Having set the scene by explaining the historical background of Nehemiah, it’s important, however, for us to understand that the Bible is not simply a history book. It is living and active and has relevance for us in our everyday lives. As we study how God’s people have reacted and responded to Him, we can learn many lessons which help us to live well for God in the 21st century.
Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah all show us the value of faithfulness and obedience, demonstrating that personal faithfulness and obedience can have significant impact on society. Esther became the wife of the Persian king and was instrumental in saving the Jewish nation from extinction. It’s possible that she was influential in Nehemiah’s appointment as cup-bearer to the king Artaxerxes, a key role since it brought him into daily contact with the king.
God can arrange for His people to be in important and influential positions (think of Joseph and Daniel as other examples.) Whatever role we are called to, however, faithfulness and obedience are the key ingredients to success. God has chosen us (see 1 Cor 1:26-31) and has His plans, but we have the choice as to whether we cooperate with Him or not. God calls us and we respond. Nehemiah’s key role in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem was the direct consequence of his response to God’s call, but it’s clear that God had been working in his life well before this time, preparing him for the role and using the time of apparent ‘ordinary’ service to the king as part of that preparation. In Mark’s series on Joseph, we have seen how Joseph served faithfully in every role he had (including when in prison!) as preparation for his service to Pharaoh which saved the lives of many during the years of famine. Even Jesus served faithfully in obscurity for thirty years before God’s time for ministry began. None of us should despise the ordinary service God requires of us.
So often, when we think of heroes, we think of people doing extraordinary things. The key difference in being one of God’s heroes is that it is God who does the extraordinary; we are simply required to obey, which often seems decidedly ordinary and unspectacular! In 2 Kings 5, we read the story of how Naaman (commander of the army of the king of Aram) was healed of leprosy. This remarkable story shows us how Naaman, inspired by the faith of a Jewish servant girl, comes to the prophet Elisha for healing and is offended by Elisha’s solution: to bathe seven times in the River Jordan. Such an act seems to him demeaning, ordinary, ridiculous. There were plenty of rivers in his own country far superior to Jordan, he reasons! Some ‘great act’ on his part would have been acceptable, but this seems too mundane to be considered. Nonetheless, it was the ordinary obedience of responding to God’s word through Elisha which resulted in his healing. Our part in God’s work may be small, but it is still a part that is required. If He asks us to pray for someone, we often feel that words are too inadequate to achieve anything, but it is the act of obeying God which is required: He is the One who does the miracles!
Nehemiah proved throughout his life the value of faithfulness, stability and a correct use of authority. He was faithful in the ordinary: much of the book recounts his very practical dealings with the king, with officials, with bureaucracy, with the need for both prayer and action. Eugene Peterson says “The most practical thing we can do is hear what God says and act in appropriate response to it.” (‘Run With The Horses’, P 176) Nehemiah’s story is that in a nutshell: hearing what God was saying to him and acting in appropriate response to it. Our lives are just the same.