In Jason Dohm's sermon titled 'An Introduction to Nehemiah,' Nehemiah 1:1-4 serves as the focal scripture, highlighting Nehemiah's emotional response to the news of Jerusalem's distress. Dohm emphasizes the importance of approaching the study of Nehemiah with diligence, advocating for proactive engagement with the text through active listening, note-taking, and post-sermon reflection. He introduces four study Bibles, recommending them as valuable resources for deepening biblical understanding. The sermon underscores the historical context of Nehemiah, revealing its unity with the book of Ezra, and outlines the timeline of events leading up to Nehemiah's governorship. Dohm describes Nehemiah as a fearless leader, noting his prayerfulness and proactive leadership in rebuilding Jerusalem's walls and spiritually reviving its people. The overarching theme of God's providential care for His people through godly leadership is highlighted, emphasizing the need for fearlessness, faithfulness, and passionate worship. Dohm calls on the congregation to see the larger redemptive history connected to Nehemiah, pointing ultimately to Christ's coming.

Our sermon text this morning is from Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev in the twentieth year as I was in Shushan, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped who had survived the captivity and concerning Jerusalem and they said to me the survivors who are left from their captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire. So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days.

I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven." The title of the sermon this morning is An Introduction to Nehemiah. I summoned all of my creative powers for the sermon title this morning. I don't think we need anything clever. It's just our first Sunday in a new book. Anytime you start a new book of the Bible, if the book has any length to it at all, it takes a while to work through it.

I think we were two and a half years in the book of Matthew and we've been over six months in the book of Ezra. We'll be four or five months in the book of Nehemiah. So it's sort of a milestone anytime you start a new book and it's a great time to begin being an even better student. And I say that meaning what I say. I do think we have good students here, but it doesn't mean we can't be better students, and it doesn't mean we shouldn't be better students, and we should be better students.

So, I just want to use the opportunity of beginning a new book to challenge you to being a better student. There are things you do in the lead up to the sermon before the sermon is ever preached that makes you ready for it. So Just being more proactive about making yourself ready for the preaching time by going through the text, really becoming familiar with it, really meditating on it before the sermon will help you be a better student. There are things done during the sermon time. Very active listening.

I'm a voracious note taker. And then I never ever ever, almost never, look at them afterwards. The benefit for me is how it helps me in the listening. So be a better sermon listener, be a better student in that way and there are things that you can do after the sermon that makes you a better student. Thinking about reviewing the sermon in your mind or reviewing your notes or making a point to talk about the sermon afterwards makes you a better student.

The point is whenever you embark on the book of the Bible, it's the best content of anything that you ever read and if you have an opportunity to become an expert with a little extra proactive effort then why wouldn't you? Can anyone give a good answer to that question? I'm advancing the notion with a little extra proactive effort. We can go from, we went through another book, to I really know a lot about this book. I got it.

I acquired the wisdom from this book. I want to take my own exhortation. I want you to take the exhortation as well to just be a better student. Whatever kind of student you've been, be better in the book of Nehemiah. I want to introduce you to four of my friends, my study Bibles.

This is a part of my sermon preparation every week. The first thing that I do is it kicks off with men's Bible study on Monday morning. I'm really looking at the text in a meaningful way for the first time. I haven't done any real study of the text before Monday morning, but then the men gather and we beat on it for an hour. And we start to think about it in a deeper way.

And so we wrestle with the text. And then after that, I go to the study Bibles. So there's not the depth, but having more than one study Bible broadens out the perspectives that you get on a text. It's a really good and helpful practice. I actually lined these up the wrong way, so I want to introduce them to you in a certain order.

I think these are all really good study Bibles and honestly I don't want to pick between them. So if you only have one study Bible, consider adding one or more of these to the shelf as well because study Bibles are a great use of limited dollars. In other words, if your book budget isn't so hot, if you don't have a big book budget, Study Bibles give you a lot for not much money. Here's the first one. It's the most basic one, and I don't say that in a derogatory way.

It's designed for that. That's its purpose, is to be a good, solid, right down the middle, no controversy, lots of good information, Study Bible. It's the Nelson Study Bible. It's got great notes, it's got great maps, It's got great little sections on particular topics. I love my Nelson.

The next one is the MacArthur Study Bible. In our generation, I'm not sure there can't be more than a handful of people who have been more rigidly exegetical, more focused on giving good, sound, wonderful expositions of Bible text than John MacArthur has. And he's left us a legacy of really good, sound scholarship and it's reflected. He's got a really long multi-multi-multi-volume New Testament commentary set. But this is next best thing.

And there's lots of good information in there. I love my MacArthur Study Bible. And here's the ESV Study Bible. It's not known by any other name. It's just the ESV Study Bible.

And it's the best on maps. I get more good map information. I was looking at the map of the Persian Empire this week in the ESV study Bible. And I love it. It's got lots, lots of content in this one.

