Nehemiah 1:3–10

Bible Studies for Life 
Adjunct Professor of Biblical Perspectives, Samford University

Return to Prayer

Nehemiah 1:3–10

We must acknowledge when trouble and distress come upon God’s people. (3)

The ancient psalmist once made this plaintive cry: “By the rivers of Babylon — there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. … For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:1–4). The story of the Israelites is, in part, a story about the melancholy longing for home. They were promised land, descendants and blessing (Gen. 12:1–3; 15:1–6; 17:1–8), yet these promises were long deferred, the prophets attested, because Israel broke faith with God. Retribution theology, the dominant theological position of the day, said if a person or nation was suffering it was the direct result of sin. It was a world where the Israelites had, the prophets claimed, sealed their fate as those permanently exiled.

In his elongated farewell address to the children of Israel, Moses vacillates between optimism that they will lay claim to the promises made to them and pessimism that this is not possible because of the Israelites’ penchant for sin (Deut. 29–30). Moses indicated that there might be grace in the end, if the Israelites did as he commanded: “Choose life — if you and your offspring would live — by loving the Lord your God, heeding His commands and holding fast to Him. For thereby you shall have long life and shall long endure upon the soil that the Lord swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give to them” (Deut. 30:19b–20). The Israelites’ laying hold of the promises was dependent upon God’s grace, yet their response to that grace also was believed to play a role.

We are to respond to troubles by turning to God in prayer. (4–6a)

By the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Lord had graciously sent them home. He raised up Cyrus, a Persian king, to send the Israelites back to their land, as Isaiah prophesied: “Fear not, for I am with you: I will bring your folk from the East, will gather you out of the West; I will say to the North, ‘Give back.’ and to the South, ‘Do not withhold.’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the end of the earth” (Isa. 43:5–6). Cyrus functions as a savior figure for the Israelites, allowing them not only to return home but also to rebuild that home (Isa. 45:1–3; Ezra 1:2–4; 6:3–5; Zech. 1:2–4). 

The so-called “Second Temple Period” (515 B.C.E.–70 C.E.) was a critical marker in the faith formation of the Jews. During this period, the Temple is rebuilt and the Torah becomes a portable fatherland for the Jews. The Torah, as well as public prayer and Sabbath-keeping, becomes central to their faith. During this period, the focus also shifts from one central leader to the responsibility incumbent on the people as a whole for their own expressions of faith.

We are to confess any sin and seek restoration to God as we pray. (6b–10)

In the prayer of the governor Nehemiah, the words of Moses are recalled (Neh. 1:7–11). The priestly concern of Ezra that the Israelites remain a “holy seed” (Ezra 9:1–2; Isa. 6:13) coupled with Nehemiah’s concern that they right their wrongs meant that “return” — not only to the land but especially to God — included a change of heart. In the prayers of these leaders we can find a model for our own turning and returning to God and to the commitments we are to make as God’s children.