Following the Bible study last week, we have been considering the security of our salvation. This is often a ‘hot potato’ in Christian circles, with some branches of Christanity believing that salvation can never be lost and others believing that apostasy (the abandonment or renunciation of our faith) is possible. So often, it seems to me that there are many issues which I cannot resolve fully and I have to rest by faith in the fact that God knows everything, even if I don’t! Nonetheless, I do believe that the Bible reminds us frequently that we are saved by God’s grace, not by our own works, and that His love for us is far greater and deeper than most of us can even imagine.

That God takes the initiative in our salvation is obvious. Francis Thompson wrote about this in his famous poem ‘The Hound of Heaven’, which describes us as running away from God, only to be pursued by Him and ultimately found by Him. The story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) shows us a father who watches, waits and eagerly anticipates the return of his son. God loves us passionately and longs for us to return to Him. There is a huge difference between our wandering (in the hymn ‘Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing’ we sing ‘prone to wander, Lord, I feel it’) and apostasy, and we can be sure that God’s Spirit within us prompts us, urges us, nudges us constantly to remain close to Him. Nothing can separate us from God’s love (Rom 8:37-39) and we can rest secure in His pursuit of us:
‘Unrelenting grace
Never-failing mercy
Found me in my shame
And gave me life again

Father, You love me
I hear You singing
You are calling me home
You run towards me
With love and mercy
Though I’m unworthy
You pursue me

The moment I cried out
There You were, my rescue
In Your arms restored
Forever I am Yours

You’re ev’rything to me
Forgiven, I believe
Forever I am Yours
Forever I am Yours.’ (‘Pursue Me’, Worship Central)

Garry used the analogy of Google maps last night to remind us that God is both capable of looking after the ‘bigger picture’ and also looking after the fine detail of our lives.

On Google maps, we can look at the world in many different ways. We can zoom out and see whole countries. We can zoom in and see a town in connection to another town in order to look at the roads on which we must travel, so that we can plan the most effective route from A to B. We can zoom in even further and see the actual streets in a town and can ‘walk’ along those streets to see the landmarks, shops and signs we will actually encounter if we visit that street. Such detail can be incredibly useful when visiting unfamiliar places as a means of orientation before we arrive.

God is in total control of our world. Our God reigns (Rev 19:6, Ps 47:8, 1 Chron 16:31, Ps 93:1). We usually only really realise this with hindsight, when we look back on history and see how God has orchestrated events. So often, our view of the world is shaped by the media. We watch the news and see stories of desperation, war, famine and murder. We wonder at times why God allows despots to rise up and totalitarian regimes to flourish; we weep with those who weep and can feel extremely frustrated with and bewildered by God. Nonetheless, the Bible states clearly and firmly that God is in control. We may well never understand what God is doing in history, but we can trust that He is indeed working all things out according to His plans and purposes, which are ultimately for good.

‘Over our hopes; over our fears
God, you are over all
Over our joy; over our tears
God, you are over all

Great in power,
Exalted and lifted high
God, you will reign forever,
Forever we will glorify
God over all,
God over all

Over the earth; over the sky
God, you are over all
Over the dark; over the light
God, you are over all.

Whatever may come in this life
God, you are over all.’ (‘Over All’, Phil Wickham)

God is also in total control of our lives, knowing everything about us and working in every situation for our good. (Ps 139:1-6, Rom 8:28-29) Again, we are often bewildered by the things He allows into our lives: grief, sorrow, pain, illness, disappointment, rejection, abandonment by friends and family. We may well never understand why we have to go through some of the things we go through, but the Bible is adamant that God is for us (Rom 8:31) and that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Rom 8:37) Because of this, we can have confidence in our daily lives, for God cares about the hairs on our head and knows our every need. (Matt 6:25-34) We have a loving Father whose forgiveness, mercy and goodness extend to the ‘little things’ as well as the ‘big picture.’ Whether we zoom in or out of the detail of our lives, we will find God present in every detail.

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.

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.

Last night we had a special birthday to celebrate.

Dave spoke this morning from the book of Ruth. Non-Christians may well view the Bible as irrelevant, boring, violent or full of ‘thou shalt nots‘, but tucked away in its pages, we find this unusual love story which points also to the generous and undeserved love of God. Ruth, the eponymous heroine of the book, is seen as a remarkable woman, loyal and steadfast and ultimately extremely important since she was the great-grandmother of David and therefore features in the genealogy of Jesus.

The book is set in the time of the judges, when Israel did as they saw fit in their own eyes and lacked spiritual leadership (Judges 21:25). Elimelech (whose name means ‘my God is king’) chose to leave Bethlehem (‘house of bread’) during a time of famine for Moab. He took his wife (Naomi, ‘pleasant one’) and two sons with him, but what started as an understandable desire for food during famine turned into a ten-year stay during which not only Elimelech, but his two sons, died.

Elimelech, presumably, was trying to provide for his own family, but in doing so, he forgot to depend on God his king, allowing his sons to marry women from Moab, which God had expressly forbidden. He sought bread, but found graves instead. When we step out of God’s will, we lose our joy and gain only bitterness and death (Naomi refused to be known by her name after this, wishing to be called ‘bitter’.) Yet 2 Chron 7:13-14 reminds us that when we face God’s restorative discipline, He has made a way through repentance for us to return to Him.

Ruth’s devotion to Naomi (Ruth 1:16-17) reminds us that God’s purposes are worked out through individuals who are prepared to stand for Him. She is a jewel of hope, refusing to abandon Naomi and modelling love and loyalty for us. Naomi returns to Bethlehem, hearing reports of better times there and understanding the need to repent. Five of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 are urged to repent by Jesus and this is always the way to revival.  God calls us to repent, to humble ourselves and pray and depend on Him for all we need. When we do this, we will find He is with us to bless and to make beauty out of ashes.