This one might be the most content rich of the ones that I have. If you made me choose between them, I would hate you. But if you did, I would probably take this one. It's a great multi-purpose study Bible. Then my last friend is a new friend.

It is the Reformation Heritage Study Bible. It's in the King James and Joel Beeke and friends just put this out. So it just became available in November. And I really, I can tell I'm going to like this one. This one, this week, I can just tell you the help it was to me this week.

It helped me get to Christ from the text. I always think that's my biggest challenge every week. Not that it's the hardest thing to do every week, but I have to make sure I do it every week. The Bible is about Jesus. So if you don't know how to get from any text of the Bible to Jesus, you're not done studying yet, and you're not ready to preach.

And Joel Beeke and crew are already showing me that they're going to help me with that project, get from any text to Jesus. Anyway, bulk up on study Bibles. They're invaluable. If you have a limited book budget, and most of us do, mine's probably the most unlimited in the room because I take your money and then I buy books. But for those of you who have more limited book budgets, study Bibles are great.

Now to Nehemiah. I want to read for you the last verse of Ezra. This is Ezra chapter 10 verse 44. All these had taken pagan wives. So you remember the list of 133 men who had to give up their pagan wives.

That's what he's talking about. All these had taken pagan wives and some of them had wives by whom they had children. Period. That's it. It's about as abrupt as it gets.

And It's not hard to find other books of the Bible that end abruptly, but this is especially abrupt. In light of that, I'd like for you to consider three facts. Fact number one is that The Jewish Torah, the Jewish Bible, our Old Testament, really no differences between the Jewish Torah and our Old Testament, has Ezra and Nehemiah as a single book. So their Torah has 24 books and our Old Testament has 39 books, and it's exactly the same content. So that just means they lump books together, and we divide them out.

So in the Jewish Torah, the Old Testament, Ezra in Nehemiah is a single book. Fact number two, the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So, are you with me? The Old Testament wasn't written in Greek, it was written in Hebrew. Overwhelmingly in Hebrew.

There's a teeny little bit of Aramaic in there and the rest is Hebrew. So around 300 to 200 before Christ, BC. 300 years or 200 years, something like that, before Jesus came, the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek and it was available at the time of Jesus. So Jesus would have been very familiar with the Hebrew and he would have been very familiar with the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The Septuagint names the book of Nehemiah second Ezra.

So the Jewish Torah, one book. The Septuagint available and in common use at the time of Jesus. It's called Second Ezra. And then the Vulgate. The Vulgate was Jerome's translation in the year, what year was it?

It was about 400 AD, so about 400 after Jesus came, 400 years after Jesus came. Jerome translated the Hebrew and the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament into Latin, which was the language of scholarship of the day. For centuries and centuries, the language of scholarship, In other words, if you were a university brain, you were doing that work in Latin. So Jerome translated the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament into Latin. That's called the Vulgate.

That was in 400 after Jesus came. And it's also called Second Ezra. So The point is, these two books have always been viewed as a unity, as a body. There's no problem with dividing them out. There is a problem though of not viewing them as a unity.

This is just a continuation. We have this really abrupt end in Ezra chapter 10 verse 44. And that's because it wasn't ever meant to be the end of anything. It leads right into Nehemiah and the time of Nehemiah. Who wrote it?

Well, the book begins the words of Nehemiah. So we know for sure that Nehemiah wrote at least some of it. There are three extended portions of Nehemiah that are written in the first person. I did this, I prayed that, I went here. So first person.

Nehemiah absolutely wrote those sections just like Ezra has first person sections. I did this. I prayed this. I went here. Those sections were written absolutely by Nehemiah.

The thing I want us to recognize is that 1st and 2nd Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah are woven together. And so somebody put all that together. When you look at the very end of 2 Chronicles, this history book, it is exactly ending where Ezra begins. It's the same. If you look at many of the commentators, they use this phrase, the compiler.

The reason they say the compiler instead of a name is there's not a name. They're acknowledging that 1st and 2nd Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah are a unity. Somebody compiled them all. They pulled source information and they are the compiler of these books. I think it's Ezra.

Okay, So you've got one man's opinion, but it's not just one man's opinion. I'm following in the footsteps of a lot, but not all of the commentators. Maybe half of the commentators think Ezra did it. I think he did it. He's a scribe.

We know he's a scribe. And we were introduced to him in Ezra chapter 7 verse 10. Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach it. So it fits the profile of Ezra, but you don't have to believe that because there's nowhere that says that Ezra wrote it. I think he wrote it.

He was a scribe. I want to give you five facts now about the book of Nehemiah. Five facts. Now that we're agreed that it is a unity with Ezra and 1st and 2nd Chronicles, here are five facts. Nehemiah is the last historical book of the Old Testament.

There's some debate about whether it's the last book that was written in the Old Testament, but in any event, it's the last historical book of the Old Testament. Malachi is the last prophetic book. Some scholars say that Malachi was prophesying between the second and third waves of captives coming back from Babylon and some scholars say that Malachi was prophesying during Nehemiah, the time of Nehemiah. I think it was the second wave, but that's neither here nor there. I can't prove it.

