The Prayers of Nehemiah

Background Commentary

The book of Nehemiah can be divided into four segments:

1. Nehemiah 1-3: Upon hearing of Jerusalem’s plight Nehemiah confesses his people’s sin and then requests permission from King Artaxerxes to rebuild and repair Jerusalem.
   1. Learning About the wall – 1:1-3
   1. Lamenting Over The Wall – 1:4-11
   1. The Request 2:1-10
   1. The Review 2:11-20
   1. The Repairs 3:1-32
2. Nehemiah 4-6: The enemies threaten the rebuilding of Jerusalem – Nehemiah’s plan
   1. The Trouble 4:1-6:14
   1. The Triumph 6:15-19
3. Nehemiah 7-10: Census; Reading God’s Words
   1. The City of God 7:1-3
   1. The People of God 7:4-65
   1. The Word of God 8:1-12
   1. The Festival of God 8:13-18
   1. The Confession to God 9:1-38
   1. The Vow to God – 10:1-39
4. Nehemiah 11:1-36: People return; Priests and Levites return; Walls dedicated; Reform
   1. The Resettling of the cities 11:1-36
   1. The Priests and Levites return 12:1-26
   1. The rejoicing of the people 12:27-47
   1. The Reforms of Nehemiah 13:1-31

Observations & Application

1. The Book is by the name sake of the book, Nehemiah. This is a 1^st person narration of events not a narrative being told as a story. This book is not really about Nehemiah so much as it is about the people of God, their sin, restoration, and reform.
2. COVID-19 is a 1^st person narrative for all of us – we are experiencing this together. The emotional psychological toll is real and quite heavy. This started out as a simple distraction and now has turned into a very serious disruption of everything we have held as important and meaningful. 
3. Nehemiah was moved to prayer and weeping for days. Not because of what they had and lost it, rather their sins were great, and Nehemiah understood the Biblical record of what was agreed upon and how they failed in national obedience.
4. COVID-19 has been sudden and shocking as we are living through this disruption of our sacred norms. So that I am not misunderstood, I am not calling COVID-19 our national punishment for sins committed. I am saying this season is thrust upon us and should be used to evaluate its impact upon how we have performed church and what must change moving forward. I believe we should repent where needed. Pre-COVID the reality was that faithful attendance was 1.7x per month. That is hardly making a real difference for time and eternity. The axiom is true; What gets reported gets rewarded! Is it time to reevaluate what is being measured and counted as success? 
5. Nehemiah will teach us thoughts of managing a crisis and coming through this season spiritually stronger and prepared. We will examine Nehemiah’s prayers and what they teach about responding to a national crisis.

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