Nehemiah reminds me of so many people I met in Rwanda in
years past. The genocide actually began
there in the late 1950's with many going into exile from their own country over
the next thirty years and then when the killing ended in 1994 these exiles
began returning to rebuild their country.
Some I met had never been to Rwanda until 1994 as they were children of
exile, whose parents had kept alive in them the dream of their own country and
the hope it would one day be the place where they returned. Nehemiah is a child of exile, this is now
seventy years later from the time of Jeremiah and he would never have known the
city in either its glory or its disaster.
When he meets a fellow countryman he is cupbearer to the king, a trusted
and respected position in the kingdom.
What he hears of the condition of Jerusalem causes him to fast, weep and
mourn many days and cry out to the Lord in the same fashion the slaves in Egypt
had done centuries before. He asks the
Lord to see and hear, just as he had done so long ago. He prays well and truthfully, the situation
now is because of sin and not "their" sin but his and his family's
sin as well. His request is not based in
fairness and justice because they do not deserve those things, it is based in
the Word and promises of God to those who repent, His faithful lovingkindness
He proclaimed Himself. Nehemiah is
resolved to take the matter also to the king and asks for favor. He believes that his God is God also over the
pagan king he serves and can dispose the heart of the king favorably towards
him.
Jesus explains the parable of the sower to the
disciples. Again, He doesn't tell them
to be careful where they sow, only that some will fail, some will flourish for
a time and some will produce more abundantly than you can imagine. No planning is necessary for sowing in the
kingdom, we are simply to sow. God has
changed the soil in many lives from completely unproductive to remarkably
productive by tending and tilling it through trials and other means. What today is unreceptive and stony may one
day be the most fertile soil imaginable.
For that reason we should never stint on sowing because God is still
working on soil.
After the heavenly host worships the Lamb, an amazing thing
to turn from the throne to the Lamb and offer the same praise and worship, He
then takes the scroll and begins to open the seals. It doesn't take long to see that these are
the very judgments of God on the earth, famine, pestilence, death and
plague. Like Nehemiah we can only plead
for mercy because we are responsible for sin and these judgments are a
consequence of sin. These trials can be
God's way of preparing some to receive the Good News of salvation and eternal
life, they can be used by Him to convict of sin, righteousness and judgment
just as Jesus said in John 16. In this
time we need to be sowing into the lives of all we know in order that when He
has prepared the ground they will not only receive but they will remember what
was already sown. Identification with
sin and sinners in such times is required, not separation and Pharisaism.
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