So in any event, Nehemiah and Malachi end the Old Testament. That's it. There's not going to be any more inspired Scripture for 400 years and then Jesus is going to be born. So, this is it in the Old Testament. This is the culmination and the end point of inspired revelation from God that God intended all his people to have through the centuries until Jesus Christ came up and started talking.

Until all the promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Jesus. So that's fact number one. Fact number two, actually there's a lot of facts in number two, it's a timeline. Here's the timeline to help you understand where all this fits historically. Cyrus the Persian conquered Babylon in 539 BC.

So the Babylonian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar and his successors were overrun by the Persians in 539. And right away in the first year of Cyrus, Cyrus authorizes Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the first wave to go back to Jerusalem. So the first Cyrus, the Persian becoming king, initiates the first wave. Then a few kings later, I think it's actually five or six. But anyway, a few kings later, Art-Exerxes, son of Xerxes, Art-Exerxes becomes king of the Persian Empire in 464.

So the numbers are getting smaller, remember, because we're coming to the birth of Jesus Christ. Everything is registered from how far it is from Jesus, so the numbers are getting smaller because we're getting closer to zero. Artxerxes becomes king in 464, and then in Ezra chapter 7 verse 8 we find out that Ezra comes back with the second wave of captives in the seventh year of Artaxerxes reign. This would be the year 457 BC. That's the second wave.

And it's 82 years after the first wave. If you're with me, I'm counting waves now of Jews who are authorized by kings of Persia to come back. The first wave was Cyrus in 539. The second wave is the seventh year of Artaxerxes, so it's 457, something like that. If you read different commentators you'll get that number or one number bigger or one number less because there are some things you have to assume.

Then in Nehemiah 1 verse 1 and in Nehemiah 2 verse 1 we see that this is the 20th year of King Artaxerxes. So the second wave under Ezra came back in the seventh year of this king, Artaxerxes, and the third and final wave of captives to come back to Jerusalem was in the twentieth year, so thirteen years in between. So now we're in the year 444 or 445 BC, 95 years after Cyrus became king. So that's the timeline. Fact number three, 13 chapters, 9 recorded prayers.

This is a book of prayer. This is a book of Men, women, children crying out to God for help and having their prayers answered. There are nine prayers recorded in Nehemiah. This is significant. We're going to be working through prayer text next week and many weeks after that.

Fact number four, Nehemiah has two governorships in the book of Nehemiah. It's possible that he was still considered the governor in between, but the point is he wasn't there in Jerusalem for some span of time. In chapter 13 verse 6, we read this, In the 32nd year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon, I had returned to the king. I'll make more of this later, but there's 1, 200 miles between Jerusalem and Shushan. And so he's going to make a big journey.

And in chapter 13, he says that he had returned back to the Persian Empire to serve the king for some period of time. It doesn't say how long. So there's a gap where Nehemiah is not in Jerusalem governing the Jews. And It's hard to imagine him being gone less than a year, given how long it takes to make that journey and then make it back again. It's hard to imagine that that would be less than a year.

So it's probably more than a year that he's gone. Fact number five, the theme, the overriding theme of Nehemiah. I'm going to refer to the New Joel Beke Reformation Heritage Note here. I think they have it just right on the theme. God's faithfulness in protecting and providing for his people through godly prayerful proactive leadership.

In other words, it's true about the book of Nehemiah. What I said was true about the book of Ezra last week. Nehemiah is not the hero of the book of Nehemiah. God is. In the same way that Ezra wasn't the hero of the book of Ezra.

God was. It's God who is raising up these men. God's not looking down from heaven and saying, look there's a faithful one, I guess I'll use him. No, no, no, no, that's not how God works in history. God raises up faithful men.

And He puts them in just the right spot at just the right time and it all is working out according to his plan which was set in stone before the foundation of the world, before the world even existed. Nehemiah was going to do the things he does in the book of Nehemiah. Related to that, related to the theme of Nehemiah, that God is helping his people by raising up this leader, this prayerful, proactive, godly leader. I want you to think of Nehemiah as a people of God builder, not just a wall builder. It's an oversimplification to see the book of Nehemiah and say, oh yeah, he built the wall.

So that's the most obvious thing he does, and I know why he's known for that, but it's an oversimplification that keeps you from pinning that to what he's really doing. He's building the people of God. He's not building brick and mortar. He's a people of God builder, not just a wall builder. The wall will be finished at the end of chapter 6.

There are 13 chapters. So we're not even halfway through the book, the wall is built. That tells you that Nehemiah is much more than a wall builder. In chapters 6 through 10, you have full-fledged revival breaking out. In chapter 8, Ezra is going to stand on a platform and read the law.

The people are going to be weeping as they hear the law. The Levites are going to have to say, stop weeping, we should rejoice, this is good news. Go feast. That's what we're going to see in chapter 8. Chapter 9, there's going to be this prayer and confession of sin.

