The Remnant in Jerusalem
Neh. 2
In an evil day especially, prayer and humiliation are called for and blest.
“And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. And the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else than sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid; and I said unto the king, Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchers, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven; and I 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 fathers' sepulchers, that I may build it. And the king said unto me (the queen also 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. 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 let me pass through till I come unto Judah; and a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the castle which [appertaineth] to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me” (vers 1-8).
“Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letter. Now the king had sent with me captains of a force and horsemen. And when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard [of it], it grieved them exceedingly, that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God put, into my heart to do for Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon.
And I went out by night by the valley gate, even toward the dragon's well, and to the dung gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the fountain gate 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 I turned back, and entered by the valley gate, and so returned. And the rulers knew not whither 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. Then said I unto them, Ye see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach” (vers. 9-18).
“And I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also of 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 the good [work]. But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised u s, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king? Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of the heavens, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem” (vers. 19, 20).
It was some four months that Nehemiah had borne the burden of sorrow for God and His people and the place where His name was once set, never to be abandoned, though the day of glorious resumption still waits. No passing emotion was it, but groaning in hope: how to help at such a strait he knew not; especially as Ezra, so honored twelve years before, seems to have been there, but powerless for this need and shame and grief. The hour of succor was at hand, through the intensity of his sorrow which God caused to reach the eye of his royal master, who inquired, learned the secret, and answered graciously.
The atmosphere of an imperial court—of a heathen court—had not withered the faith of Nehemiah, any more than his love for the despised remnant. Why Nehemiah had not gone up with Ezra we know no more, than why Ezra so acquiesced in what filled the courtier at Chusan with deep concern for Jerusalem and the wretched estate of those who had returned. But this is certain that, as grace wrought in Joshua and his brethren and Zerubbabel and his brethren, who at once set up the altar for burnt offerings, and rested not till in the face of all discouragement the house of God was built and dedicated; and as later Ezra the priest, the scribe, was strengthened to go up from Babylon to cheer as well as cleanse the returned remnant when sadly declining; so now an unexpected aid was vouchsafed in one who was neither prince of David's house, nor a member of Aaron's, but in a highly confidential post before the great King. His heart was not there but in “the city, the house of my fathers' sepulchers,” as he touchingly calls Jerusalem (ver. 3). And how beautiful his inward prayer to the God of heaven after the king asked his request before he made it known! (vers. 4- 5). Nor was he let go empty-handed, but receives letters to the governors intermediate, and to the keeper of the royal park for timber, as well as captains and horsemen.
No doubt, it was a humbling state of things, when a Gentile power ruled, a chastisement extreme of Israel's iniquity. This it was becoming to feel, yet looking to God above, Who heard and inclined the king's heart, instead of indulging the rebellious pride we see in the Pharisees afterward.
We may note how much at first Nehemiah feels and acts alone. This was faith, not only when before the king, but even when he arrived at Jerusalem, and sought the welfare of the sons of Israel to the grief of their enemies (vers. 10-16). How often blessed movements begin with one man! His observations fully made, he speaks to his brethren accordingly, as well as of God's good hand upon him, and also the king's words (vers. 17, 18). And they were strengthened, spite of false friends—the worst foes, whose scorn, and evil imputation, Nehemiah answered by denying their title in Jerusalem (vers. 19, 20). How often the same resource would have settled questions in Christendom, raised by men of genius, learning, or rank, who had no more part or lot in the matter than the early intruder on whom Peter pronounced!