemiah get hijacked into a leadership seminar too much and regular non, you know, business leaders also need the wisdom of Nehemiah. Um, the second part here, we’re getting five through eight. So question group two, um,
What does Nehemiah teach us? This is question B. What does Nehemiah teach us about planning with prayerful intentionality? I’m crazy. Some of you already figured this out. Quirky, crazy, you can assign a lot of words to it. I’m okay with them all. I tend to run down situations that I know I might encounter in my head before I encounter them. My wife genuinely thinks I’m a little nuts. Whatever. I am.
But I just… You’re a guy. And maybe that’s what it is. Does that feel familiar? I’m always running down scenarios of how that conversation or that thing or that interaction might go just so I mentally have a little bit of a framework. It’s not usually how it ever goes, but it’s just mentally always churring up there. I don’t know. When I think about Nehemiah, I don’t see him scheming in the slightest.
He’s not playing Eagle Scout with having being prepared and having a backup plan. But he’s planning very, very prayerful, which I think is very cool. I mean, we know he’s been praying for days before he even goes into the king’s presence. He’s not sad. That has led the way for the things that are going to happen with the king right here.
His prayerful intentionality is opening up these doors. It reminds me of, I don’t know if you guys remember, and I think it’s Daniel chapter 10, but don’t quote me. We can look it up later. There’s a moment when Daniel is praying. And Daniel’s in exile too. And Daniel, it’s when the king builds his big giant statue.
And they all had to bow down. And so he starts praying immediately, which, of course, is what all the bad guys want him to do. And they knew he would. But nevertheless, like in that moment, there’s this really. Oh, man, it’s like maybe one of the coolest. The veil gets pulled back on the spiritual world moments where Daniel’s praying.
And an angel shows up, and he’s like, “I’m so sorry I was delayed. I had to fight the prince of Persia.” And you’re like, whoa, keep talking. Like, I want to know more of the things happening here. And then, like, then the veil just closes again. You’re like, dang it. My point being, Daniel was praying for days before word ever came from that angel. Like, there is a deep need, and we see it over and over again in Scripture, of prayerful preparation.
And not necessarily taking our own hands. Letting God work out the details. And us being alert enough to watch for the opportunities. And it’s very, like, maybe this is American. I don’t know. It’s very American to be like, “I’m going to roll up my sleeves.” I work all day with my sleeves rolled up. I love rolled up sleeves. But it’s very much our mentality of like, “I’m going to solve this. I have a plan. We’ll figure it out.” Versus sometimes I need to stop. And I need to go back. And I need to seek the Lord.
And watch for the opportunity. But instead of just not preparing, be courageous enough to take the opportunity when it happens. Which is what Nehemiah did. And we can see the results exactly of what happened. What God can do with that kind of courage and that kind of preparation. Which leads to the question there at C. Where have you seen God provide exactly what was needed? Where have you…
I’m hoping you can think of ways in your life, big and small, that you can see God provide. This is silly, but it’s real. I have thanked God for this many times, and I tell the kids this too at school. So the kids have iPads at school. I hate iPads. I mean, I like them. I have one. But, like, I hate the iPads at school. They’re just frustrating. And everything is super locked down, so you can’t use half the apps that you need to to do anything in business class. So we’ve been using for years iPads.
These ancient old MacBooks that were like teacher laptops, like 3 rotations ago. They’re finally getting to the point that they don’t really work anymore. It’s another story. But we were getting ready to try and ask for a donor so we could buy a new batch of laptops. Like we were just desperate. Like we’ve had these too long, doesn’t work. I mean, if you can’t teach the things you need to teach, you gotta do something. So we were sitting down this summer trying to figure it out and we realized.
