Nehemiah exemplifies a man of action, moving from deep concern for his people to decisive steps in rebuilding Jerusalem. After a period of patient waiting and prayer, Nehemiah bravely petitions the king for permission and resources to restore the city's walls. He then undertakes a clandestine nighttime inspection of the ruins, revealing the extent of the devastation and solidifying his resolve. Finally, Nehemiah inspires the people by sharing his vision and God's enablement, uniting them in a common purpose to rebuild despite impending opposition.
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Now in our previous study we were looking at chapter one of the book of Nehemiah. From our study of that chapter we examined this man from whom the book takes its name, the man called Nehemiah. We learned this outstanding thought concerning him that he was an exercised man. That is, he was exercised about the conditions of his brethren. Now remember he himself was in a good position, everything was going his way, but he was not satisfied with the report that he heard about those that were related to him.
And so it exercised his heart. He had a practical sympathy for them. He was willing to make a personal sacrifice for them. And he gave himself to prayer and from verse five right on to the end of the chapter we'll learn something of his prevailing supplication as he gave himself to supplicate God on behalf of God's people today I want to look at chapter two and we'll learn I trust from this chapter that Nehemiah became a man of action.
Before we read some verses from chapter two, let us bow our hearts in prayer. Our Father, as we turn again to thy word, our desire is that we might learn from it things that will stand us in good stead as we seek to live for thee on this earth. We pray for all thy people, that like Nehemiah we may be exercised in heart, but grant that we may become people of action, willing to do the things that thou dost instruct us about in thy word. Help us then to be obedient and to be willing to listen to what thy word has to say.
We ask these things in the Savior's precious name. Amen. Again I remind you then, and in chapter two we're going to learn things concerning this man Nehemiah, and he was a man of action. Let us look at the opening three verses of the chapter. Nehemiah chapter two. And it came to pass in the month Nizan, in the twentieth year of Acts, Acts, Exodus, the king, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence.
Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? There is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, and said unto the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my father's sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Now there's one thing I want to note in these verses. One outstanding thing, there may be others, but here's the thought I want to get over to all our hearts today from these verses.
This man, while he was exercised and wanted to do something, he was a man marked by patience. In plain words, he was willing to wait God's time. Now remember, waiting time is not wasted time. God would have us at times to wait upon him. There is a principle laid down in the Bible that they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Also the Lord Jesus Christ instructed his disciples when he was here in us, when he said, Come ye yourselves apart and rest a while.
Remember this, dear Christian friend. It is not wasted time when we wait upon God. Here I learned then he was a man of patience. Perhaps you're saying, how do you learn that from these verses? Well, first of all, when he commenced writing chapter one, he told us that the things that he speaks about in chapter one took place in the month Chisliu in the twentieth year. But when you come to chapter two, he has reached the month Nizan.
This then speaks of four months that had elapsed. After learning the truth that was conveyed to him in chapter one, he had to wait four months. Now I asked you in all fairness, if from verse five of chapter one to the end of the chapter there is recorded for us the prayer of Nehemiah you'll remember the three things that I mentioned regarding that prayer a prayer marked by confidence confidence in God a prayer marked by confession when he confessed the sins of the children of Israel and his own father's house which involved himself there was confession of sin.
But then there was consecration in that prayer. He spoke of those who desire to fear thy name. These were the things that characterized the man's prayer, and I suggest these were the features that characterized the man. And if this man had to wait for four months, may I suggest to all our hearts, the waiting time was not wasted time. He was spending his time in the presence of God, laying his heart's desire before God, making himself available for God to use when the opportune time came along. Here then was a man of patience.
May I suggest then to all our hearts, if by the reading of the Holy Scriptures, or if by observation of the circumstances of the present time, Our hearts are exercised before God. That does not mean that we rush in like bulls into a china shop. It does not mean that we get going and get it done. What it means is this. We take the matter before the Lord. We present ourselves before God. Make ourselves available to God. Have our hearts attuned. That is, our lives will be in the correct condition.
so that God can put his hand upon us and use us in his time. But we must be patient. We must wait upon the Lord. If a man is going to be active for God, he must move at God's bidding. We must not rush before God or we'll go out of the way. We must not stay behind when God moves or will be too slow. So don't rush in and be too fast. Don't linger when you should be moving. But when directions come from God and circumstances are such, then it's time to move and become active for God.
Then I notice again in verse four, Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God. of heaven now we pointed out in verse in chapter one and verse four there it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and more than certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven here again when we come to chapter two he says so I prayed to the God of heaven but you'll notice there's something that's mentioned in chapter one that is not mentioned in chapter two In chapter one it says that he sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
But here when we come to chapter two there's nothing said about sitting down. You see he was standing in the presence of the king. He didn't sit down. He hadn't time to fast. He wasn't going to weep or mourn there. But he simply prayed to the God of heaven. Now mark this very carefully. The man who is mentioned in chapter one as spending time in the presence of God, knowing how to approach God, knowing how to appeal to God in prayer, and that no doubt was private prayer when he got alone with God.
That same man is the man who knows how to send this brief prayer. This prayer ascends right to the very throne of God. Shall we say in a split second, as he stands before the king, when the king says to him, For what dost thou make request? Before he would open his mouth and make his request, he shoots this silent prayer right into the very presence of God. I prayed to the God of heaven. were not told what he prayed. He hadn't time to pray a long prayer.
Perhaps, I suggest, all he said may have been, God help me. The king didn't hear him pray, but God did. He was a man of prayer. It's a remarkable thing that men of action, men who are used of God, usually are marked out as men of prayer. Travel through your Bible. And think of the men who prayed. Think of Daniel who prayed. Think of Samuel who prayed. Think of this man Nehemiah who prayed. Go into the New Testament and read the record there in the Acts of the Apostles of the men who prayed.
