Nehemiah had never been sad in the presence of the
king. The presence of the king was
expected to make you joyful. When the
king notices the sadness, Nehemiah is initially afraid but his response begins
with the affirmation, “Let the king live forever!” His mind is elsewhere, in the home of his
fathers which is in ruins. Notice that
Nehemiah gives us a little detail here that he does regularly throughout the
book, he prayed before he spoke. When he
did speak, he made a bold request, to be given leave of the king to go and
rebuild the city. Nehemiah must have
been a man of incredible vision and competency to ask such a thing in the belief
he could accomplish it. The Lord gave
him favor with the king and he went. When
Nehemiah arrived in the city he told no one why he was there. Surely these people knew who he was and that
he had letters of transit from the king which required the cooperation of all
who ruled over the area. He made a
thorough inspection of the city and the ruins each night for three nights, he
wasn’t in denial about what was facing him.
When he was satisfied, he then told the elders his plans and was
prepared to get to work. As always,
there was opposition, but Nehemiah had more faith than to allow that to deter
him.
Is the field the church or the world? It makes most sense that the field is the
world, of which the church is a microcosm. We need to realize that the enemy is
always at work, attempting to confuse us and deceive us. There will always be opposition to the work
but the reality is that we don’t know how things will turn out. I was once an opponent of Christians. I wanted nothing to do with them, I had
walked away from the church and my one desire was for the people of God to
leave me alone. I did what I could to
drive them away from me and, over time, they left me. I am certain many would be surprised to learn
what I do now. Our problem can be that
we forget we aren’t fighting flesh and blood in opposition but an enemy who is
always at work. The way to fight that
enemy is to fight the spiritual battle of prayer and trust that in the end God
is sovereign over all things.
The sixth seal reverses much of creation. The sun goes black, the moon becomes like
blood, the stars fall from the skies, the sky itself vanished like a scroll
being rolled up, mountains and islands disappear and the inhabitants of the
earth are like Adam and Eve, hiding from the wrath of God. There is, however, a
delay in the execution of judgment. That
delay is to allow the sealing on the forehead of the servants of God. Like Nehemiah, these will have safe passage
through the tribulation period of the judgment of God on the earth and its
inhabitants. Like the wheat among the weeds, these will be spared. Ultimately, we can trust Him to be merciful
to His people.
No comments:
Post a Comment