Nehemiah 1-14

As you read this, we have completed a week of Old Testament narrative that has covered many centuries and traditions that go back even further - from creation to Abraham to the Kings and now to return from Exile. You may have felt the whiplash of being in a time machine. In the time of Ezra-Nehemiah you are at about 530 BCE (about 1200 years after Father Abraham and about 550 years after King David). More than a generation of the finest leaders of the southern kingdom have been in exile. They return to a completely broken land of broken people. Many scholars and early church fathers saw this as one book. The Jewish Talmud (the historic commentary on the Old Testament) doesn't list a book of Nehemiah, only a book of Ezra containing the material in both books. For "extra credit" and 50 heavenly reward points, I would encourage you to scan the book of Ezra as well. With us finishing up a building in the southwest, you'll see in Ezra (in the rebuilding of the temple)parallels to our journey together. Nehemiah is the story of rebuilding Jerusalem. Notice the struggles they have. How different are they from when they were in the Sinai grumbling to go back to Egypt? Sometimes it can be just as challenging to be responsibly free as it is to be a bitter slave.

In both Ezra and Nehemiah, you see lots of names (eg. Ezra 2,8 & 10 and Nehemiah 3, 7& 12). While the books are mainly about re-construction, it is the re-establishment of the people that is the main agenda. If you were teaching this material, I would suggest inviting students to name the people who are part of their spiritual house and the community that still sustains them. Notice, also, the struggles with priorities and with doubts as to whether the things they seek to do in the name of the Lord will be accomplished (Ezra 4, Nehemiah 4). Who calls them back to their sense of vision and purpose? What does this have to say about spiritual leadership in the church, in the home, at work and in the community?

Jewish faith has no problem with God using non-believers for his purposes. Notice the powerful role Cyrus the Persian (Ezra 1), Xerxes and Artaxerxes (in the stopping of the rebuilding and Darius the Mede (Ezra 5 & 6) play in the return and restoration. Further stories of them are found in the book of Daniel (the silencing of the lions happened with Darius).

Both books give strong testimony of spiritual renewal and revival. The ongoing biblical story of repentance and rediscovery of God's law as the beginning place for wholistic restoration (politically, fiscally, socially, spiritually)is retold. From the earliest days in Sinai to the latest books of the Old Testament this pattern is repeated. What might it have to say to us as a church, as a denomination, as a nation?