The Message of Nehemiah

God's Servant In A Time Of Change

Raymond Brown

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781789744002
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783596249
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

The Book of Nehemiah offers a first-hand telling of how ancient Jerusalem's walls were rebuilt in the face of great odds after the Babylonian exile - an act that represented the renewal of the people's faith and the reforming of their conduct.In The Message of Nehemiah, Raymond Brown explores this powerful story and the striking relevance of this themes for Christians living today. Vividly drawing out Nehemiah's historical and social milieu, Brown demonstrates that Nehemiah is one of the most inventive and resilient personalities in the Old Testament. His doctrine of God, his passion for Scripture, his experience of prayer and his example in leadership all provide valuable lessons that can be applied to how we live our faith every day. A revised volume in the trusted the Bible Speaks Today series of commentaries, The Message of Nehemiah offers a compelling exposition of the Biblical text, unpacking its meaning for both the original audience it was written for and for Christians in the twenty-first century. Used by Bible students and teachers around the world, the Bible Speaks Today commentaries are ideal for students and preachers who want to delve more deeply into the riches of Scripture and better understand how it can be applied to modern life. This beautifully redesigned edition has been sensitively updated to include modern references and use the NIV Bible text.
The Message of Nehemiah is perfect for anyone looking for accessible commentaries on Nehemiah that will help broaden their knowledge and understanding of the this fascinating book of the Old Testament.

A. Rebuilding the walls (1:1 – 7:73)

Nehemiah 1:1–11

1. The servant’s preparation

Nehemiah treasured no greater ambition than to be a loyal ‘servant’ of God; the noun is deliberately repeated throughout the book’s opening ­narrative (6, 7, 8, 10, 11). This introductory section of his memoirs sets the scene and explains how God’s servant was prepared for new work in far-off Jerusalem. Its story unfolds in five scenes, portraying the attitude of God’s servant.

1. Looking out in compassion (1:1–3)

Biblical accounts of a call to God’s work frequently begin with an arresting assertion of the divine initiative, though there are occasions when the ‘call’ is discerned through a known crisis. Prompted by an overwhelming awareness of need, such people do not decide to serve; they believe the decision has been made for them. Nehemiah’s call was discerned in that way. Born in Persia a century after the ravages of Babylon’s king, he learned of distant Jerusalem only from stories related by fellow Israelites. He knew of Nebuchadnezzar’s ruthless devastation but, as caravans from other countries visited Susa, Nehemiah heard of Jerusalem’s more recent troubles. A servant of King Artaxerxes, he was aware from court news that one innocent attempt to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls had been dramatically frustrated. At that time, local opponents had written to the Persian king asserting that Jerusalem’s citizens were intent on rebellion, and, on the king’s orders, work on the walls was brought to an abrupt end (Ezra 4:6–23).

Nehemiah knew that his contemporary, Ezra, had led a second group of returning exiles and was endeavouring to establish the community with God’s Word at the heart of its spiritual and moral life, but it had not been easy. So, when travellers came from Judah we can understand why, concerned about his people, Nehemiah questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem (2). As the story begins, Nehemiah is identified as a man of deep concern, with clear priorities.

First, the narrative illustrates Nehemiah’s concern. Although he had a highly responsible job, in a secure environment in a fine Persian city, noted for its opulence and prosperity, magnificent buildings and spacious gardens, he is not remotely preoccupied with himself. Anxious for the welfare of the returned exiles, he enquires about the condition of the city where they lived. The initiative was with Nehemiah, not the visitors. Throughout Christian history, men and women with a deep love for others have been used to transform the face of society. Evident need constituted their call; they could not believe that God was indifferent to the cry of their deprived contemporaries. Profoundly disturbed about prison con­ditions in England, John Howard and Elizabeth Fry campaigned zealously for reform. The degrading traffic in slaves disturbed the consciences of Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, and they could not rest until the evil practice was abolished. During the Industrial Revolution, Lord Shaftesbury worked tirelessly for improvements in factories where women and children worked under appalling conditions. Thomas Barnardo, T. B. Stephenson, George Müller and C. H. Spurgeon carried the needs of orphaned children on their hearts and took practical steps to provide them with food, shelter and security. These eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Christians were people who looked out compassionately on their world and their disturbed consciences led to vigorous action. It was not enough to identify a need; they had to meet it, and with all speed.