There was a donor who had the summer before, so the summer I was in the tower house, so not the last summer, had said they wanted to give $2,500 a year for 6 years. Do you know how much money we needed to buy the new batch of laptops? Exactly that amount of money, which is awesome. And in the time when they gave the donation, they were like, “We want you to use it for something for the business department. We just really believe in what you guys are doing. We love the whole faith and work initiative, like whatever you can.” We were like, “Okay, thank you.” Like I am,
I tend to be a little bit of a hoarder when it comes to that, because I’m like, I don’t want to waste it when someone gave you a gift. It’s like, you want to use it for the right thing. So I didn’t have anything earmarked for it. I was like, do I need to spend it right away? And they’re like, “Not at all.” Well, it comes up, and I’m like, “We actually have the money.” And our CFO was like, “Oh, if you have the donor, the money’s already coming in. You can pre-spend it.” And we’re like, “Oh, thank the Lord.” I mean, it’s silly. It’s just laptops. They will make my life easier every day.
That is a great example of like, it’s silly, but it’s God providing exactly what we needed. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah.
I mean, I genuinely, I hope you, as you drive home tonight and think about that one, I hope you can look at spots where you can see, wow, God did provide. I didn’t necessarily realize it in the moment, but that’s exactly what I needed. And I just, I love it so much. Okay, we have to move. So when Nehemiah goes to look at the wall, the second part of 2. So we really have him with the king. Second part is the wall. Why does he keep his plans quiet at first?
Why is he kind of reluctant to announce what he’s doing? Yeah. Wisdom. Yeah. Too many talkers. Yeah. And I think there’s, like, not knowing who to trust, not knowing how news will get out to the opposition that lives around them. And… Gosh. I think any time…
You come into a role like Nehemiah is doing. You’re going to get a lot of opinions from everybody who’s already there, which is fine. But that begs the question, like, what have you been doing? Like, why are you giving me all this opinion? What have you been doing this whole time about building this wall that doesn’t exist?
That’s a big assumption in LEAP. But I think there is wisdom and it’s like, “I’m going to go do an assessment so that I can pray about this and I can genuinely seek the Lord versus being influenced by a million opinions.” Like, does it mean we shouldn’t seek the opinions? Does it mean we don’t? But it just means there is some wisdom and like the Lord knows and I need a fresh perspective that’s kind of unjaded. Of course, they’re going to be jaded. They’ve been living in a burned out city for years.
So I think that’s part of it. The second question I wrote, and they’re really B and C, I think. We have to think about what that teaches us about rushing into a situation and evaluating. I am a huge advocate at school. When kids come to complain to you about other teachers way more than I feel comfortable with, you’re like, “I work with, I actually like him. I had lunch with him yesterday.” And I’m like…
I’m a huge advocate for him. I’m like, “Have you asked him questions? Did you go and ask her what she was talking about?” Like, you’re really mad at that teacher. Do you know what she means? And they’re always like, “Well, no.” I’m like, “Don’t go in hot. Go in with a couple of good questions.” Like, there’s something to be said. Like, when we think about evaluating a situation, it’s easy to react really quick or feel like we have to have an answer. Sometimes we need to back up and, like, have some patience.
There was a very, very dumb 80s movie called Fools Rush In. I don’t know that I ever saw the whole movie, but I remember the title because it stuck with me. But that’s true. Fools tend to rush into situations versus backing up, slowing down, waiting for God’s timing, and listening in obedience. Okay, because we’re short on time, the last few questions. 17 through 20 is when Nehemiah is before the people.
And he’s calling them, “Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so we will no longer be a reproach.” And I told them how the hand of God had been good to me and about the king’s words, which he had said to me. And they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. There’s more to this passage than we have time for. But I love that little part because he stands up and tells them not only do we need to build, but he tells them the story of God’s faithfulness.
I mean, people need to know the story of God’s faithfulness in our own lives, too. That’s why I told you guys this before. There’s something to be said for grabbing your phone or a voice recorder and just recording your story. Anything you can remember of your life, of the way God’s been faithful, and the ways this was hard, but God showed up here. Because then there’s a record for the future. That’s where, I think we talked about this a few weeks ago, how young people today…
don’t know their family stories. They might know what their mom and dad do, but they really don’t know what grandma and grandpa did. They don’t know what that great, great, great aunt so-and-so did. They don’t even know their names anymore. The stories haven’t been handed down. And I love it because Nehemiah, I told them how the hand of my God had been good to me and also of the king’s words that he said to them. And their response, because of the story of God’s faithfulness and the king’s words, then they said, “Let us arise and build.”
