Nehemiah Introduction

Nehemiah Introduction

https://youtu.be/bszz_ReGfXQ

God wants to live with us. We see this truth in Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra and Nehemiah are two books that tell one story—the story of Israel coming home. Israel had been exiled from their land and removed from God's presence in the temple because of their sins. But in Ezra and Nehemiah, God is bringing a remnant back. Ultimately, though, God's presence does not return to the temple the way Israel thought he would. Instead, the books end on a low note of failure and more exile. But the good news is that Jesus has done what Ezra and Nehemiah couldn't. He brings us back home to God and makes a way for us to live in his presence.

Introductions

TOTC (83) – More than half this book is a personal record, punctuated with ‘asides’ and frank comments which make it (in such parts) one of the liveliest pieces of writing in the Bible. Much of Ezra’s story was also told in the first person (Ezra 8:15-9:15), but Ezra was a quieter personality than the formidable, practical Nehemiah; he does not leap out of the page as this man does.

The main action is crowded into the spring and summer of the year 445 BC, in which time Nehemiah not only made the journey from near the Persian Gulf to Jerusalem, but restored the city’s walls and gates, and began to see to its defense. All this he recounts himself.

IBCTP (63-64) – Theologically speaking, it is important to realize that the bulk of the passage records Nehemiah’s second response to the devastating news from Jerusalem. Following a period of grief (1:4, cf. Ezra 9:3-5), his initial response, Nehemiah demonstrates his faith by turning to the fount of his resources in prayer. While the form of the prayer itself is unparalleled in scripture – it lacks, for instance, the complaint so characteristic of the community laments with which it is sometimes compared … – it falls easily into a simple structure:

A – Invocation (5-6a)

B – Confession: Israel’s sin (6b-7)

X – Appeal to covenantal promise of return (8-9)

B’ – Confession: God’s redemption (10)

A’ – Invocation with supplication (11a)

The prayer begins and ends with an invocation similar to that found in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8:29, 52; II Chron. 6:40), “let your ear be attentive … to hear the prayer of your servant” (6a, 11a). Two confessions, one negative, regarding Israel’s sin (B) and one positive, regarding God’s redemption (B’), frame the heart of the prayer (X). This centerpiece consists of Nehemiah’s appeal to God to remember the covenantal promise of return on the basis of Deuteronomy 30:1-5. The strengthened particle of entreaty with the vocative, “O Lord” (5, 11a), provide an inclusion for the entire prayer.