FBC Morning Light – March 22, 2022

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. Spring has sprung, and I hope it's put a little bit of a spring in your step as well. Well, today we're beginning the exciting Old Testament book of Nehemiah in our Bible reading plan, and we'll be looking at that book and some things in that book in the next few days, every other day at least, anyway.

Today we read the first three chapters, and if you read that this morning, or if you haven't yet and you're going to, then you'll be reminded of how Nehemiah gets involved in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

He hears about the plight of this city, how the walls are torn down, people are living in misery, and he's just greatly burdened about this. He's so burdened about it, in fact, that he's able to go to his boss, the king.

He is, after all, the king's cupbearer, and the king senses his burden, asks him why he's so burdened, and he shares the burden with the king. The king says, all right, well, what do you want to do about it?

He says, I want to go rebuild the walls. He says, okay, what do you need? How long are you going to be gone? Nehemiah lays it all out before him, and the king says, blessings on you, have at it, and off he goes.

Burden for the Broken Condition of God’s People

As I read this passage this morning, I got to thinking about a few things. One of them is, in the first place, when conditions among God's people are deplorable, how greatly am I burdened about it? If my life is okay and I'm feeling comfortable myself, do I really enter into the burdens and the hurts of other people?

Nehemiah certainly did, and I think that's a good challenge for us to not be so satisfied with our own comfort level that we can't enter into the heartache and the hurt of other people. But then beyond that, when success does come our way, as it did for Nehemiah, everything fell into place for him.

The king granted his petition, and then some. The king also gave him whatever he needed to see that the job got accomplished in the rebuilding of these walls, and gave him permission to go and take the time necessary to do this work in this project.

So when that kind of success comes our way, how do we handle it? To whom do we give the credit? Do we look to ourselves? Do we think, wow, I'm really pretty smart, or I'm really pretty skilled, I'm really pretty effective?

Nehemiah enjoyed all of that success, but he attributed it to the right thing. There's a couple of places in our reading today. In chapter 2, verse 8, he says, and the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Then again, he says the same thing in verse 18 of chapter 2. As he speaks to the people, he gets to Jerusalem and speaks to the people of what he wants to do, and he says, I told them of the good hand of my God, which had been good upon me, and also the good words of the king's words that he had spoken to me.

In both cases, and he's going to say this again in this book, he attributes the success or the positive direction of things to the good hand of his God upon him, that this is attributed to God. This success is God's doing.

Again, I think that's an important thing for us to learn. It helps us to be humble in when good things do happen, when success comes our way, when we set out to accomplish something and it's accomplished, to attribute that to the good hand of God upon us, rather than my skill or my intelligence or whatever.

I think it's a good attitude always to have, because it helps to keep us humble before our God. Another thing that comes out in this passage is that those who don't have a heart for God are not going to have a heart for God's work.

So there's this great unity among God's people. You see it in chapter 3, verses 1 to 14, where all God's people there in Jerusalem, they rally around this project of getting the walls rebuilt. But not everybody is so excited about that.

We read about these characters, Sanballat and Tobiah, and their opposition to the work that is to be done. So in chapter 2, verse 10, we read, When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of the project, the building of the wall, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel.

Yes, indeed, those who don't really have a heart for the work of God will not be happy when someone comes along and seeks to build up the people of God and the work of God. This again, when the announcement begins to be made that we're going to build this wall, Nehemiah said, Let us rise up and build, and they set their hands to this good work.

The people rallied around the project. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, What is this thing that you are doing?

Will you rebel against the king? Right away, they raised their voice in opposition. I think that is something that can be expected when God's people are united together to work on a worthwhile project for the glory of God and the good of his people.

There will be those who don't really have a heart for God, don't really have a heart for the work of God, that will voice opposition and do so quite vocally, and sometimes even with great hostility, as we'll see later on with Sanballat and Tobiah.

We need to be aware of that, but it must not diminish our enthusiasm or our sense of unity for the work of God. Some good thoughts to bear in mind today as we begin this letter or this book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament.

Prayer for Humility and Unity in God’s Work

All right, let's pray and ask God for a blessed day in our world. Father, we do thank you for these encouraging and challenging ideas and thoughts from Nehemiah chapter 1. Lord, help us to have humble hearts that attribute any measure of success we might have to your good hand upon us.

Lord, give us a sense of unity for the work of God and deliver us from having the spirit and the attitude of a Sanballat and a Tobiah. This we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your Tuesday, and may God richly bless you in it.

Good day.