Nehemiah 1:1-4
The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:
In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.
They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
A few years ago I went back to my hometown of Armonk, N.Y. for my 30th high school reunion.
Can I just say that High School reunions are weird! Weird and wonderful and fun all at the same time!
In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.
They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
A few years ago I went back to my hometown of Armonk, N.Y. for my 30th high school reunion.
Can I just say that High School reunions are weird! Weird and wonderful and fun all at the same time!
Since my family had moved away shortly after I graduated
I had not seen most of my classmates since the day we
graduated. All weekend long I had the strangest
impression that I was at some kind of masquerade party
with a bunch of high school kids wearing old-people
costumes!
Upon seeing an old friend from my childhood my first instinct was to say, “What happened to your face?!” But they were undoubtedly thinking the same thing about me so we all just lied to each other and said, “You’re looking great!”
One of the things I did while I was there was to just drive around my old hometown and visit some of the places that were important in my childhood.
I drove to the home where our family lived; the church where my Dad was pastor and where I was baptized. I drove past the schools I attended; most of them were pretty much like I remembered.
Then I drove to the ball fields where I played Little League baseball. There were 3 or 4 fields where we played and they looked much like I remembered them; except for one.
While the other fields looked like they were still being taken care of and used for youth baseball, this one field was in complete disrepair. The infield had been overtaken by weeds; you could no longer see where the bases had once been. The back stop was broken down and completely covered with vines and ivy.
Upon seeing an old friend from my childhood my first instinct was to say, “What happened to your face?!” But they were undoubtedly thinking the same thing about me so we all just lied to each other and said, “You’re looking great!”
One of the things I did while I was there was to just drive around my old hometown and visit some of the places that were important in my childhood.
I drove to the home where our family lived; the church where my Dad was pastor and where I was baptized. I drove past the schools I attended; most of them were pretty much like I remembered.
Then I drove to the ball fields where I played Little League baseball. There were 3 or 4 fields where we played and they looked much like I remembered them; except for one.
While the other fields looked like they were still being taken care of and used for youth baseball, this one field was in complete disrepair. The infield had been overtaken by weeds; you could no longer see where the bases had once been. The back stop was broken down and completely covered with vines and ivy.
The sight of it made me sad. This was the field where I
once hit a triple with the bases loaded to win a game. This
was the field where I had my 12th birthday party with my
friends. That was the day my Dad got hit in the eye with a
ball and we had to run into town to call Mom. This was our
field! This was my childhood!
Now it was just an abandoned, overgrown, useless weed patch. It made me sad to see it my old ball field in such disrepair.
Today we begin to look at an ancient story of another hometown in disrepair. For the next 13 weeks we will be studying the story of Nehemiah in a series called, “Hand Me Another Brick.”
A little historical background to help us understand the story:
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are two separate books in our Old Testament but originally the comprised just one book. They cover a period of about one hundred years; roughly the 6th century BC, some 2600 years ago.
Now it was just an abandoned, overgrown, useless weed patch. It made me sad to see it my old ball field in such disrepair.
Today we begin to look at an ancient story of another hometown in disrepair. For the next 13 weeks we will be studying the story of Nehemiah in a series called, “Hand Me Another Brick.”
A little historical background to help us understand the story:
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are two separate books in our Old Testament but originally the comprised just one book. They cover a period of about one hundred years; roughly the 6th century BC, some 2600 years ago.
This period in Israel’s history is called the Babylonian Exile
and all kinds of significant stories take place during this
time.
In about 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar becomes King of Babylon and begins to expand his power. In about 586 BC he besieges Jerusalem, destroys the city, loots and burns the great Temple of Solomon, and carries off thousands of Jews into captivity.
During this period we see the stories of Daniel and his three friends; we read in the book of Daniel of the fiery furnace and the lion’s den.
Some 70 years later the Persians under Cyrus the Great conquer Babylon; but Cyrus is sympathetic to the Jews and allows Zerubbabel to return to Jerusalem with thousand of Jewish families to rebuild the Temple of Solomon (the story is told in Ezra 1-6; this is also about the time we see the story of Esther).
Some time after that Ezra is allowed to return to Jerusalem with the purpose of bringing God’s law back to the people living in Jerusalem but he is not permitted to rebuild the walls (story is told in Ezra 7-10).
Just 10 years later or so we see the story of Nehemiah.
In about 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar becomes King of Babylon and begins to expand his power. In about 586 BC he besieges Jerusalem, destroys the city, loots and burns the great Temple of Solomon, and carries off thousands of Jews into captivity.
During this period we see the stories of Daniel and his three friends; we read in the book of Daniel of the fiery furnace and the lion’s den.
Some 70 years later the Persians under Cyrus the Great conquer Babylon; but Cyrus is sympathetic to the Jews and allows Zerubbabel to return to Jerusalem with thousand of Jewish families to rebuild the Temple of Solomon (the story is told in Ezra 1-6; this is also about the time we see the story of Esther).
Some time after that Ezra is allowed to return to Jerusalem with the purpose of bringing God’s law back to the people living in Jerusalem but he is not permitted to rebuild the walls (story is told in Ezra 7-10).
Just 10 years later or so we see the story of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah is a Jewish man born in exile. He has never
seen Jerusalem; but like Joseph and Daniel before him
rises to an influential position in a foreign land. In
Nehemiah’s case he achieves the highly privileged
position of “cupbearer” to King Artaxerxes of Persia.
All this background is significant because in many ways Nehemiah was the last person you would expect to play a role in God’s plan to bring salvation to the world.
But, as we will see, Nehemiah is exactly where God wants him; and Nehemiah does exactly what God wants him to do.
As we begin our journey through this ancient story God is reminding us that, like Nehemiah, our stories are part of his great story. No matter how small or insignificant we might feel; no matter how far we are from where we might want to be; God knows where we are and has something in mind for us to do for his purposes.
Pastor Brian Coffey
All this background is significant because in many ways Nehemiah was the last person you would expect to play a role in God’s plan to bring salvation to the world.
But, as we will see, Nehemiah is exactly where God wants him; and Nehemiah does exactly what God wants him to do.
As we begin our journey through this ancient story God is reminding us that, like Nehemiah, our stories are part of his great story. No matter how small or insignificant we might feel; no matter how far we are from where we might want to be; God knows where we are and has something in mind for us to do for his purposes.
Pastor Brian Coffey
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