Good morning, I hope we are all ready to begin another book. Today we will read Nehemiah 1-4.
The book opens in the city of Susa. This is in the city of Shush in modern day Iran.

I believe it is important to understand on our current world map where these events happened. The Book of Revelation explains their relevance to the times to come.
City in Ruin
King Darius had a palace built in Susa, and the Persians would use that as their winter headquarters.

This makes sense, since Kislev is around the end of November to the early part of December on our calendars.

Nehemiah has heard reports about Jerusalem and the condition it is in.

What was a beautiful city and the temple of God now is rubble and charred remains of walls and gates.

I spent a summer with my oldest sister in Daly City, California, when I was eleven years old. This is a suburb south of San Francisco.

She would take my brother and me into the city to see Fisherman’s Wharf, The Golden Gate Bridge, Telegraph Hill, and Lombard Street. It was so different from Tucson, Arizona, where we lived. It was beautiful.

Today, in those same areas, people live on the streets, defecate and urinate in public. Addicts have scattered drug paraphernalia across the sidewalks.
Heart Broken
I was in the bay area just over a year ago and it was depressing.

Therefore, I can understand why Nehemiah sat down and wept in verse 1:4. Grief broke his heart.

The people of Israel confessed their sins and repented. God hears our prayers when we do this.

The people in California refuse to see their actions as sinful. If the Californians repented, verse 1:9 reminds us that God told Moses, “If you return to me and obey my commands…I will gather them from there and bring them to a place I have chosen as a dwelling place for my Name.”

That place is our hearts, where His Name, Jesus, will dwell when we confess our sins.

In chapter 2, Nehemiah goes before King Artaxerxes, while in this depressed funk.
Teamwork
A servant had to appear joyful when they approached the king; otherwise, it could be dangerous. This could show they were ill and could infect the king. Therefore, just to expose the king to disease, they may have executed him.

Instead, Artaxerxes asks why he has a long face. To assure the king he and his queen are in no danger, Nehemiah explains the trouble in his heart (see 2:17).

Then they get to Jerusalem and are rebuilding the wall. I love how, twenty-six hundred years later, we can read the names of who was working on each section.

First, it shows me fixing a problem of this size is not something one person can do.

They needed the edict from the rulers. Then it took many people to accomplish the work.

They teach us in our society to be faceless, nameless data points on spreadsheets. The quality of our labor is irrelevant. Companies like this because it makes us replaceable (1).

In Nehemiah 3, the heads of the family took pride in the work they did. Prizing their work immortalized their names.

They may have been a perfume maker, like Hananiah in verse 3:8, but he didn’t complain about being too busy. Nor did he claim it wasn’t part of his job. He completed the work, and he will receive lasting credit for it.

We might also say we aren’t capable, the work is too hard. In verse 3:12 we read that even Shallum daughters helped. Their important work led to notice being given even to their grandfather, Hallohesh.

Nehemiah, who was in charge of part of the district of Beth-Zur, got involved and helped with the repairs (v3:16).
Facing Opposition
We may want to say it is easy to be involved when everyone is cheering for you. I have seen celebrities and politicians pose for photo opportunities holding shovels.

That was not the case in Jerusalem.

We have the Samaritans complaining and doing everything possible to frustrate their efforts (v4:2).

Because of this, the Jews had to have half their people stand guard while the other half did the work. They would trade off. Sometimes even keeping one hand on their sword while the other on a tool (v4:21).

We have cities which were once treasures. San Francisco is not the only one. We took pride in them. Tourists would come just to look at them. Now they’re an embarrassment.

We want the government to fix them, but all they can do is approve the work.

Everyone should take part in the repairs, not just provide funding.

Instead of taking pride in our sins, we need to take pride if rebuilding America.
Tomorrow we will read Nehemiah 5-7

Godin, Seth, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, Penguin, 2010.