Nehemiah 2:1-8
In the month of Nisan in the
twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the
wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the
king asked me, “Why
does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but
sadness of heart.”
I was very much afraid, but I
said to the king, “May
the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my
ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
The king said to me, “What is it you want?”
Then I prayed to the God of
heaven, and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor
in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are
buried so that I can rebuild it.”
Then the king, with the queen
sitting beside him, asked me, “How
long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send
me; so I set a time.
I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I
have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me
safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper
of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the
citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand
of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.
One of the things we saw while in the Clinton Presidential
Library were towering glass-enclosed shelves stacked with row after row of
boxed documents. There must have been several dozen of these huge floor to
ceiling cases, each containing hundreds of neatly stacked blue boxes.
A little sign said that the boxes were filled with the
paperwork describing requests received by the President, and that these boxes
represented only 3-4% of all the presidential documents, which numbered some 80
million pages.
Whoa.
80 million pages in 8 years! That’s a
million pages a year or over 2,700 pages a day. That’s also a
testament to the power of the presidency.
The book of Nehemiah tells us that the man Nehemiah worked
for a very powerful man.
Nehemiah 2:1-8
In the month of Nisan in the
twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the
wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the
king asked me, “Why
does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but
sadness of heart.”
I was very much afraid, but I
said to the king, “May
the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my
ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
Artaxerxes
is considered by historians to have been generally magnanimous and kind; at
least as far as emperors in the ancient world go. Even so, one did not want to
be presumptive in the presence of an all-powerful monarch.
One
ancient historian records a time when Artaxerxes went hunting with a group of
his finest warriors. When a lion attacked their group, one of the men used his
spear to kill the lion. But in killing the lion himself he violated the
protocol of allowing the king the privilege of delivering the killing blow.
Artaxerxes’ first
response was to have the man executed by decapitation for the offense. He was
eventually convinced to spare the man’s
life and sent him into exile instead. But we can assume that working daily in
the presence of a King could be quite dangerous!
As “cupbearer”
Nehemiah likely ran the daily affairs of the
King, serving as a kind of “chief of staff.” In this respect he would have been a trusted confidant of
the King as well.
But,
and this is very important to understand, he was not there to make requests or
to ask favors of the King.
Notice
that when Nehemiah comes in the King immediately knows from the look on his
face that something is wrong.
I had not been sad in his
presence before, so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This
can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
A
couple of things here:
First:
How well do you have to know someone to know at a glance that something is
wrong? This is a 20-year relationship, so even though Artaxerxes is a King and
Nehemiah just his cupbearer, they know each other well.
Second: notice that Nehemiah says, “I had not been sad in his presence before...”
I think Nehemiah is hinting that this was an intentional
decision on his part.
Think about it; it’s been four months since he heard the
news about Jerusalem. For four months he’s been mourning and fasting and praying
before the God of heaven but this is the first time he let his guard down
before the King.
Why?
Nehemiah had not let his sadness show because it was very
dangerous to show emotion before the King! Persian monarchs required that those
who served them refrain from bringing personal issues into their presence. To
reveal one’s emotional state was seen as a sign of great disrespect.
So, this was a very risky thing to do and we can now
understand why Nehemiah admits that he was “very afraid.”
But we learn from history that the month of Nissan was the
beginning of the Persian year and that New Year’s celebrations were traditionally a
time of favors and generosity from the King. Therefore, we can see that
Nehemiah may have been willing to take this risk because it was the most
opportune time to approach the King with his vision for Jerusalem.
We started the series by learning that Nehemiah allowed his
heart to be broken by that which broke the heart of God; the wall of Jerusalem
was broken down and it’s gates were burned with fire and therefore the
people were in trouble and disgrace.
Then we saw that Nehemiah mourned and prayed before the God
of heaven.
Now we see that he is ready to take courageous and risky
action to accomplish the purposes of God.
Is there any way in which God might be calling you to take
courageous or risky action for his purposes? Is he calling you to serve; to
reach out to someone; or to give in a way that stretches you to the point of
discomfort or even fear?
It took Nehemiah four months of prayer and fasting to get up
the nerve to approach King Artaxerxes; but he did it because he was convinced
that it was what God wanted him to do.
May we follow Nehemiah’s example; may we pray, pray and pray
some more; then may we do what he is calling us to do!
Pastor Brian Coffey
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