Neh 1:1 The memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. It was the month of Kislev in the twentieth year. At the time I was in the palace complex at Susa.
Neh 1:2 Hanani, one of my brothers, had just arrived from Judah with some fellow Jews. I asked them about the conditions among the Jews there who had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem.
Neh 1:3 They told me, "The exile survivors who are left there in the province are in bad shape. Conditions are appalling. The wall of Jerusalem is still rubble; the city gates are still cinders."
Neh 1:4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God-of-Heaven.
Neh 1:5 I said, "GOD, God-of-Heaven, the great and awesome God, loyal to his covenant and faithful to those who love him and obey his commands:
Neh 1:6 Look at me, listen to me. Pay attention to this prayer of your servant that I'm praying day and night in intercession for your servants, the People of Israel, confessing the sins of the People of Israel. And I'm including myself, I and my ancestors, among those who have sinned against you.
Neh 1:7 "We've treated you like dirt: We haven't done what you told us, haven't followed your commands, and haven't respected the decisions you gave to Moses your servant.
Neh 1:8 All the same, remember the warning you posted to your servant Moses: 'If you betray me, I'll scatter you to the four winds,
Neh 1:11 O Master, listen to me, listen to your servant's prayer--and yes, to all your servants who delight in honoring you--and make me successful today so that I get what I want from the king." I was cup-bearer to the king.
Nehemiah 1:1-11
a Patriot’s Prayer
Though living in luxury, in the winter palace of the Persian kings, Nehemiah’s heart was keenly sensitive to all that affected his people. But he turned from tears to prayer, from man to God. Oh, that we could cry and sigh for the rents and breaches in the Church of God. We should deal much more successfully with men, if, like Nehemiah, we dealt more largely with God. Gordon used to say that he had met and conquered his enemies before he saw them. This prayer of Nehemiah’s is very beautiful, saturated as it is with quotations from Scripture, and so effective with God, because based on His own Word. It was steeped in tears of contrition for sin, and offered without ceasing day and night. Nor was it solitary, for there seems to have been a little band of others united with him, Neh_1:11.
Lord, teach us to pray thus, till others are found kneeling with us. Here is a good petition for us as we go forth to our daily calling, in which so much depends on the attitude of our fellow-men.
Prosper thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah report a significant portion of the history of Israel during the postexilic, or Persian, period. The highly stylized account documents key events roughly from the edict of Cyrus in 538 bc to Nehemiah's second governorship in Jerusalem (sometime after 433 bc). This record of restoration history is contained in three distinct literary sources, as explained earlier. The essential content of the three sources may be summarized as follows:
- the Hebrew return to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile, including the rebuilding of the altar and temple;
- the arrival and ministry of Ezra, including the religious reform of the community based on the law of Moses;
- the arrival and ministry of Nehemiah, including the repair of the Jerusalem wall and continued social and economic reform in the restoration community.
The purpose of the books is historiographic, given the need to preserve the record of the return to Jerusalem from Babylonia by the former Hebrew exiles. As such, the accounts highlighted Yahweh's faithfulness and thereby instilled hope in postexilic Israel by demonstrating God's providential working among human kings and governments. Theologically, the narrative recounting the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah in restoring Jerusalem physically and spiritually affirmed Yahweh's promises to renew the remnant of Israel. Pragmatically speaking, the history probably stems from the obligation placed on Ezra and Nehemiah to chronicle their experiences for the sake of reporting to the king of Persia. The covenant renewal ideas discussed below reinforce this understanding of the basic purpose of the two books.
The dominant theological idea of the memoir material of both Ezra and Nehemiah is covenant renewal in the postexilic community. The call to spiritual renewal and social justice by the two reformers was aimed at correcting abuses and gross misconduct among the returned remnant and instilling hope and boosting the morale of the people. It was important for the community despairing over God's apparent neglect to recognize that obedience to covenant stipulations was a mandatory prerequisite for Yahweh's blessing and restoration of Israel as his special possession. While Ezra and Nehemiah no doubt recorded their memoirs simply to preserve a small piece of history for posterity, the more profound message of God's providential rule of human activity for the ultimate benefit of his "elect" was most welcome news (e.g., note how "the hand of God" was upon Ezra [7:9] and Nehemiah [2:8], and the repetition of epitaphs like "the God of heaven" [Ezra 7:11--28; Neh. 2:1--8]).