Second, the narrative identifies Nehemiah’s priorities. People mattered more than things. He was naturally troubled about the physical condition of the city. Broken walls meant frightening insecurity, negligible commercial development and serious economic deprivation, but the depressed people within the city were infinitely more important than its shattered walls. Equally, his friends from Jerusalem were more concerned about the city’s residents than its fortifications. In Nehemiah’s thoughts the Jewish remnant took precedence over Jerusalem, and his visitors had the same sense of priority: They said to me, ‘Those who survived the exile . . . are in great trouble and disgrace.’ Additionally, the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire (2–3).

The history of Christian work and witness across the centuries is an inspiring record of sacrificial people who did not think primarily about their own well-being but gave top priority to God’s will and the needs of others. Paul expressed it perfectly. Christ gave himself on the cross that those who trust him for forgiveness and new life ‘should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again’ (2 Cor. 5:15). Living for Christ means loving and serving others.

2. Looking up in dependence (1:4–6a)

Nehemiah’s immediate reaction to the news of his people’s troubles was to go into the presence of God. Throughout the book this gifted leader is vividly portrayed as a man of earnest prayer, and this, the first of his nine recorded prayers, offers several perspectives on the quality of Nehemiah’s prayer life.

He was committed to prayer. For Nehemiah, prayer was natural, immediate and spontaneous (4). He turned instinctively to God. P. T. Forsyth used to say that in some form or another everybody prays. If we are not praying to God we are praying towards something else.

You pray as your face is set – towards Jerusalem or Babylon. The very egotism of craving life is prayer. The great difference is the object of it. The man whose passion is habitually set upon pleasure, knowledge, wealth, honour or power is in a state of prayer to these things or for them. He prays without ceasing. These are his real gods, on whom he waits day and night . . . He prays to an unknown God for a selfish boon . . . Beware lest the whole trend of the soul fix on a deity that turns a doom.1

In Nehemiah’s life, far from being a conventional religious exercise, prayer was a vital daily experience. Nothing mattered more than entering the Lord’s presence to express his anguish about his people’s needs, confess his inadequacy, reflect on his personal response to the news from Jerusalem, and seek for guidance about what might and must be done.

Nehemiah was genuine in prayer. Deeply grieved to learn such dis­tressing news, he identifies with the dejection of Jerusalem’s citizens: he sat down and wept (4). Though he was separated from them by a vast desert, their needs were close to his heart. He was not the last person to weep over Jerusalem’s troubles. During the last week of his earthly ministry, Jesus looked out over the rebellious city and found it impossible to hold back the tears (Luke 19:41). Like Nehemiah, he too was infinitely more concerned about the people’s welfare than his own.

Nehemiah was sacrificial in prayer. He believed there was nothing better he could do for his people than pray for them; so, in order to give undisturbed time to his intercessions, he denied himself food for several days. When he mourned and fasted (4) he was engaging in a practice with notable biblical precedents.2 In Ancient Near Eastern countries, meals were not the hurried affairs of busy contemporary life. Normally, they were relaxed and extended opportunities for social contact and leisurely conversation. Missing a meal released an hour or two for undisturbed prayer.

Nehemiah was persistent in prayer. For some days (4) he continued to seek God; day and night (6) he poured out his soul to the Lord. Like the importunate friend in Luke’s parable (Luke 11:5–10), Nehemiah knocked repeatedly at God’s door because there was no-one else to whom he could turn for help. Prayer is the most eloquent expression of our priorities. It confesses our total reliance upon God, exercises our personal faith and demonstrates our love for others. As he approaches God, Nehemiah divests himself of every distracting thought so that he can concentrate his mind entirely on the one who has promised to listen to everyone who calls upon him.

Nehemiah was encouraged in prayer. Dependent believers of earlier generations have entered the holy place before him, and phrases and themes from their prayers inspire, inform and shape his own. His prayer deliberately echoes the petitions of Moses, David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Daniel, and his contemporary, Ezra.3 If by prayer these intercessors had received cleansing, found peace, obtained strength and gained confidence, so could Nehemiah. He is not simply inspired by their example; his prayer is enriched by their language. The words they used, preserved in Scripture, became the inspiration of his heart and mind as he entered the divine presence. The great prayers of Scripture ought to be incentives and models for our own.