And you'll discover this that men who were used of God were men who knew how to pray. Men who knew the value of prayer. casting themselves upon the Lord at all times. Then even if you come beyond Bible times and you take time to read the biographies of men of God, you'll discover that these men were men of prayer. They knew how to lay hold upon God. May I suggest that all of us today, we need again to state the request that the disciples stated to the Lord when they said, Teach us to pray.
We need to learn how to lay hold on God. This man then was a man of prayer. But then we look at verse five and he makes his petition to the king. Thou said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my father's sepulchres, that I may build it. Oh, what a petition. Have you ever thought he was a man who knew the condition of things that prevailed in Jerusalem?
He knew the ruins that were there, and how that his brethren were in a state of reproach. Yet he says this to the king. Will you give me permission if I have found favor in thy sight? Grant me permission that I may go back to Judah, to my own native territory. Let me go again and see the city of my fathers, the city where my fathers were buried. And if you'll let me do that, I want to rebuild that city. and rebuild the walls. I ask you, how could one man ever undertake the task of rebuilding a city and rebuilding the massive walls of that city?
Yet, that was his petition. Verse six through ten, he has granted permission. Listen now to what the king said. And the king said unto me, and the queen was sitting by him. For how long shall thy journey be, and when wilt thou return, so it pleased the king to send me? And I set him a time. Now you'll notice that he didn't tell the king just how long it would be, for he didn't know. You know, when we set out to do a work for God, we just don't know how long it will take, and how long the Lord will keep us busy in that work. But we must keep going on till the mission is accomplished.
And so therefore he said at time, Moreover, I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah. And a letter unto Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beans for the gates of the palace, which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, For the house that I shall enter into, and the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God, upon me. She traces all this to the goodness of God.
It was God who turned the heart of the king. It was God who dealt with the king. And it was God who had prepared Nehemiah. And now he was opening up the circumstances. whereby Nehemiah could go and accomplish the work. Verse nine says, Then I came to the governors beyond the river, gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sanballot, the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, he grieved them exceedingly, that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
You see, he has granted permission, but it stirs up opposition, and before ever he commenced to the work, as he was on his way to start the job, there were those who were his enemies, the enemies of God, and they were going to stand in opposition to him. Why, of course, they were upset, they were grieved, grieved exceedingly, because one man was going to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. Why should we get upset? Because someone is going to strive and work for the welfare of others, especially if it be for the welfare of God's people.
Verse eleven says, So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. Now, I want you to notice the passion that was in the heart of this man. A man of action, willing to be moved. Notice verse twelve. And I arose in the night. I and some few men with me. Neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. Neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, to the dung port. viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.
Then I went on to the gate of the fountain and to the king's pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall and turned back and entered by the gate of the rally, and so returned. And the rulers knew not whether I went, or what I did. Neither had I, as yet, told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work. Notice the passion of this man. He was willing to get out of his bed at midnight. He arose at night when everybody else was asleep.
He was a man who got out of his bed. He didn't tell anybody. But God had put something in his heart, something that was to be done at the city of Jerusalem. And all he had was his own little donkey, or a mule as the case may be. But if he rode upon this beast, he went out by night. He goes up from one gate to the other. And he saw the gates that had been consumed with fire. He saw that the walls were broken down. And all that was there was rubble. And then he came to the place where the little animal in which he sat couldn't go any further.
No place for the beast to pass. The man had to get off. And he had to climb up over the rubble, over the ruins. And as he climbed up over all these ruins, no doubt he's saying to himself, These walls shall be built again. His heart is moved. He sees the tremendous work that's to be done. And up to that point, he hasn't told a soul about it. Now, verses seventeen and eighteen set before us an outstanding purpose. Here's the purpose of the man. Verse seventeen then said, I unto them...
Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, the gates thereof are burned with fire. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me, as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me, and they said, Let us Rise up and build, so they strengthened their hands for this good work. Oh, here's a purpose. First of all, the purpose was born, as it were, in the heart of one man.
Born because of the influence of God himself. God preparing his man. The man goes and views the scene. The circumstances have been opened up. The king has given his permission. Now he views the tremendous work. It's more than he can do. But he gathers together the others. This is not going to be a one-man effort. Of course not. He gathers together then the rulers and the people who are going to do the work. He tells them what God has put into his heart.
He tells them the permission he's been given from the king, and now he outlines to them what the work will be, that they've got to build again these walls of the city and rebuild the city. This thing becomes contagious. What the man says reaches the hearts of others, they've found a leader, a man who's willing to show them what to do, a man who can roll up his sleeve, a man who's exercised, he now becomes a man of action. They join in with him. This is going to be a united effort, as we shall see in further studies. And they say, let us rise up and build.
And because they're going to build, they strengthen their hands for this good work. They are men of purpose. You see, a true leader, who is a man of purpose himself, a man of action, will always be able to stir up others. Others will see the possibilities and join in with them to accomplish this great work. Now they see the whole thing lying in waste. They're willing now to come behind Nehemiah and get the work completed. But then there's going to be some persecution. The work of God, you know, will never be accomplished easily.
Whenever one sets out to do a work for God, there will be opposition. Verse nineteen says, But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant the Ammonite and Dejum the Arabian heard it, they laughed as to scorn and despised us and said, What is this thing that you do? Will you rebel against the king so here is the start now of the opposition first of all they have been reproached now they're laughing at them laughing them to scorn and notice there's a combination here of enemies they're joining together people who normally would be against each other are now joining together against the people of God But, oh, in the last verse we have their prosperity.
Then answered I them and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us. Therefore we his servants will arise and build. But ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem. And so the work was commenced. And I trust in later studies we shall see how the work was completed.