And it's wonderful, chapter 9 is wonderful, and then in 10 there's going to be a renewal of the covenant. It's really God using Nehemiah to build up his people, not just build up walls. Here's my last introductory comment and then We'll get on to the book of Nehemiah. And it is this. Here's what jumps out at me about the man Nehemiah in the book of Nehemiah.

You read 13 chapters. I think it was an hour and 10 minutes last week or an hour and 5 minutes, something like that. What do you get out of the hour and 5 minutes? What jumps out? Here's what it is for me.

Nehemiah is fearless. He's a fearless man. In the modern vernacular, he ain't afraid of nobody. Nehemiah ain't afraid of nobody. He fears God in the right way.

He fears God like you would fear a good Father. And so this wipes away the fear of man. He comes face to face with menacing man about ten times in this book. And he stares them down every single time because his fear of God as a good Father is controlling him. So this is what I'm praying that God will do in my life in the book of Nehemiah and your life, our lives in the book of Nehemiah.

That God will make us fearless like that. We need to be fearless like that. We don't need to be afraid of anything. We need to fear God as a good Father. We need to be able to stare down any man or woman, adversary of God that would come before us.

Let's go to the text in prayer. God, I pray that you would use this book to help us to grow in faithfulness. We know that there's so much room for growth and faithfulness in our lives. We know what we are, we desire to be more faithful. Help us God, through the book of Nehemiah.

And I pray that you would help us to grow in worship. We want our lives to be lived to your honor. You have spilled the blood of your son Jesus Christ and now having received such mercy we want to live wholeheartedly for you. We want our lives to be full of worship and we want our worship to be full of passion and zeal for you. Oh, don't let our worship of you be cold, Lord.

Use the book of Nehemiah to make our worship hot. And God, I pray that you would use the book of Nehemiah to help us to grow in fearlessness that we would fear you as a good father and that this would keep us from being controlled by any other fear in this life. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Now I've broken up four verses into three sections.

So we'll look at verses one and two, and we'll look at verse three, and then we'll look at verse 4. Let's read again Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 together. The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah came to pass in the month of Chislev in the twentieth year as I was in Shushan the citadel that Han and I one of my brethren came with men from Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped who had survived the captivity and concerning Jerusalem. This is verses 1 and 2 and it gives us the background for the book. Verse 1 begins this way, the words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.

Nehemiah literally means the Lord Comforts. That's what his name literally means, the Lord Comforts. If you're looking in your Old Testament, Lord there would be capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, and they do that in the Bible because there are different names for God and the highest name for God is Jehovah or Yahweh, and this is that word. So it means Jehovah Comforts. And what an appropriate name for this man.

We'll read further down in today's text that the people in Jerusalem are greatly distressed and in reproach. They're in great distress and reproach. In the face of that, God raises up a man to comfort his people by giving them godly, prayerful, proactive leadership. And we'll find out in next week's text that he's the cup bearer. There's more to be said about that, but needless to say you're really close to the king when you're the cup bearer.

So God has raised up someone to comfort his people and he's given him favor in the eyes of the king of a worldwide empire. Sounds a lot like Ezra, sounds a lot like Zerubbabel, the man who led the first two waves back from captivity. He's the son of Hacalaia. Hacalaia is not mentioned anywhere else. So my guess is at the time of the writing and the distribution of this book, the first writing and distribution of the book, that it was meaningful that people knew who that was, but he's nowhere else in any of the Old Testament genealogies, so it's not very meaningful to us.

In chapter 2 verse 3, when we get there in a couple of weeks, we'll see that Nehemiah calls Jerusalem, quote, the city, the place of my father's tombs, end quote. So Nehemiah, as we do know this about him, that his forefathers were buried in Jerusalem. His ancestors lived in Jerusalem. So the people had been carried into captivity more than 150 years earlier, but now more than 150 years later, Nehemiah knows exactly where his forefathers were and where they're buried. They're buried in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is his city. We don't really know anything else about Nehemiah. We're never told his tribe. Sometimes people, when they're pointed out in the Old Testament. They are of the tribe of, we don't have anything like that, for Nehemiah.

Although Matthew Henry notes that one of the apocryphal books, 2 Maccabees, says that he offered sacrifices, and if that's true, then he was a priest. The apocryphal books can be useful but they're not inspired, they're not scripture so maybe so maybe not. The book of Nehemiah begins in the month of Chislev. This is the ninth month on the Jewish calendar. It would straddle our months of November and December.

It's winter here, it's winter there too. And it's in the twentieth year, and when we go to chapter 2 verse 1, it's explicit. It's the 20th year of the reign of King Artaxerxes. In chapter 1 verse 1, you read 20th year and you say 20th year of what? But in chapter 2 verse 1 that gets answered.

It's in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes. And so this is the year 444 or 445 BC before Jesus comes. So four and a half centuries before Jesus comes. The book of Nehemiah begins in Shushan, the citadel. This is a city also named Susa.

