Old Sandals

On October 31 the people assembled again, and this time they fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads….They remained standing in place for three hours while the Book of the Law of the Lord their God was read aloud to them. Then for three more hours they confessed their sins and worshiped the Lord their God. The Levites…stood on the stairway…and cried out to the Lord their God with loud voices.

Then the leaders of the Levites called out to the people: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, for he lives from everlasting to everlasting!”

Then they prayed: “May your glorious name be praised! May it be exalted above all blessing and praise!  You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you.”   Nehemiah 9:1-6

How worthy indeed is our God—of our worship, our devotion, our energy.

Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, “Don’t mourn or weep on such a day as this! For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God.” For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.   Nehemiah 8:9

Heart within and God o’erhead.  Our sins and our shortcomings should cause us to weep.  But the last word is not weeping.  It is rejoicing!

Three families of priests—Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai—also returned….They searched for their names in the genealogical records, but they were not found, so they were disqualified from serving as priests. The governor told them not to eat the priests’ share of food from the sacrifices until a priest could consult the Lord about the matter by using the Urim and Thummim—the sacred lots.   Nehemiah 7:63-65

How interesting that, even at this late date in Israel’s history, the Urim and Thummim was still used to separate truth from falsehood.  It had no doubt fallen out of use because of the sinful rebellion of the Lord’s people. But now, perhaps because of Nehemiah’s faithfulness, it would be used to consult the Lord God.

But [Nehemiah] replied, “Should someone in my position run from danger? Should someone in my position enter the Temple to save his life?  No, I won’t do it!” 
Nehemiah 6:11

Nehemiah might not have abeen a trained soldier, but he was no coward.  His heart was steadfast.

Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?  I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury! Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.”

So they said, “We will restore it, and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.”   Nehemiah 5:9-12

In all our ways we are to acknowledge Him.  Whether eating or drinking or business dealings or recreation or finances.  In all our ways.

Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.   Nehemiah 4:9

The builders put their trust in God and set a watch, arming themselves against the enemy’s attack.  There is no incongruity here.  We must first of all love peace and, if possible, avoid conflict.  Sometimes it isn’t possible.

Next to them the Tekoites made repairs; but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord.   Nehemiah 3:5

In this harvest field now ripened,
There is a work for all of us to do.
Hark, the Master’s voice is calling
To His harvest, He’s calling you.
Little is much, if God is in it.
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There’s a crown, and you can win it
If you go in Jesus’ name.

So I became dreadfully afraid, and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”

Then the king said to me, “What do you request?”

So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”   Nehemiah 2:2-5

So I prayed to the God of heaven.  This wasn’t a long, drawn-out prayer.  There wasn’t time for that.  This was an arrow prayer, so to speak.  Straight and swift to God.  Yet this wasn’t an off-the-cuff prayer.  Nehemiah had been praying for days about this.  Fasting even.  What a lesson for us.

So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days.  I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

“I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night….Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded….Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded…saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations;  but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen’…Now [we] are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name.”   Nehemiah 1:4-11

This prayer, like the Lord God of heaven to Whom it is addressed, is timeless.

Now all the acts of his power and his might, and the account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him,  are  they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?   Esther 10:2

The world could scarcely contain all the books about all the kings in all the lands through all the centuries.  The story of Esther and Mordecai has been preserved for us for our instruction, that God the Lord is at work in the affairs of men, great and small.