Rebuild Your Life - Know Your Goal
- Paul Downie
- 2 hours ago
- 16 min read
Nehemiah 2:4-9 NIV
[4] The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, [5] and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.” [6] Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time. [7] I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? [8] And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. [9] So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.
‘What do you want to get out of this?’
On the occasions when I’ve undergone counselling, that question has always been asked at the start of the session. The reason is simple: the counsellor is not there to impose their will on you, but to help you achieve your goals. They are there not to mould you, but to support you.
There is another very good reason why this question is asked. If you go for help without a goal, firstly, you might not be driven enough to see things through to the end, and secondly, you could finish the sessions feeling disappointed because you haven’t made progress, when you had no idea what you wanted to achieve in the first place.
Do we know what we want to get out of these studies? Is there a habit you want to break, or a sin you want to be rid of, or a thought process you want to stem?
We saw in our earlier study how Nehemiah had taken four months to even show the king that he was sad. He then seemed to blurt out his explanation.
What follows is an indication that after he did so, Nehemiah was fearful of what would happen next.
But the king, on the other hand, asked a very pertinent question:
Nehemiah 2:4 NIV
[4] The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven
What we will do in this study is try to learn from the details and the specific of Nehemiah’s brave (or should that be brazen?) request to start to rebuild Jerusalem.
We will begin by looking at The Place.
The Place
Ezra 4:12-16 NIV
[12] The king should know that the people who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are restoring the walls and repairing the foundations. [13] Furthermore, the king should know that if this city is built and its walls are restored, no more taxes, tribute or duty will be paid, and eventually the royal revenues will suffer. [14] Now since we are under obligation to the palace and it is not proper for us to see the king dishonored, we are sending this message to inform the king, [15] so that a search may be made in the archives of your predecessors. In these records you will find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to kings and provinces, a place with a long history of sedition. That is why this city was destroyed. [16] We inform the king that if this city is built and its walls are restored, you will be left with nothing in Trans-Euphrates.
I don’t know whether or not you expected this to be said about Jerusalem. There are Christians who do their best to elevate modern day Jerusalem into some kind of holy city.
They agree with the pilgrim psalmist:
Psalms 137:5-6 NIV
[5] If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. [6] May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
Yet in the last period before the exile, it, and its leaders, were anything but holy.
They refused to obey God. While under attack, they sought a treaty with another superpower, the Egyptians, to get rid of the Babylonians. It was this treachery that led to the first Babylonian attack (2 Kings 24:1-2).
Since that day, Jerusalem was considered to be a problematic city: one which those who tried to dominate found it a very hard nut to crack (Zechariah 12:1-4), as it still is today.
While the Persians were in power in Nehemiah’s day, not the Babylonians, we can count on the fact that Jerusalem was still a very controversial city, as can be seen in the enemies who tried to prevent it from rising from the rubble.
Nehemiah was asking for the walls of that city to be rebuilt.
This was not a small request. Not with the reputation that Jerusalem had earned.
When we set out on the recovery journey, one of the many issues we have to deal with is that of self-perception. We might experience an inner torment, not because we don’t want to recover, but because we don’t believe we deserve to recover. We see our state as a just punishment for all the wrongs we have committed.
But that is not true, for two very good reasons.
Firstly, because no matter how we punish ourselves in this life, we will never atone for our own sins.
Psalms 49:7-9 NIV
[7] No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them— [8] the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough— [9] so that they should live on forever and not see decay.
Secondly, because Jesus Christ has already paid the price for our sins on the cross:
Romans 3:22-24 NIV
[22] This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
If we try to punish ourselves by remaining broken, we are somehow making out that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was not enough to atone for us and redeem us. That is both insulting and blasphemous, other than just plain untrue.
Before it was destroyed, Jerusalem was in a terrible state, morally, spiritually and, in the end, physically:
Ezekiel 22:1-12 NIV
[1] The word of the Lord came to me: [2] “Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practices [3] and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by making idols, [4] you have become guilty because of the blood you have shed and have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close, and the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries. [5] Those who are near and those who are far away will mock you, you infamous city, full of turmoil. [6] “ ‘See how each of the princes of Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood. [7] In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. [8] You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths. [9] In you are slanderers who are bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts. [10] In you are those who dishonor their father’s bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean. [11] In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor’s wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. [12] In you are people who accept bribes to shed blood; you take interest and make a profit from the poor. You extort unjust gain from your neighbors. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign Lord.
If God could use Nehemiah to revive a city like Jerusalem, with an utterly shameful past and an utterly humiliating present, why would He not want you too to be revived?
So we see, then, that Jerusalem, the city Nehemiah wanted to rebuild, was undeserving of this grace. However, that is the point of grace.
It is for the undeserving.
We now move from the place to see The Petition.
The Petition
Nehemiah 2:4-6 NIV
[4] The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, [5] and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.” [6] Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.
