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| MAZ 2015 - Building a Vatu at Stotonic |
Preface:
Pastor Mouris is leading a community Bible study at La Crescenta Presbyterian
Church on Tuesdays from 11 to Noon and is taking us through the book of Nehemiah.
I’ve just finished the first paragraph of this post and now have no idea where
it will take me. I thought it was to be about the difference between a ‘joiner’
and a ‘builder’. God is great.
Nehemiah
was a builder. That much is well documented in the Old Testament book written
by him. The book answers the 5 W’s and one H questions. Who? What? When? Where?
Why? How? The ‘who’ is Nehemiah and a remnant of the exiles of Israel out of
Persia. The ‘what’ is that the wall of Jerusalem is rebuilt. The ‘when’ was
around 445BC, a little more than 100 years after the first wave of Israelites
had returned to Jerusalem with permission from King Cyrus. The ‘where’ is the
Kingdom of Judah’s capital, Jerusalem. I’ll address the ‘why’ below. The ‘how’ might
be better covered in a post all its own but, for the purpose of this post let’s
say by prayer, commitment to a vision, and by grace.
The
question as to why is taking me places I hadn’t thought to go. Like my
questions to my parents, my children of me, and now even my grandchildren, ‘why’
can be asked until we drill down to the depths of motivation. I could offer the
simple answer, “because God told him to”, and to the question, “Why did God
tell him to?” I would have to say, “God only knows”. I feel like that would be
cheating so I’ll drill down a little bit.
There
was no earthly reason for Nehemiah to uproot himself from Persia and go to a
city in ruins to build a wall that the residents and previously freed exiles
did not want. He was cupbearer to King Artaxerxes and had the complete trust of
the king who would eat or drink anything handed to him by Nehemiah. Nehemiah
lived in the palace, had everything he could want – food and shelter fit for a
king. Why then, did he go?
Nehemiah
was a godly man, given to prayer and fasting, and obedient to God’s Will. He
heard a report from his brother Hanani upon Hanani’s return from Jerusalem and
the province. The people who had returned there from exile ‘are in great
trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have
been burned with fire.” (Neh. 1:3) Nehemiah sat down and wept. He couldn’t
stand the thought of God’s people being in trouble or in disgrace and he went
into a time of mourning, fasting, and prayer. (Neh. 1:4)
His
prayers were full and complete. Nehemiah went to God with supplication for his
people and confession of his and their sins. He reminded God of His Word while
interceding for the people of Israel. His period of mourning carried over to
his job, which was to hand the King the cup, untainted with poison. The king
asked Nehemiah why his face looked so sad even though he was not ill. Nehemiah
tells us that he was very much afraid but told the king he was sad because he
could not be happy knowing his ancestral city was in ruins and the gates
burned. (Neh. 2:2-3)
I
love this part and want this in my life – when the king asked he
what he wanted Nehemiah tells us that, “Then I prayed to the God of heaven,
and I answered the king, ‘If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found
favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are
buried sot that I can rebuild it.” (Neh. 2:5) That is Nehemiah’s secret. He
is such a prayerful soul that he can pray and offer a response to the king in
the same breath. I want that.
I’ll
recap what I believe is the answer to why Nehemiah went to rebuild the wall. He
was a godly man. He prayed often and deeply. He fasted and as part of his
spiritual discipline and waited on God and listened for replies. He was
obedient. Obedient to the point of giving up the prime position on the king’s
staff. In this case, the ‘how’ was intertwined with the ‘why’. Because of these
things, Nehemiah had taken on aspects of God, namely God the Creator. Nehemiah
had it in him to create, to build. And that’s what he did.
I’ve
been asking myself while writing this, ‘Why am I writing it? What does it have
to do with my life? How will it affect me or rather, how will I use this to affect
change?’ There is something in me that is broken down and in disgrace,
something missing that needs to be rebuilt, a wall broken down and letting
things best locked out in, or a gate is broken that won’t allow people in that
need to be there. I pray that I am being obedient to His voice in this – I have
missed doing mission work and service with young people and in response we have
restarted Mission Arizona. There is something more, something deeper than this,
I know. I also know that it will come to me as I pursue obedience, just as
Jesus has done for me or to me, year over year.
I
encourage you to pray and seek God to find the wall that is broken in you, the
gate you need working to let Him in.
I
am in His grip, always.
Jerry