Sometimes you'll see it identified as Susa, sometimes you'll see it identified as Shushan. They're the same place. We see this city in Daniel chapter 8. So Daniel is during the time of the Babylonian captivity. Daniel actually was one of the ones that King Nebuchadnezzar took out of Jerusalem and took into exile into captivity to Babylon and Daniel served the king Nebuchadnezzar and other kings, succeeding kings, in his court.

We see Shushan, Daniel is in Shushan in Daniel chapter 8. He has a vision there in Shushan. And then the book of Esther happens in Shushan. So Esther is a queen of Artaxerxes' dad, a wife of Artaxerxes' dad, and the book of Esther happens in the city of Shushan. It's the winter home of the kings.

So in terms of location, you have Babylon And then, let's see, let me make sure I get this right. Yes. I'm doing an air map so I have to reverse it for you. You have Babylon and then about 500 miles east of Babylon you have Jerusalem. But you don't go from Babylon to Jerusalem, you have to go up and around because there's a desert here.

And if you try to go as the crow flies, you'll run out of water and all your animals are dying, you might die too. So you don't go straight across. You go up and around. So Babylon, 900 miles up and around Jerusalem. So, but we're keeping Babylon here.

About 250 miles east of Babylon is Shushan. And it's 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf. So this is Shushan is modern day Iran. And it's north of the Persian Gulf. So if Babylon's here and Shushan is here, the Persian Gulf, where we've been fighting wars for a couple of decades now is south.

And then north of Shushan is Akhmetha, which is the third prominent city in the Persian Empire. So you have Babylon and you have the winter home, Shushan. Why is it the winter home? Because it's really comfortable in the winter time. It's all about weather.

But during the summer, no king worth anything would spend his time there because it's brutally hot during the summer. So it's the winter home. And then it'd be like going to Florida for the winter. But you might not want to be down there in August. If you were a king, you might pick something else.

And then north, a higher latitude, a cooler latitude in Akhmetha, he has a summer home because It's in the mountains and it's at a higher elevation and it's cool in the summer. So he's got a home that is warm in the winter, Shushan, and he's got a home that is cool in the summer, Agatha, and the rest of the time he's in Babylon. So those are your three prominent cities. So the book of Nehemiah begins in the city of Shushan. In verse 2, Nehemiah is visited by men who have come from Judah.

So it's 900 miles up and around the desert from Jerusalem to Babylon and then you have another 250 miles from Babylon to Shushan directly east. So you've got about a 1200 mile journey from Jerusalem. So these are men who came from 1200 miles away. And Nehemiah encounters them. Who are these men?

Hanani, one of my brethren, and then also men from Judah. So they are identified, one is singled out, Hanani is singled out, And then a group of men from Judah. Now, if you look at chapter 7 verse 2, we see Hananiah again. Here's what we see in chapter 7 verse 2, the second part of that verse. Nehemiah says, I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my brother Hananiah and Hananiah the leader of the Citadel.

Here's what I think is significant about these two, particularly these two instances together. So here in chapter one and there in chapter seven. So brother or brethren can mean, like we have the same mother, he's my brother. Or it can mean, we're sons of Abraham. Abraham by this point is a mighty nation, is millions of people.

We're all part of that family tree with all of its branches. It's used that way many times in Nehemiah, but I don't think it's used that way here and here's why. In both chapter one and in chapter seven, Hanani is singled out as my brother in verses where he is also talking about men who are part of the big family tree. So I I don't think he's using brethren as in, we're all Israelites, we're all sons of Abraham, great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandsons of Abraham. I think he's talking about a much closer relation, much closer, and maybe his real, we have the same mother, brother.

I think that's very possible. My guess is that's what it is. I think he's being singled out by the way the term is used in chapter 1 and again in chapter 7 that we have a very close relative and maybe his true brother in Hanani. So look at chapter 1 and look at chapter 7 later and decide for yourself, but that's what I think. These are men who have traveled 1200 miles, so this just shouts, not just dropping in.

We're not just dropping in to see how things are going in Shushan. This is a four to six month journey these men have undertaken. Was it to see Nehemiah? We don't know. The text doesn't say.

Was it to see the king and to make requests of the king? We don't know. The text doesn't say. But we do know they've traveled 1200 miles and you don't do that just to say hi. These are men on a significant mission or they wouldn't have undertaken this trip.

Now Nehemiah inquires of them about two things. How are the Lord's people? How is the Lord's city? That's what he's asking them about. It's clear that these two things occupy a special place in Nehemiah's heart.

These men come from 1200 miles away. How are the Lord's people? Are the Lord's people well? How is the Lord's city? Jerusalem is not just another city.

As we will see in his prayer next week when we finish the chapter, this is the place where God had caused His name to dwell. So in the heart of every Israelite, Jerusalem has a special place, has a cherished place. How are the Lord's people? Are they well? How is the Lord's city?

