Nehemiah

I've just spent the last two days at Willow Creek's Leadership Summit. It has been quite motivational and inspriational to see what God has done in the lives of regular people. The last session is this morning, so I'm also looking forward to it. Two days of positive input certainly does well to minimize my cynical and jaded outlook on life. It's no doubt that it has influenced the way I read Nehemiah.

I think it's odd how many statistics are included in these writings. Nehemiah, first of all, writes it in the first-person. He is a servant of the King of Persia and heard news that Jerusalem was still in ruins and was not being cared for, so he decided he needed to do something about it. He prayed for favour from the King, and then proceeded to ask him not only for a Leave of Absence to go to the place of his ancestors, but for supplies and protection as well. The King gave it to him.

Nehemiah provides lists of who rebuilt what section of the wall. He also lists who originally came back from captivity in the first place. He had enemies, but he trusted God to protect him and they did not succeed in their intent. He made legislative changes to benefit the poor; by this time he was governor.

Once the wall was built and Ezra read the Law, the people confessed their sins, then they prayed. I find the prayer very insightful and relevant. The people, in a nutshell, recounted their history and God's involvement, from their time in Egypt to now. It's the whole concept of 20/20 vision in retrospect. They saw their ancestors disobedience and how they ended up in exile. We've recently gone through many changes in our lives and when we were in the midst of it, it seemed God was far from us and we weren't sure where to turn. However, as we look back and recount the events and decisions, we see that God was very close and directed us all along the way. Reflection is a good thing.

One statement certainly sums up people's fallen nature: 9:16 - "Our stubborn ancestors refused to obey-- they forgot about the miracles you had worked for them, and they were determined to return to Egypt and become slaves again." The Jews in Nehemiah's time recoconized how bent their ancestors were on returning to captivity - it was a challenge for them to enjoy their freedom.

In chapter 13, Nehemiah tells us he left Jerusalem and went back to Persia for a while. When he returned, he found that people were already disobeying. How quickly they forgot their agreement with God. Nehemiah corrected it, and also made some sweeping changes about the Sabbath, bringing people back to its proper observance.

I was talking with someone recently about one person's sin potential and another person's freedom. We agreed that one person's freedom should not be held hostage by another person's sin. Here, the Jews' own sin and captivity were holding them hostage and not letting them enjoy and live in the freedom that was already theirs. I think it's the same for many Christians today. We've been set free, given permission to live in freedom from our sin and sin potential, yet we keep returning, even though freedom is the way to go. I'm guessing it is not until we're fully redeemed and off this planet that we'll get it right.