The Story of Nehemiah Build and Arise [Nehemiah 1-6:19]
Nehemiah gets word that Jerusalem was in trouble; he is told the wall is broken down and the gates are burned with fire. He is filled with sorrow and goes to pray and fast for a few days to the God of Heaven. Then it’s time where he goes to the King (Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king cupbearer position was to taste any wine brought to the king, in case it was poisoned then brings the wine to the king) to bring him wine and Nehemiah was showing sadness in his face and the King ask him what’s wrong and he tells the King about Jerusalem and that he needed to go there and asks for the King to grant him to be able to leave and also asked the King for a letter to go and to get timber for the gates and the wall. It states that the king granted him his request because God was upon him [Nehemiah 2:8]. He then goes to Jerusalem and see the ruins and starts to build the wall and gates with help of the people(all different kinds of people of different occupations came together to help build) [Nehemiah 3:1-32] there in Jerusalem and he starts to face opposition where some people(enemies) start to make fun of him but Nehemiah and the people keep building then the opposition gets stronger more ridicule came and the enemies asked “will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?” [Nehemiah 4:2 and that is exactly what they did! “They took the ‘burnt stones” and built the wall!]. As they continued to build more opposition came from the enemies and this time they wanted to kill Nehemiah. When he found this they still continued to work and with one hand still working and the other hand with a weapon ready to fight. Finally the wall and gates were finished being built.
There are so many great points and things we can learn from this story. First is when Nehemiah took it to the Lord and prayed and fasted. I mean he wanted to make sure his request was heard and gave time to be with the Lord. I don’t know for you but what really stood out to me when He prayed and fasted for days and gave time. I’m thinking to hear God’s direction and not only that but if you read this story even in Nehemiah’s prayer he asks for God to have the king show him mercy when he went to him. He knew what he was doing in asking this because back then looking sad and asking to leave was enough to get you killed by the king and Nehemiah went even farther and asked the king to give him a letter to get timber to build the wall, gate and a house. I mean talk about taking a leap of faith and trusting God to answer his request to have the king show him mercy and God did just that! Then Nehemiah is given help with people from all walks and this point tells us no matter what difference in life people may have as long as you have the same goal to do God’s will it can be done together! Remember this is not about someone being better than you and may feel unequipped to do God’s will and someone is better qualified. Not true all is equal under God and his way of looking at us. Together we can do His great work. Then he faces opposition with ridicule and in the scriptures it tells how he continues to pray and keep working and keep fighting [Nehemiah 4:1-23]. This tells me when you’re stepping out in faith there will be opposition, keep believing knowing the Lord has you keep going and fight with prayer and faith. The Lord will show you grace and mercy along the way with Him you will get through the opposition (not out of opposition but through the opposition with the Lord -this is the only way I want to be dealing with opposition is having the Lord with me to get through it). Also a great part of this story I love when the enemies laugh at him for building the wall with the burnt stones…in their eyes it was burnt unusable but with God’s vision it has power and God says you have what you need to build and it doesn’t matter to anyone what it looks like just go and build with what you have and He the Lord will make it turn to something great! So I encourage you read this story it so inspirational how Nehemiah prays and fast and then moves and believes and trust the Lord to take “burnt stones” and gave him favor from the king, people of all walks to come together and help, and through the ridicule and opposition they had the power to pray and continue to work and fight in Faith! Let no one tell you your “burnt stones” are not enough to start. If God tells you what you have is all you need to start trusting him! Don’t let anyone take your dream or walk with the Lord away. It’s what God thinks of you is all that matters!