How is the place where God has caused His name to dwell? Is it well? He says this of the Lord's people. Here's how He describes them, the people He's asking about. This is verse 2.

The Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity. That's who he's inquiring about. The Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity. And I want you to notice how close this is to the words that Ezra used. Listen to Ezra chapter 9 verse 8.

In Ezra chapter 9 verse 8, the people have come to him and said, we have a mess. There's all these pagan marriages. And Ezra has sat down, he's plucked hair out of his beard, he's plucked hair out of his head, and now he sits down and he prays and we get the recorded prayer and here's part of the prayer. Ezra chapter 9 verse 8. And now for a little while grace has been shown from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a peg in his holy place.

So Ezra and Nehemiah are using the same terminology of the people who have been set at liberty by Persian kings, by Persian emperors to go back. Even so, they're calling it an escape. In the Jewish mind, their home has always been the promised land. The center of worship has always been Jerusalem. So even though they're not sneaking off in the dark of night when these waves of captives come back, they're still viewing it as an escape.

An escape of captivity. An escape, a release from the judgment of God and coming home. Now, verse 3, back to Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 3, and they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire." So Nehemiah has asked, how are the Lord's people? How is the Lord's city?

Are they well? And the report is disturbing. The Lord's people are in great distress and reproach. So they're hard pressed. They are not, they're not well.

There's pressure on them from every side. And as the book of Nehemiah unfolds, we're going to see they have very active enemies. That's going to really be one of the major thrusts of the rest of the whole book of Nehemiah. They have very active enemies, both internally and externally, meaning there are people within Jerusalem, within the people of God who can be bought as false prophets, and there are people outside of the people of God who would love nothing less than to keep them under their thumb militarily. That's what the whole rest of the book of Nehemiah is about.

Now why? Why are they in great distress and reproach? Why are they ashamed of their condition? They're in reproach. Their enemies can scoff at them right now.

They're ashamed of their present condition. That's what it means to be in reproach. Why? Because the wall is broken down and the gates are burned with fire. So I want to take us to two places to look at the history of the walls being broken down and the gates being burned with fire.

And it begins in 2nd Chronicles. So 2nd Chronicles isn't back very far at all. You just go back through Ezra and then you're to 2 Chronicles and to the last chapter of 2 Chronicles which is chapter 36. Turn there. 2 Chronicles chapter Chronicles chapter 36.

This is an account of the people going into the Babylonian captivity. So this is the background for all of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Second Chronicles chapter 36 I'm going to read 15 through 21. And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

Therefore he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young men or virgin, on the aged or the weak, he gave them all into his hand. And all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious possessions. And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia. To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths.

As long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill seventy years." So this is the biblical historical account of the walls being pulled down and the city being burned. Now turn to Ezra chapter 4. We were there not too many weeks ago. In Ezra chapter 4, the chapter spans a hundred years of persistent spiritual opposition and It gives us a couple of letters that were written to kings to keep the people oppressed. One of them is to the king during the time of Nehemiah, Artaxerxes.

I believe this was a letter written early in his reign, although there is not a time stamp to tell us. It makes the most sense and causes the least problems to understand this as being the very first years of Artaxerxes, this letter. And then that Artaxerxes the king had a change of heart from after the time of this letter and sent Ezra and then 13 years later sent Nehemiah. So this is Ezra chapter 4 beginning in verse 7. In the days of Artaxerxes, this is our king in the time of Nehemiah, also Bishlam, Methra-Dath, Tabal and the rest of their companions wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia.

The letter was written in Aramaic script and translated into the Aramaic language. Rahum the commander and Shemshah the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes in this fashion. So here we have enemies of Israel writing a letter against the Jews, against Jerusalem and Judah to King Artaxerxes. Now let's skip down to verse 12. I'm going to read 12 through 23.

This is their letter. Let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem and are building the rebellious and evil city and are finishing its walls and repairing the foundations. Now let it be known to the king that if this city is built and the walls completed, they will not pay tax, tribute, or custom, and the king's treasury will be diminished. Now because we received support from the palace, it was not proper for us to see the king's dishonor. Therefore, we have sent and informed the king That search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers and you will find in the book of the records and know that this city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and provinces and that they have incited sedition within the city in former times for which cause this city was destroyed.

We inform the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, the result will be that you will have no dominion beyond the river. The king sent an answer to Rahum the commander, to Shemshai the scribe, to the rest of their companions who dwell in Samaria, and to the remainder beyond the river, peace, and so forth. The letter which you sent to us has been clearly read before me, and I gave the command and a search has been made, and it was found that this city in former times has revolted against kings, and rebellion and sedition have been fostered in it. There have also been mighty kings of Jerusalem who have ruled over all the region beyond the river, and tax, tribute, and custom were paid to them. Now give the command to make these men cease, that this city may not be built until the command is given by me.

