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Nehemiah Arrives in Jerusalem
February 13, 2016

Last week we started our study of the Book of Nehemiah and saw that Nehemiah was the king's cup bearer who received distressing news from Jerusalem. Today we learn how that distressing news impacted Nehemiah, and what he set out to do by approaching the king with a request.

Nehemiah 2:1-6
And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

Nehemiah was serving the king and unlike previous times was visibly sad. The king noticed Nehemiah's sadness and asked him why he was depressed. Instead of covering it up, Nehemiah shared with the king that he was sad because his hometown, Jerusalem, was in ruins. Having been asked by the king what request he would have, Nehemiah asked if he could go to Jerusalem to rebuild the city, and go to Jerusalem not as any ordinary person, but as a person representing the king.

Nehemiah 2:7-11
Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

Nehemiah asked for letters from the king that would give him special permissions from the governors he would encounter along the way, and to have special provisions given to him from the king's forest so that he could more easily rebuild Jerusalem. The king even sent Nehemiah with a detachment of the king's army. Nobody was going to deny Nehemiah. Some in Jerusalem were unhappy that anybody would care enough to do something. For the first three days, Nehemiah just took in what he saw without sharing with anyone the reason why he was there.

Nehemiah 2:12-20
And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned. And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work. Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.  But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king? Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah took a ride in the middle of the night with a few men to get a better view of the destruction of the walls of Jerusalem. Before sharing any details with the ruling class elite, Nehemiah brought to the attention of those men with him that repairing the broken walls and gates of Jerusalem was the reason he was there. Some laughed at Nehemiah thinking he was rebelling against the king, without realizing it was the king by the will of God that allowed this to begin in the first place.

All verses are from the King James Version.
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