The theme of covenant renewal is also part of the chronicler's theological agenda in the arrangement of the historical sources of Ezra and Nehemiah. For the chronicler, the return from exile in Babylon was a new exodus for Israel. He understood the covenant relationship between Yahweh and the Hebrew people as an important link bridging historical and religious continuity from the preexilic to the postexilic periods of Israelite history.
Although subservience to the Persian overlord prohibited the reestablishment of Israel as a nation-state ruled by a "Davidic" king, the covenant renewal event served to legitimize the postexilic community as the "heir" of that tradition and the people of the restoration as the "covenant people" of God. The particular emphasis on religious purity and social exclusiveness in the community now helped maintain Hebrew identity as a "separate people," since the vibrant nationalism associated with the political independence of the preexilic period was but a memory.
Finally, the chronicler reaffirmed and expanded the notion of God's sovereign rule of human history. The inclusion of the Sheshbazzar/Zerubbabel narrative as a prologue to the Ezra and Nehemiah memoirs underscored God's involvement in the restoration of Israel by revealing Yahweh's role in prompting Persian kings to permit Israel to return to her land and rebuild the temple. Two additional theological truths of great importance for the restoration community are implicit in the careful splicing of the historical and memoir sources:
- the people may have hope in the present because the work of God on behalf of Israel in the past stands as the model for Yahweh's participation in the future of the community,
- the ministry of Ezra and Nehemiah in restoring Jerusalem attested God's ability to continue to raise up his servants to accomplish his purposes and fulfill his promises to Israel.
Neh 1:2 Hanani, one of my brothers, had just arrived from Judah with some fellow Jews. I asked them about the conditions among the Jews there who had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem.
Neh 1:3 They told me, "The exile survivors who are left there in the province are in bad shape. Conditions are appalling. The wall of Jerusalem is still rubble; the city gates are still cinders."
Neh 1:4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God-of-Heaven.
Neh 1:5 I said, "GOD, God-of-Heaven, the great and awesome God, loyal to his covenant and faithful to those who love him and obey his commands:
Neh 1:6 Look at me, listen to me. Pay attention to this prayer of your servant that I'm praying day and night in intercession for your servants, the People of Israel, confessing the sins of the People of Israel. And I'm including myself, I and my ancestors, among those who have sinned against you.
Neh 1:7 "We've treated you like dirt: We haven't done what you told us, haven't followed your commands, and haven't respected the decisions you gave to Moses your servant.
Neh 1:8 All the same, remember the warning you posted to your servant Moses: 'If you betray me, I'll scatter you to the four winds,
Neh 1:9 but if you come back to me and do what I tell you, I'll gather up all these scattered peoples from wherever they ended up and put them back in the place I chose to mark with my Name.'
Neh 1:10 "Well, there they are--your servants, your people whom you so powerfully and impressively redeemed. Neh 1:11 O Master, listen to me, listen to your servant's prayer--and yes, to all your servants who delight in honoring you--and make me successful today so that I get what I want from the king." I was cup-bearer to the king.
Nehemiah 1:1-11
a Patriot’s Prayer
Though living in luxury, in the winter palace of the Persian kings, Nehemiah’s heart was keenly sensitive to all that affected his people. But he turned from tears to prayer, from man to God. Oh, that we could cry and sigh for the rents and breaches in the Church of God. We should deal much more successfully with men, if, like Nehemiah, we dealt more largely with God. Gordon used to say that he had met and conquered his enemies before he saw them. This prayer of Nehemiah’s is very beautiful, saturated as it is with quotations from Scripture, and so effective with God, because based on His own Word. It was steeped in tears of contrition for sin, and offered without ceasing day and night. Nor was it solitary, for there seems to have been a little band of others united with him, Neh_1:11.