Petitions nowadays are appeals in writing to a ruler or a parliament for them to do something. Often they are used for serious matters. Although one person saw the amusing side and sent a petition to the UK parliament to ‘Stop Meaningless Petitions’.
In this case, Nehemiah’s Petition is, on the surface, relatively straightforward: rebuild Jerusalem’s walls.
In practice, though, what he was asking was no small thing.
Let’s start, for instance, by looking at the distance. Jerusalem was more that 1,500km from the ancient city of Susa. That would take at least fifteen days to walk – not exactly round the corner. If you take into consideration that much of this journey would be on ancient caravan routes through the desert and that Nehemiah would have been walking through regions occupied by several different nations, not all of whom would have been supportive of his aims, then you get the idea that this journey would have been long, laborious and risky.
Secondly, there’s the time. It takes us around twenty-six hours of travelling to reach the Philippines. We had a relative who wanted to go there for just three days.
We soon set him straight.
Long journeys are a significant undertaking. There is little point travelling for that length of time to only be in the city for five minutes and then leave again.
And that’s not what happened to Nehemiah. He took at least fifteen days to reach Jerusalem. He was appointed as governor. He remained there for twelve years.
Nehemiah said that he set a time for his return. We don't know if that time was twelve years, but the Bible doesn’t say how long it was.
Either way, the king was agreeing for him to be away from his day job for a significant period of time.
Thirdly, there’s the situation. Nehemiah lived in a walled city with strong defences. He was travelling to an unwalled city that was defenceless. We will see as we travel through Nehemiah that it was also surrounded by enemies and detractors who had no desire to see it rise up once more.
Nehemiah was surrendering a life of safety and comfort for one that was anything but.
So the proposal was not just that the king releases a trusted servant for an extended time, but that he releases him to a more precarious environment.
Often we influence people to make a decision based on what they will gain from it.
It’s interesting here that Nehemiah doesn’t take that approach, because, at least one the surface, the king will gain nothing from this, except to have a close confidant in a key position in a vital trading city.
However, we learn a key lesson from this. At first reading, this request seems to be lacking in common sense. After all, what could King Artaxerxes possibly gain from the rebuilding of a foreign capital city, around 1,500km from his own capital? Why should he care about the revival of the Jewish people, who did not follow his gods and had their own language and laws?
Yet Nehemiah notes something rather brilliant that happened here:
Nehemiah 2:6 NIV
[6] It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.
This is quite remarkable.
It pleased the king of all the known world to send his cupbearer on a journey that would take fifteen days to complete and would take him from his royal duties for twelve years.
What seemed to be a, quite frankly, ridiculous proposal brought the king pleasure.
We must have a goal to get out of our situation. We must have a plan. It might seem difficult. It might seem implausible. It might even seem impossible. But we must have a goal.
Then we must bring this goal, this plan, to God.
Why?
Because presenting Him with a plan to repent and turn our life back to Him will always bring Him pleasure:
Luke 15:7 NIV
[7] I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
That doesn’t mean it will be easy. Nehemiah’s journey certainly wasn’t. On arrival, he did nothing for three days and nights (Nehemiah 2:11). It’s no stretch of the imagination to say that he likely needed that time to get over the journey.
Likewise, our journey back may be hard, even arduous, and at times may seem implausible or impossible. But the fact of our turning back to the Lord will bring Him pleasure.
We can therefore be assured that He will help us.
After the place and the petition, we see something else that is utterly extraordinary: The Price.
The Price
Nehemiah 2:7-9 NIV
[7] I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? [8] And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. [9] So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.
Recovery is not always free. Sometimes it takes time. Sometimes it takes money.
Sometimes it takes both.
I heard recently of a woman footballer who was badly injured during a match. Her club, for one reason or another, didn’t want to pay for her health care, so a retired male professional footballer stepped in and paid for both her operation and her rehab.
Not all of us are so fortunate.
When I've needed health care, for either mental or physical issues, I’ve been very blessed that I haven’t had to pay for it.
But I am acutely aware of those who badly need help with substance abuse or trauma or serious mental health issues, or even basic health care, and don’t receive it because of poverty.
The most sobering example I have ever known was of a Filipino builder who fell from the roof of a house. There was no ambulance, so they took him to the nearest hospital in the back of a truck.
They diagnosed a fractured skull, but couldn’t go any further because they didn’t have a scanner to see where the problem was to treat it. So his colleagues put him back into the truck and drove for three hours, along windy country roads, to another hospital.
The other hospital had a scanner, but couldn’t treat him because neither he nor his family had the money to pay for the therapy he needed.
He died right there, on the gurney, metres from help that could have saved his life.
Having access to what we need to recover from any situation – especially those that are our fault – is not a given, it is a blessing.
And then we come to these verses.
What we see is an extraordinary request. Bear in mind that the king only really gains when he has a trusted representative in Jerusalem. There seems to be little direct gain for him in rebuilding the walls.
In fact, the enemies of the Jews saw it as a profound disadvantage (Nehemiah 6:5-8).