Take heed now that you do not fail to do this, why should damage increase to the hurt of the kings? Now when the copy of King Art-Exerxes' letter was read before Rahum, Shemshah, the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem against the Jews and by force of arms made them cease." So I think the story is the walls were broken down and the city was burned during the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the people being taken into captivity. And then an attempt in the early years of art exerts these was made to repair the walls and rebuild the city. But because of this letter of opposition and the king looking in the records and finding out, yes, this has been a rebellious city, sometimes in time past, he allowed the nations around them to, by force of arms, put a stop to that rebuilding. So I think That brings us to Nehemiah chapter 1.

The temple has been rebuilt, but the walls still are not fully rebuilt. They are not repaired as they should be. And the homes And the gates are still burned and in disrepair. Theodore Roosevelt, one of our US presidents, this was his foreign policy. Speak softly, carry a big stick.

In other words, be really well armed so you don't have to raise your voice. And in those terms, to not have a wall is to not have a stick. So his policy was be well-armed, carry a big stick, and then you can speak softly. But in those terms, in that time, to not have a wall, to have a wall in disrepair is not to have a small stick, it's not to have a stick at all. And they're totally exposed to military conquest.

Now, on top of that, think of the wealth that came back in the second wave. You remember when the second wave of captives came back with Ezra 13 years earlier, remember they did not come back empty-handed. I tried to translate the things that they brought back into modern money and it comes up to 162 million dollars. They did not come back empty-handed. When you Look at the gold that they brought back and the silver they brought back.

162 million dollars. They came back with wealth and much of that is just in the temple. And they don't have a wall to defend it with. They are a big, juicy target and have been for 13 years. Probably the opposition has been getting bolder and bolder and bolder.

That's what the rest of Nehemiah would indicate. That's Verse 3, the report. The people of God are in great distress and reproach and the city is a ruin. The walls are broken down, the gates are burned. Now, verse 4.

Back to Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 4. So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. In verse 4 we have Nehemiah's response. If you were taking notes, it's the blank, the blank, and the blank.

The first was the background, verses 1 and 2, if you're taking notes on the handout. The second point was the report, verse 3, the report, and the final blank is verse 4, the response. To me, when I read this, I say, this is Ezra 2.0. This is the latest iteration of Ezra as a man. In other words, he's just like Ezra.

Doesn't he sound just like Ezra in this response? Listen, just back to a few selected verses from Ezra. In Ezra chapter 9, Ezra has just gotten the report that there are all these pagan marriages. Here's 9 verse 3. So when Ezra heard this, I tore my garment in my robe and plucked out some of the hair of my head and beard and sat down astonished.

And then he prays. And then in chapter 10 verse 1 we read, Now while Ezra was praying and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God a very large assembly of men, women, and children and gathered to him from Israel for the people wept very bitterly. So in chapter 10 verse 1 he's leading the people in weeping. He's bowed down before God and then we read this just a few verses later in chapter 10 verse 6. Then Ezra arose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib.

And when he came there he ate no bread and drank no water for he mourned because of the guilt of those from the captivity." Ezra and Nehemiah are men of like spirit. They are men of like heart. Which just means they are godly. That's why they are alike. Why are Ezra and Nehemiah so alike?

Because they're godly, because the Spirit of God has done work in them, and because the things that matter to God matter to them. And When the people of God are hard pressed, when they're in great distress and reproach, and when the city of God where His name dwells, the walls are broken down and the gates are burned, They can't do anything but sit down and weep and pray. Now think about this, Nehemiah himself, just personally, is in the safest place on the planet. He is in the palace. He has a favored place in the palace of the King of the known world.

Jerusalem, 1200 miles away, out of sight, out of mind, over there, in great distress and reproach. But I have a favored spot at the King's table, the King of the known world. But he's filled with sorrow. How much sorrow? So much sorrow.

It says he is sorrowful, he is weeping, he is fasting and praying. It says for many days, it doesn't say how many days, but here is what we do know. When we get to chapter 2, it will be the first month of the year, Nisan, and the king will notice that he's sad and ask him, what's on your mind? He'll say, this is on my mind. It's four months later.

The beginning of chapter one is the ninth month. The beginning of chapter two is the first month and it's still visible on his face. Hey, what's going on with you? What's bothering you? Can you imagine the king even taking notice?

What's bothering you? The Lord's people are in distress. My people are in distress. But he doesn't just sorrow, he does sorrow, but he doesn't just sorrow, he takes action. He fasts and prays.

Now we don't think rightly about fasting and praying. We think that that's what you do before you take action. But that's not true. That is action. It is taking action to pray.

It is taking action to fast. That's one of the things I want to do in this coming year is I think about how do I want next year to be different and better than this year. I haven't decided what frequency but I didn't fast at all this year. I over ate all year. Next year I want to fast at least some, just because the pattern set before us in the books where God has us is that godly men fast some.

Godly men are distressed enough about the Lord's people being hard pressed that they'll give up meals in order to focus intensity on their prayers. Fasting is action. Prayer is action. It's not just what you do before the action. It's the most important action because aren't you frustrated by how little you control?

