Last night, Garry started a new series on Nehemiah. His previous series looked at God’s Heroes, and examined the Beatitudes to look at the characteristics God views as heroic. This new series focuses on one of God’s heroes in the Old Testament, Nehemiah, who was responsible for overseeing the rebuilding of the walls in Jerusalem after the exile.
The historical context of the book is very important (see below; click on the image to enlarge it.) The events narrated in Nehemiah are closely connected with the events narrated in the books of Ezra and Esther.
When Israel first entered the Promised Land, God warned them that obedience was a key requirement of their prosperity. Eventually, after years of repeated disobedience and idolatry, the Jews were deported from their land by invading forces and lived in exile for many years, a direct consequence of their sins. God, in His faithfulness, continued to work out His plans, however, using Persian kings (eg Cyrus, about whom Isaiah prophesied in Is 44:24-45:7 years before he came to power) to bring His people back to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was first destroyed and burned in 586 B.C. (2 Kings 24), a devastating blow to the Jews. After seventy years in exile (as prophesied by Jeremiah), Cyrus issued the edict to allow the Jews to return, and the first set of exiles to return were led by Zerubbabel (see Ezra 1-6). Ezra led the second set of exiles to return in 455 B. C. (see Ezra 7-10). Nehemiah is set after this time, as Nehemiah (still living in exile) hears about what is happening back in Jerusalem and decides that still more work is required!
The book shows us, therefore, the overarching fact that God is in control not only of our personal history but of world history. God’s history is linked to world history. He orchestrates history in ways that are often largely invisible to our eyes, but we must never be lulled into a sense that God is powerless. Ps 2 reminds us that no matter what world leaders may plan and devise, God is in ultimate control of the world and is working all His plans out with precise timing. The spread of the gospel was in no small part attributable to the historical context in which God worked: there was a common language (Greek), good road systems from the Romans and the ‘pax Romana’ meant that there was relative peace and Roman citizens could travel freely. God works in history!
The book also shows us the vital role that individuals make in God’s plans! He has prepared good works for each one of us to do (Eph 2:1-10) and although many of us feel that our lives are very ordinary and unspectacular, each individual role is vital to the success of God’s plans. We are all significant and need to understand that in God’s world, He is the One who does the spectacular and the impossible. All He requires from us is faithful obedience.