And they strengthen their hands for the good work. That’s pretty cool. Like, who doesn’t love a story of God’s faithfulness? I mean, there’s a reason.
Like, whether you like Hallmark or not, there’s a reason Hallmark movies or Great American Country or whatever the new channels are now, there’s a reason people like those movies. It’s like everybody’s amped up and excited and then the movie just ends, which I hate that part. It’s the worst part of all those Christmas movies is you get sucked into the story and your wife falls asleep and you didn’t really even want to watch it. And then you get to the end of the movie and it all wraps up and like,
42 seconds. And you’re like, “I just watched 2 hours and that’s all you can give for the what? Feels irresponsible.” Um, what do I know? Um, so we know what Nehemiah calls the people to do and the people respond to his call enthusiastically and, and, and, and based upon God’s faithfulness. Think about though, how do we respond when our obedience is…
is questioned or ridiculed. Because that’s what they experience shortly after. They’re not only ridiculed, but they are beaten over the head. They are mocked. They are despised. Because they are being obedient. Which should point us to someone else who was obedient and mocked and despised. It’s foreshadowing for Jesus. A type. And the typology idea. So, because we’re short…
The last stuff there in the bottom of the page under the note lines. Nehemiah felt this burden. He prayed about it. He approached the Lord in humility. And as a result, God opened up an opportunity with the king. The king, because of Nehemiah’s prayers and God’s providence ahead of time, the king believed.
Allows all the things that Nehemiah hoped and wanted to do. In Nehemiah, chapter 2, verse 8, “The good hand of my God was upon me.” The beauty of Nehemiah, I think, and the beauty of Ezra 2, is that, again, the story doesn’t just end here.
We’re going to read Nehemiah over the next few weeks, and by Thanksgiving, I think we’re done. But Nehemiah’s story points all the way to the cross. Nehemiah’s story doesn’t stop here, because all of this future hope and redemption and trusting covenant promises is exactly what we see in Jesus.
So a couple questions to wrap us up. And they’re kind of the ponder as you go home questions. When hard news hits your life, does your instinct reveal a heart trying to fix things on its own? Or a heart trying to run to the one who rebuilds what sin has ruined?
I tried to make it a little more, you know, practical or personal. But I think those are the 2 inclinations I see most in my heart. Sometimes it’s the running to the one I have messed up. Other times it’s the, I got to fix it. I got to fix it right now. And it’s a delicate thing. It takes a great deal of wisdom to handle that well.
The second part there is when God lets you see the brokenness in and around your life, do you try to carry it alone or do you bring it to Jesus, the true and greater Nehemiah, so he can restore what you cannot?
Man, I preach this to my high school kids all the time. But I think all of us need it just as much because we are just as tempted to do things on our own. We’re just as tempted to let it be about us. We’re just as tempted to… To carry it ourselves and figure it out. Versus surrender it at the cross. We’re still humans.
The high schoolers are easy to pick on because they aren’t here. And they’re goofy. But we’re the same people. It’s just like when we read the story of the Hebrews. It’s really easy to go, wow. The Hebrews were dumb. So are we. Because we are the same human beings. In need of a savior. You know, if we didn’t. Jesus didn’t have to die if we didn’t need a savior. And we need a savior. So.
I love it. Nehemiah is a lot of fun. So any thoughts before we pray? Okay.
All right. Let’s pray. Perfect time. Father God, thank you. Thank you for Nehemiah. Thank you for Ezra the last few weeks. God, thank you for helping us to slow down.
Even when we’re covering a lot in 1 week. God, thank you for the ability to dig into spots in Scripture that don’t get paused on very much to help us learn lives that point toward you and lives that are humble and lives that are courageous and obedient. God, I’m thankful for our class. I look forward to this every week.
God, I pray you bless us as we go. Help us to wrestle through these questions and to honestly look at our hearts and leave them before you. We ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
All right. Thank you all.