Yet the two parts of Nehemiah’s almost brazen request are approved by the king! What’s more, the king even far exceeded Nehemiah’s requests.
The first thing he asked for was means: letters guaranteeing him safe, unimpeded travel to Jerusalem. Again, not a given. This required the king to have documents drawn up to ensure that hostile powers Nehemiah could meet on the way would not harass him.
He got it.
The second is materials. Nehemiah asked the king to provide him with the construction materials to rebuild the city walls and gates
Again, he got it.
What happens after that is really quite incredible.
Nehemiah received from the king the provision of men: an armed guard to travel with him the fifteen days journey to Jerusalem, likely to ensure that he got there safely.
That is an astonishing provision.
We know that the journey to Jerusalem was not just long, but risky, because some years earlier, when Ezra made the same journey, we see this happened:
Ezra 8:21-23 NIV
[21] There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. [22] I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” [23] So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
Ezra 8:31-32 NIV
[31] On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way. [32] So we arrived in Jerusalem, where we rested three days.
So to have these guards with Nehemiah was a necessary, but at the same time a quite amazing provision as Nehemiah hadn’t asked for it!
These verses teach us a very important lesson. Often we don’t start out on an endeavour or a journey or an attempt to rebuild what sin has destroyed because we are afraid that we will not be able to finish what we started. We are afraid of failure.
We are afraid that we just don’t have what it takes.
Well, here’s the thing: Nehemiah didn’t. Not at all.
Yet he was bold enough to enter the throne room of the king and ask for what he needed.
When he did so, he received more than enough.
We see this in the Word of God:
Philippians 4:19 NIV
[19] And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
When we set out to leave behind sinful dependencies, addictions and habits, we are setting out to do what pleases God. Do we really think that God will leave us to struggle on our own?
Not one bit!
Psalms 37:25 NIV
[25] I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
Matthew 6:33-34 NIV
[33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The journey back to where we should be might seem long and arduous and costly. It might intimidate us. But we are doing God’s will. We have God on our side. No matter how overwhelming or even absurd our needs might be, we know that He is with us and that He will supply all that we need.
What’s important is that we know what we want and go for it.
Proverbs 16:3 NIV
[3] Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
Maybe it’s time to make some plans.
Conclusion
Nehemiah 2:4 NIV
[4] The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven
By 2001, I was struggling with the thought that I might never marry. I was twenty-five at the time. Girlfriends had been scarce and were just the wrong people for me. Others had no difficulty getting dates. I had terrible difficulty. If app dating had been around the time, it felt like even my own phone would have swiped left on me.
However, I had an exciting trip ahead. My boss in the missions agency where I worked in Romania thought that a training course would be good for me. It happened to be taking place on one of the ships our organisation owned, which, for the duration of the course, would be anchored in Cebu City, Philippines.
I set out on the longest journey I have ever been on: Brașov to Budapest to London to Hong Kong to Manila to Cebu.
Approximately thirty-six hours later, I arrived.
The course was excellent. Really useful.
A few days into it, I was putting some of the techniques I learned into practice when I saw a Filipina, got chatting to her and hung about for a while with her and her friends.
That night, as I lay down to sleep on my bunk bed in my shared cabin, it was almost as if I heard a voice in my head:
‘She’s the one.’
I dismissed it. ‘Come on! That’s impossible! I’m a missionary in Romania. My bank balance is almost zero. I have no job. I have no house. I have nothing immigration would be looking for. How can she be the one?’ I argued.
She required even more persuasion.
We’re now based in Scotland. We have been married for over twenty years.
It wasn’t easy. Even after we got married in the Philippines, we met so many people who were waiting for visas that had been waiting for years, and even one who had been flat out refused.
Yet by the grace of God my wife received hers in two weeks.
There are always situations that we look at and say ‘That’s impossible. No way that’s going to work. I don’t see how.’
One of these can be when we set out to rebuild our lives. The road ahead seems long and arduous and costly. We just don’t know if we have what it takes.
Nehemiah was absolutely in that position. He might have had access to the king, but he was a servant – his life was not his own. He was a cupbearer – a wine waiter. He was not an architect or town planner or builder. He wasn’t even a carpenter.
More than that, he was asking to rebuild a place with a history of insurrection and rebellion.
His petition, therefore, seemed to be utterly without merit.
The price he was asking the king to pay, even more so.
Yet by the grace of God Nehemiah received all he needed – and more – to complete the job.
God answered his prayers, and then so much more.
He will do the same for you, if you leave your sinful life and set out to please Him.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I am inspired by what happened with Nehemiah. I want to leave the mess of my old life and rebuild it in Your image. Provide me with everything I need to finish the job, I pray. Amen.
Questions
Why did the fact that Nehemiah asked to rebuild Jerusalem make it less likely he would receive help? What was wrong with Jerusalem? What can we learn from this?
Was Nehemiah’s request reasonable? Why / why not?
What lesson can we learn from the king’s response?
Comentários