How little you actually have direct control over each other? Like if I just had more control, things would be... This frustration over how little we actually directly control should actually nudge us towards calling out to God who never has that problem. What do I mean? God never has the problem of that's not under my direct control.

That's your problem, that's my problem, that's never his problem. Everything is under his direct control. He can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, with whomever he wants. So the most important action is to actually seek help from God, whose arm is never too short to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Applications, three of them.

See the book of Nehemiah in the context of redemptive history. Application number one. See the book of Nehemiah in the context of redemptive history. In other words, what does this have to do with Jesus? That's always the question that has to be answered.

Because the whole Bible is about Jesus. The stuff before Jesus is pointing forward to Jesus. The stuff about Jesus is about Jesus. The stuff after Jesus is either pointing back to Jesus or pointing forward to when He's coming back. It's all about Jesus.

We have to come to Nehemiah with the question, what does this have to do with Jesus? Again, referring to a note from the Reformation Heritage Study Bible says this, for Christ to fulfill all righteousness, certain things had to be in place. To sum it up simply, there had to be an Israel if there was going to be a Christ. Nehemiah's work in building that city and his demand for purity of worship was a key component toward the coming of Christ. This is the end of the Old Testament.

This is the end of the historical books of the Old Testament. God is pointing towards the pinnacle of time, the coming of Jesus Christ. He's making ready for it. Everything is being made ready for a baby to be born in Bethlehem. So you better build those walls.

You better restore that temple. You better renew the covenant with God. There was only one way this history could play out. It's the way it did play out. It was the will of God.

He was making ready for Jesus to come and save the people. That's what it has to do with Jesus. Number two, application number two. See the reforms that God is giving us in this context. God is reforming things here.

God was reforming things there and then in the book of Nehemiah. So we look back, we see the book of Nehemiah, we say, that applies to us. We see the reforms that God is giving us in this context. Here's what Matthew Henry says, �Every Jerusalem on this side of the heavenly one will have some defect or other in it, for the making up of which will require the help and service of its friends. Did you get that?

Every little Jerusalem on this side of the heavenly one, every little pocket of People who take the name of God, Christians, has defects. And it needs the friends of the heavenly Jerusalem to help it. Meaning that the reforms that God is accomplishing here, the reforms that God is giving us here, are not to separate us from the rest of His people, they're to make us a blessing to the rest of His people. And vice versa, meaning God is giving other pockets of his people reforms that we need. So God is reforming things here, praise God.

That's not to separate us from the rest of His people. It's to make us a blessing. We should go advance those reforms among the rest of the people with God in love, patiently. And we should have our eyes open for what He's doing, reforms he's bringing to other pockets of the people of God and receive the blessing. These reforms should not give us disdain for other groups of the people of God, but they should give us a desire to be a source of blessing and we should have the ability to receive blessing from them.

I worked in the electronics industry for 19 years and there was a phenomenon in that industry and I'm sure it applies to all industries but it was the not invented here phenomenon. Meaning there were certain companies that you would work with that if it wasn't their idea they weren't interested. Didn't matter how good the idea was. Not invented here. Move along.

You couldn't get them to embrace a good idea from elsewhere for all the money in the world, for all the advantage in the world because it wasn't invented there. Heaven forbid that we should be a not invented here kind of people. Wherever the reforms come from, if they match the word of God, and we can find it somewhere among the history of the people of God. I'm very nervous about reforms that you can't look back in history and say, the godly have been doing this in other places and other times. So here's the question coming out of application number two.

Do you have a sense of close spiritual connection to brethren thousands of miles away. Do you have that? Do you have a sense of close spiritual connection with brethren thousands of miles away? Nehemiah's got a cushy job, my guess. He at least has a favored position in the palace, 1200 miles away from Jerusalem.

That's their problem. Not that Nehemiah wasn't their problem, it was his problem. He was part of the people of God. God's people were his people. Application number three.

I'm laying the groundwork in application number three for future weeks. So It's not really from this text, but it's going to be an application frequently. So this is a preemptive strike. Application number three. God uses good and evil for the blessing of his people.

We're going to see this over and over again in Nehemiah. Sometimes he's going to orchestrate things that on the surface look like a blessing and it's to help his people. It is a blessing. What it is on the surface is what it really is. It's a blessing.

God uses something good and favorable towards the Lord's people, but don't you dare think that's the only thing he uses. Over and over again in the book of Nehemiah we're going to see him use evil. The wicked motivations of evil, God-hating men, God will use those things to bless his people. He'll use traitors and wicked, pagan people to drive the Lord's people to their knees to help them depend upon him and things that were meant for evil God will use for good. It's the theme of the Bible.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the book of Nehemiah. How exciting it is to be embarking on a study of it. Help us to squeeze the last drop of good out of this study. Really to acquire the wisdom of it to be changed.

Come out the far side of studying it and to be more godly, more reliant upon you, more thoroughly Captivated by the work of your son Jesus Christ. I pray this in his name. Amen.