Lord, teach us to pray thus, till others are found kneeling with us. Here is a good petition for us as we go forth to our daily calling, in which so much depends on the attitude of our fellow-men.
Prosper thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah report a significant portion of the history of Israel during the postexilic, or Persian, period. The highly stylized account documents key events roughly from the edict of Cyrus in 538 bc to Nehemiah's second governorship in Jerusalem (sometime after 433 bc). This record of restoration history is contained in three distinct literary sources, as explained earlier. The essential content of the three sources may be summarized as follows:
- the Hebrew return to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile, including the rebuilding of the altar and temple;
- the arrival and ministry of Ezra, including the religious reform of the community based on the law of Moses;
- the arrival and ministry of Nehemiah, including the repair of the Jerusalem wall and continued social and economic reform in the restoration community.
The purpose of the books is historiographic, given the need to preserve the record of the return to Jerusalem from Babylonia by the former Hebrew exiles. As such, the accounts highlighted Yahweh's faithfulness and thereby instilled hope in postexilic Israel by demonstrating God's providential working among human kings and governments. Theologically, the narrative recounting the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah in restoring Jerusalem physically and spiritually affirmed Yahweh's promises to renew the remnant of Israel. Pragmatically speaking, the history probably stems from the obligation placed on Ezra and Nehemiah to chronicle their experiences for the sake of reporting to the king of Persia. The covenant renewal ideas discussed below reinforce this understanding of the basic purpose of the two books.
The dominant theological idea of the memoir material of both Ezra and Nehemiah is covenant renewal in the postexilic community. The call to spiritual renewal and social justice by the two reformers was aimed at correcting abuses and gross misconduct among the returned remnant and instilling hope and boosting the morale of the people. It was important for the community despairing over God's apparent neglect to recognize that obedience to covenant stipulations was a mandatory prerequisite for Yahweh's blessing and restoration of Israel as his special possession. While Ezra and Nehemiah no doubt recorded their memoirs simply to preserve a small piece of history for posterity, the more profound message of God's providential rule of human activity for the ultimate benefit of his "elect" was most welcome news (e.g., note how "the hand of God" was upon Ezra [7:9] and Nehemiah [2:8], and the repetition of epitaphs like "the God of heaven" [Ezra 7:11--28; Neh. 2:1--8]).
The theme of covenant renewal is also part of the chronicler's theological agenda in the arrangement of the historical sources of Ezra and Nehemiah. For the chronicler, the return from exile in Babylon was a new exodus for Israel. He understood the covenant relationship between Yahweh and the Hebrew people as an important link bridging historical and religious continuity from the preexilic to the postexilic periods of Israelite history.
Although subservience to the Persian overlord prohibited the reestablishment of Israel as a nation-state ruled by a "Davidic" king, the covenant renewal event served to legitimize the postexilic community as the "heir" of that tradition and the people of the restoration as the "covenant people" of God. The particular emphasis on religious purity and social exclusiveness in the community now helped maintain Hebrew identity as a "separate people," since the vibrant nationalism associated with the political independence of the preexilic period was but a memory.
Finally, the chronicler reaffirmed and expanded the notion of God's sovereign rule of human history. The inclusion of the Sheshbazzar/Zerubbabel narrative as a prologue to the Ezra and Nehemiah memoirs underscored God's involvement in the restoration of Israel by revealing Yahweh's role in prompting Persian kings to permit Israel to return to her land and rebuild the temple. Two additional theological truths of great importance for the restoration community are implicit in the careful splicing of the historical and memoir sources:
- the people may have hope in the present because the work of God on behalf of Israel in the past stands as the model for Yahweh's participation in the future of the community,
- the ministry of Ezra and Nehemiah in restoring Jerusalem attested God's ability to continue to raise up his servants to accomplish his purposes and fulfill his promises to Israel.
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