Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 180 - Nehemiah, God's Builder - Part 2 In the past few years there has been a lot of discussion of a small book by David Wilkerson called "The Prayer of Jabez". The prayer of Jabez is found in on 1 Chronicles 4:10: "And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested." In the next section of our discussion of Nehemiah we will find that Nehemiah prays in a quite similar fashion for God to bless and prosper him, extend his territory and finds that the hand of the Lord is with him! (Nehemiah 1:11- 2:8 NKJV) "O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I was the king's cupbearer. {1} And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. {2} Therefore the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart." So I became dreadfully afraid, {3} and said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?" {4} Then the king said to me, "What do you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. {5} And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it." {6} Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), "How long will your journey be? And when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. {7} Furthermore I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah, {8} "and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy." And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me. Prayer that asks the Lord to bless a godly desire for a great work is the kind of prayer that God often answers. Prior to this prayer Nehemiah has prayed, fasted, humbled himself and confessed his sins and the sins of his people. He has done the spiritual preparation and now he gets to the point of asking God to enable him to rebuild Jerusalem. Every step of the way was bathed in prayer. Step one was getting permission from the Emperor Artaxerxes (and fortunately he was in a position of high access and could make such requests). Step two was getting the provisions, the time and the necessary bureaucratic permissions with lower officials. Lastly he was going to build a house for himself there (Nehemiah 2:8) and needed some timber. Nehemiah combines being both organized and prayerful at the same time, Nehemiah was both detailed and spiritual, and thought through and visionary. He was a balanced practical man who got things done and yet who obviously believed in prayer as the primary means of moving things forward. Nehemiah also saw planning as important in ensuring things actually came to pass. You may have heard some sayings like "Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God" (William Carey), The gospels tell us of the importance of faith, prayer and believing in moving mountains. Christians are indeed called to be visionaries. But they are also called to be practical about it. Proverbs tells us of the virtues of wisdom, diligence and foresight and there is a lot of truth in common business saying such as: "No-one plans to fail, they just fail to plan" or "Plan your work and work your plan". Nehemiah was a visionary with a brain, a prayer-warrior with an analytical mind, and a networker and politician with a conscience and great reverence for God. Nehemiah's work place was a pagan court, filled with astrologers and intrigue (as we see in the book of Daniel) and apparently so dangerous that the King's noticing his sad face caused Nehemiah to be "dreadfully afraid". It must have been a "Through The Looking Glass" - "Off-with-their heads!" kind of world. Yet Nehemiah was a brave, balanced man of God in this most secular of all workplaces. And it was precisely in this context and through these people that Nehemiah expected God to bless him. He expected God to prosper him via Artaxerxes and to supply him through regional officials and governors (Nehemiah 1:11). "and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." This tells us that we can and should look to politicians and businessmen to help us in the great works of God. The local church often feels overburdened with the demands on it to send money to a famine in Africa or a missionary in the Philippines. There is a case for asking God to bless you through secular sources as well as churches and being bold about it - as Nehemiah was. The blessings through secular means can still be the hand of God upon your ministry! Nehemiah 2:8 "And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me." Nehemiah did not leave his own legitimate needs out of the picture. He asked for the bulk of resources for the great work of God, and then added "and for the house that I will occupy" (Nehemiah 2:8). Chapter five details Nehemiah's sacrifices, he was far from self-seeking, but neither was he imprudent. He made sure his own proper needs were part of the ministry budget. Nehemiah also knew how to calculate the time needed for a project and give a responsible answer. When the King asked about the details Nehemiah "set him a time" (Nehemiah 2:6). Thus Nehemiah was a responsible man who could complete projects on time and on budget. He knew how long it would take, and what was required. Later on we find he built the wall in just fifty-two days (Nehemiah 6:15). Now that's capable project-planning and delivery! Back to the prayer of Jabez. Nehemiah prayed for things such as God prospering him and blessing him and for people to have mercy on him and eventually summed it up saying that the answer was "according to the good hand of my God upon me." Nehemiah's prayer life shows that he believed in a God who was good and bountiful and could be asked for huge things. This is not timid fearful praying to a stingy ogre. It's the prayer of a loving son to a powerful and good Father. Yet while Nehemiah is included in the blessing (he gets a house out of it) its not primarily about him, but about Jerusalem and the people of God and the glory of God. Nehemiah is praying to be blessed so he can be a blessing. And for Nehemiah that needs to be on a big scale. The big scale is a problem for many praying Christians. We simply cannot believe God for a million dollars or a ship or a castle. Yet Nehemiah is asking for a project that in today's terms might come in at $200 million -ten or more miles of huge defensive walls and basic city infrastructure. It is like the rebuilding of Kabul. Who could confidently pray for that - then go off and confidently do it? Only a man of great faith and great organizational ability. Now the big scale is often tied up with our own sense of importance - and that is why we end up on the small scale. God doesn't answer prayers simply to make us feel puffed up. Nehemiah saw what needed to be done and did it. Sure he went down in history as a result, but his primary focus was not on building his own empire but on building God's city. For Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem was no ego trip. He was already cup-bearer to the king and this project would take him out of the court, like moving from Washington D.C. to North Dakota. It was a costly, difficult task that was opposed at every turn. Nehemiah took on the big scale job not because it was big and glorious, but because it was necessary and would glorify God. There is nothing super-spiritual about big scale projects. Neither is there anything terribly hard about them either. It is often easier to organize one big city-wide crusade than the equivalent in ten much smaller church crusades. The important thing is to simply to forget about the size or importance of the project and just proceed steadily and wisely. You must not let the size of the task either daunt you or inflate you. Summing up - Nehemiah combined bold prayerful faith with great organizational ability and the capacity to plan and deliver large scale projects. Nehemiah is a great example of a synergy between practical wisdom and visionary faith. Blessings, John Edmiston Were you blessed by Eternity Daily Bible Study? To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org Visit the Eternity Daily Bible Study Archives - http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ Study at the Asian Internet Bible Institute- Free online non-formal, in-service, bible and ministry training: http://www.aibi.ph