He was confident in prayer. As Nehemiah exalts God, he focuses on eight highly relevant aspects of God’s nature. The prayer becomes an adoring octave of divine omnipotence. Although Jerusalem’s need has driven him into the presence of God, the city’s problem is soon dwarfed by an awesome sense of God’s majestic glory. Within moments he is exalting a God who is sovereign, mighty, holy, loving, faithful, vocal, attentive and merciful.

With a sense of submissive awe, Nehemiah approaches his sovereign God. He prayed before the God of heaven (4) and said, Lord, the God of heaven (5). He was in Susa and his problem was in far-off Jerusalem, but both cities – one rich, the other poor; one strong, the other weak; one proud, the other broken – were like tiny specks of dust under the vast canopy of God’s heaven. God of heaven was a brilliantly graphic expression of the universal supremacy of the only true God. The phrase was popular in contemporary Persian prayers and Nehemiah would have heard it on the lips of pagan courtiers, but he had also known it from the prayers of devout Israelites recorded in Scripture. In an earlier Jerusalem crisis, King Jehoshaphat had sought ‘the God who is in heaven’. In a different kind of danger, the runaway prophet Jonah confessed his allegiance to ‘the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land’. Surrounded by pagan idolatry, Daniel rejoiced that there was ‘a God in heaven’. More recently, Persia’s king had described Ezra’s God in identical language (2 Chr. 20:6; Jon. 1:9; Dan. 2:19, 28; Ezra 7:12, 21, 23). Although Nehemiah is deeply troubled, he affirms his commitment to ‘the God of heaven’, knowing that life’s bewildering adversities are all under his sovereign control.

Moreover, although sovereign, God is not remote and distant, untouched by humanity’s everyday events, ruling in heaven but detached from life on earth. Nehemiah knows his God is almighty, the great (5) God whose power has been evident throughout Israel’s precarious history. His power transformed Jehoshaphat’s crisis into a triumphant victory, Jonah’s plight into a psalm of thanksgiving, Daniel’s adversities into persuasive testimony, Ezra’s formidable mission into impressive service. Nehemiah also faced an immense challenge; such problems could be effectively overcome but only by a great and omnipotent God.

Nehemiah also enters the presence of an awesome (5) God, believing that he is not only powerful but holy. Nehemiah is especially conscious of the divine holiness and comes before God with adoring reverence. Like Moses in the desert, he hides his face, metaphorically removing the shoes from his soiled feet. Like Isaiah in the temple, he confesses his need before an awesome God. Like Job, his encounter with an awesome God ushers him into the place of repentance (Exod. 3:5–6; Isa. 6:1–5; Job 42:5–6). It is the holiness of God which identifies and exposes sin as sin. All too easily we give less ugly names to it, rationalize our unacceptable conduct and find excuses for the things undone. But, confronted by a holy Father, we see sin for the offensive thing it is, recognize its malevolent and destructive power, and beg an awesome God’s forgiveness.

Nehemiah rejoices that his holy God is also compassionate. He identifies his needs in ...

Table of contents

• GENERAL PREFACE
• Author’s preface
• Select bibliography
• Chief abbreviations
• Introduction
• A. Rebuilding the walls (1:1 – 7:73)
• Nehemiah 2:1–10
• Nehemiah 2:11–20
• Nehemiah 3:1–32
• Nehemiah 4:1–23
• Nehemiah 5:1–19
• Nehemiah 6:1–19
• Nehemiah 7:1–73
• B. Reforming the community (8:1 – 13:31)
• Nehemiah 9:1–37
• Nehemiah 9:1–37
• Nehemiah 9:38 – 10:29
• Nehemiah 10:30–39
• Nehemiah 11:1 – 12:26
• Nehemiah 12:27–47
• Nehemiah 13:1–3
• Nehemiah 13:4–31
• Nehemiah 13:4–31
• Notes
• The Bible Speaks Today: Old Testament series
• The Bible Speaks Today: New Testament series
• The Bible Speaks Today: Bible Themes series
• NIV Bible Speaks Today