EZRA, as priest, gave us under the Holy Spirit the sacred relations of those that came back from Babylon to Jerusalem. Nehemiah, as one who in his position felt no less for God and His people in their low estate, was inspired to set out their civil condition. It is the more interesting as following up the labors of Ezra after no long interval and while Ezra was still zealous in the good work, as we may see in chap. viii. Both books attest the righteous government of God, which subjected His people to Gentile rule; both bear witness to His faithful goodness toward the faithful, whatever the circumstances of external ruin. There was as yet no such body as the church, no such link mutually as members one of another. They were kinsmen according to the flesh; they were Israelites; yet some without doubt born of God, not of. Abraham's seed, but children, as the apostle distinguishes. And God has given us His word on their ways for our admonition, when we have to face a no less real ruin in Christendom, and need to test all we do or allow, as naming the Lord's name and bound to depart from unrighteousness. Faithful is the saying—For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we shall deny Him, His also will deny us; if we are faithless, He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.
“The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.” Now it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace [or fortress], that Hanuni, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, and said, I beseech thee, O Jehovah, the God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments: let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: yea, I and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples: but if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to cause my name to dwell there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. (Now I was cupbearer to the king.)” (vers. 1-11).
It was of God that Nehemiah felt so warmly the degradation of Jerusalem, as well as the affliction and reproach of the remnant there (vers. 2, 3). “And it came to pass, when I heard these words that I sat and wept, and mourned for days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of the heavens” &c. But he does not rise in his own prayer beyond Moses in his predictions; he does not plead the promises to the fathers; still less does he turn to the sovereign resource of the Messiah rejected but returning to raise all that fell in man's hands. But if looking for provisional mercy, he is careful in “confessing the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very perversely against thee” &c.
When God abandoned apostate Judah, as Israel before, to the Gentiles, and pronounced the sentence of Lo-ammi (not-my-people). He ceased to act as God of the earth, the Jehovah of His people; and as “God of the heavens” He granted for time world-empire to the four successive Gentile powers. See. Dan. 2.
Therefore does Nehemiah vindicate God's ways in scattering Israel abroad among the peoples, because of their persistent trespasses and departure from Him, while he calls to mind the pledge on their repentance to gather them back to Jerusalem. And in faith of His word and proved work for His people, He beseeches for mercy “this day” “in the sight of this man” (vers. 9-11). Such was the great king when Nehemiah prayed to God, whatever might be his respect when he served as cupbearer to the king.