Today in much of the world we are bombarded constantly with new information and news. It comes in ways and forms unheard of not that many years ago. Many of our grandfathers relied on newspapers and radios to hear the news. Then came the television and news magazines that added to and sped up how quickly we learned of something. And now we see many things in real time on computers, phones, iPads, and more. In the cacophony of it all, I wonder what we really hear. Has it all become background noise where we pay little attention? Does it come so quickly that we have knee-jerk reactions rather than more reasoned consideration as we did when newspapers were the only source?

 

It can be hard for us who are adults to imagine what it would have been like before these things were common in our daily life. Imagine the difference of waiting for the news even 50 years ago. That one is not hard for me. When my husband served in the military in Vietnam, our communication was initially limited to letters that took at least a week to arrive. Then we had small reel-to-reel tape recorders to send audio messages back and forth (We were not quite at the point of cassette tape recorders.) and those still took a week.

 

If we go back even farther in history and time, we can readily see how long someone needed to wait to hear the news of what was happening. When it was heard, it was often incomplete. The waiting must have been very hard, but perhaps it netted more thoughtful and reasoned responses.

 

I want to invite you to look back to the Middle East in the fifth century B.C. with me to a story that has much we can learn from today. Lack of faithfulness to God had resulted in the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel (known also as Ephraim) and exile of the Jewish people of the southern kingdom (known as Judah) to Babylon. The sacred city of Jerusalem had been destroyed and the city trampled with walls broken down.

 

One of the exiles, Nehemiah, serves as the cupbearer to the king in the Persian city of Susa in the area we now know as Iran. Each day it meant Nehemiah’s life was put on the line, as he tasted the wine to assure there was no poison within it meant to destroy the king’s life. As a cupbearer, Nehemiah would have been one of the king’s most trusted servants and he would have spent much time in the king’s presence. Even so, he was a slave.

 

It is unlikely we would have heard of Nehemiah had it not been for one primary thing. He heard news of his homeland and the condition of the city of Jerusalem. Scripture tells us that he wept, fasted and prayed. The news saddened him to such a degree that scripture says his face showed such sadness that the king noticed. The king, Artaxerxes I, must have been quite observant to notice his servant’s face and ask him about his expression. Such an observation created fear in the heart of Nehemiah because he knew his fate lay in the king’s hands and he had never sought to displease him. The king could have believed Nehemiah was involved in some plot to cause him damage and perhaps order his execution.

 

Let’s not skip the key to this man’s life. When he heard the bad news, he wept, fasted, and prayed.

 

It seems likely that because Nehemiah had fasted and prayed at the news, he chose to risk being honest with the king and told him that his sad expression was due to the poor state of affairs in Jerusalem and that he wanted to return there to rebuild the walls of the city so those few inhabitants there could live in safety.

 

How unusual it must have been that this servant and slave received favor from the king! He was not only given permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city, but he also received letters from the king giving him safe passage through the areas he would need to travel and to obtain the timber from the king’s own forest for the gates and walls of Jerusalem.

 

It seems evident that Nehemiah was a godly man because of how he responded to the news. He heard. His emotional response was to weep from the sadness he felt. His decisional response was to fast and pray. The scripture account does not indicate he began to wring his hands, start telling everyone, or criticize those who had destroyed his homeland and most holy city.

 

What is our response to news that grieves our hearts?

 

An initial emotional response is normal and healthy, but do we stop there or act from that place of reactive emotion?

 

This ancient story of Nehemiah tucked in the Old Testament has much to offer us for our lives today. I want to spend several posts sharing some of the applications we can see from this story. I hope you will join me.

 

Nehemiah shows us that a godly leader prays.

 

 

 

 

One of the subjects I have always found fascinating is history. I know some of you might be groaning on that topic, but beyond my interest in it I am persuaded that knowing history is key to helping us understand how we got to ‘now’ and how we can be less likely to repeat the mistakes we made before.

 

It seems clear that students of history must be in the minority because we as individuals, cultures, and nations so often repeat mistakes we should have learned from in the past.

 

“The thing about mistakes is, they become valuable when you learn from them.”

Lisa Wingate in The Sea Keeper’s Daughter

 

We live in an era where almost everyone has an opinion about almost everything. Unfortunately the opinions are often presented as though they are facts or that facts back them up. We seem to care little about that and gobble them down as if they were certified organic and healthy.

 

This behavior permeates all areas of our lives − even in the body of Christ.

 

I have been delving again into a couple of historical books in the Old Testament in my reading (Ezra and Nehemiah). These two books that were originally one book give us a picture of how the children of Abraham are doing after being in captivity in Babylon. Each of the persons for whom the books are named shares important information from which we can all glean wisdom.

 

These books are not new to me, but it isn’t unusual when we are reading passages or books in the Bible to have new things jump out at us.

 

Ezra arrived back in Jerusalem thirteen years before Nehemiah and despite his love of God and the law, it isn’t until chapter 8 of Nehemiah that we see him reading the law to those who have returned to rebuild the temple and the walls of the city. His zeal is evident, as he desires to make clear to the returning exiles how essential it was to know God’s law that they had abandoned before God gave them over to Babylonian captivity.

 

The scene in this eighth chapter is worth noting. It tells us that all the people of Israel gathered “as one man” into the square in front of the Water Gate. Ezra brings out the Book of the Law of Moses and he begins reading the whole of it. He begins in the early morning and continues until midday. The text also says “all the people were attentive.”

 

Ezra blesses the Lord and these tenets of Israel’s faith. What happens next?

 

Everyone says “amen” and lifts up their hands and worships God and bow their faces to the ground. They were grieved when they learned how far they had strayed from God’s plan for them.

 

They had received a large dose of the truth upon which to live, speak, and carry out their faith. This truth wasn’t opinion or speculation.

 

As we hear debates about positions of faith today on a diverse list of areas and moral questions − even among members of the Christian faith − I am puzzled by how so many different opinions can exist if our positions are based on the truth of God’s Word.

 

Is it possible that not unlike the children of Israel too many do not know the truth (based on scripture) to inform their opinions or positions? 

 

We are all always learning and growing in understanding of what the Bible says, but how much we learn and grow has a direct correlation to how much we have read and studied of it. We only get glimpses if our knowledge is based on a Sunday sermon, an Internet message, or a devotional we read.

 

To more fully understand the truth and speak from the source of that truth requires us to spend time reading in the Bible in its whole, not parts and pieces. That requires a discipline, but it also points to how we respond to the question of the risen Jesus when He asked Peter, “Do you love me?”

 

If we are brutally honest, we know that so long as we practice anything out of duty or as a discipline it will not be sustainable. If we love what we practice, however, it will not seem a burden to practice.

 

I wonder if our debates within the whole body of Christ shows how faulty our foundational understanding is of the Bible we say we believe. God does not intend for us (if we are his) to rely solely on a pastor or teacher to learn the truth meant to guide and sustain us through good times and bad.

 

In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah The Law of Moses was not available to everyone in a dozen translations and most of the poor people could not read. Not so today.

 

What if all our Christian leaders would stand up and begin reading the Bible from beginning to end as we stood there listening and we heard truth we may never have heard or recognized previously?

 

Would it change our dialogue and debates?

 

Would we respond in grief and worship as the people who stood before Ezra and Nehemiah as Ezra read to them?

 

I wonder.