11/20/2014 RE-BUILDING OUR NATION
Nehemiah 1:1-4 The Autobiography of Nehemiah, the son of Hecaliah: In December of the Twentieth year of the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, when I was at the palace of Shushan, one of my fellow Jews named Hanani came to visit me with some men who had arrived from Judah. I took the opportunity to inquire about how things were going in Jerusalem. "How are they getting along?" I asked. "—the Jews who returned to Jerusalem from their exile here?" "Well," they replied, "things are not good; the wall of Jerusalem is still torn down, and the gates are burned." When I heard this, I sat down and cried. In fact, I refused to eat for several days, for I spent the time in prayer to the GOD of heaven.
[Living Bible translation]
Summary
Throughout the Bible, there are a number of examples of God dealing with cities (like Sodom, Gomorrah and Jericho), with nations (such as the nation of Israel, Ancient Egypt, the Babylonian Empire) and with individuals (for example, Abraham, Moses, David, Peter and Paul). Sometimes GOD uses a single individual to make a difference in the history of a great nation, such as when GOD used Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt or when David became military leader and king of Israel. The book of Nehemiah is an autobiographical account of how one man, a simple cupbearer, prayed that GOD allow him to rebuild the walls and spirit of a broken nation and how GOD answered that prayer. One person was willing to leave a comfortable place in order to lay a few bricks and provide leadership in order to rebuild and restore the physical and the spiritual health of a nation.