A period of over eighty years had passed between the date of the return from captivity and the period of Nehemiah. These years had been full of trial and sorrow for the feeble remnant of the nation which was attempting to restore Jerusalem. Their troubles began almost immediately after the inception of the work. The mixed population of Samaria, partly Jewish in origin but mixed with Gentiles, had sent a welcome to the colonists and had asked the privilege of fellowship and of assisting in the restoration of the temple. This was denied on the ground that they were not of pure Hebrew stock and from that time their enmity began. For twelve years the completion of the temple was delayed by the interference of the Persian governors, on account of the charges of the surrounding tribes; Cyrus had died in battle; his son, the fierce Cambyses, had [58] conquered Egypt and then died of an accidental wound; the usurper, Smerdis, had been put to death after a short reign of six months, and Darius Hystaspes, the founder of a new dynasty, had ascended the Persian throne.

      In all this portion of Jewish history the reader must keep in mind the influence of their Persian rulers over Jewish affairs. For two hundred years from the capture of Babylon, the Persian rulers included Judea in their provinces, and the Jews of Babylonia among their subjects. On the accession of Darius he gave a new opening to the oppressed Jewish community at Jerusalem. When the dispute between the Jews and their enemies was referred to him he called for the decree of Cyrus which authorized the building of the temple and declared that it should be enforced. It was his policy to tread in the footsteps of Cyrus and, indeed, he has been called the second Cyrus. For a period of about seventy years from the dedication of the completed temple, history is silent concerning the returned Jews, until the migration of Ezra, in the reign of Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes, as described in our last lesson. A few years later, Nehemiah followed with a new decree, that marked a new step in the restoration, a decree to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, a privilege up to this time refused, from the fear that if Jerusalem was fortified it might become the center of rebellion. Milman, in his History of the Jews, thus explains the change of policy: "On a sudden, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, a Jew, cupbearer to the king, received a commission to rebuild the city with all possible expedition. The cause of this change in Persian politics is to be sought, not so much in the influence of the Jewish cupbearer, as in the foreign history of the times. The power of Persia had received a fatal blow in the victory of Cimon, the Athenian admiral, at Cyprus. The great king was obliged to submit to a humiliating peace, among the articles of which were the abandonment of the maritime towns, and a stipulation that the Persian army should not approach within three days' journey of the sea. Jerusalem being about this distance from the coast, and standing so near the line of communication with Egypt, became a post of the utmost value. The Persian court saw the wisdom of entrusting the command of a city and the government of a people always obstinately national, to an officer of their own race, yet on whose fidelity they could have full reliance." Hence, probably for these secret reasons of state, Nehemiah was granted his request to restore the walls of the beloved city.

      1. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah. This is the last of the directly historical books of the Bible, and might be regarded with Ezra, as a continuation of Chronicles. It begins more like the prophetical than the other historical books. We know but little of Nehemiah except what we learn in this book; that he was a Jew, deeply religious and patriotic, an influential officer at the court of King Artaxerxes in the palace of Susa, that he obtained the commission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which he did with great energy and skill, that he was for many years governor of Judea under the Persian kings, and assisted Ezra in various reforms. In the month of Chislen. The ninth mouth of the Jewish [59] p year which began with the vernal equinox. This would make the time the last of November or the beginning of December. In the twentieth year. Of the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia. He was the successor of Xerxes, the king who led the army of two millions of men against Greece, and was so signally and disgracefully defeated. The war then begun had continued until the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, to the great disaster of the Persians, and peace had been just made on very humiliating terms. I was in Shushan, the palace. Shushan, or Susa, as it is usually written, was a great city some distance east of Babylon and of the Tigris river, and was the capital of the Persian Empire. The palace was a distinct quarter of the city, a great fortification in which the kings resided with many thousands of attendants.

      2. That Hanani, one of my brethren, came. We learn from chapter 7:2 that Hanani was the brother of Nehemiah. It is probable that Nehemiah had sent him on a tour to Judea, a distance of near one thousand miles by the route traveled, to learn of the state of the Jews there. In those days when there were no mails, personal report would be the only satisfactory way of information. Hanani, with certain other Jews, had returned to make their report. He asked them concerning the Jews who had "escaped" from exile in the land of the "Captivity" and concerning the present condition of Jerusalem. All who were still in Persia, the descendants of the captives carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, were called the "Captivity." For many hundred years after this their chief was styled "the Prince of the Captivity."

      3. The remnant that are left of the Captivity. The small numbers of those in Palestine compared with the great population in the days of the Jewish kings seemed like only a "remnant." We have found that only from 40,000 to 50,000 returned at first. In the province. Judea, now a province of the Persian Empire. All the conquered countries were called provinces. These were in great affliction and reproach. They were surrounded with tribes who hated them, the Samaritans, Ammonites and Arabians, and were reproached with their weakness. The people were often murdered by lawless marauders, and the city itself had no walls to protect its population. In that age and state of society an unwalled city was in a deplorable condition. The wall . . is broken down. See 2 Kings 25:10 and Jer. 52:14. The general of Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the walls and gates over a hundred and fifty years before and they had not been rebuilt. An attempt had been made to rebuild them, but it had been stopped (Ezra 4:12-16). Gates burned. It had not been before stated that the Assyrians burned the gates, but we learn from their sculptures that this was their custom. [60]

      4. I sat down and wept. This sad account of the condition of Jerusalem deeply moved Nehemiah. Though it was a hundred and fifty years since his fathers had been brought from Judea, and though he had a high position and great favor with the king, still he looked upon himself as an exile and Judea as his home. The intense affection for Jerusalem of the exiled Jews during this period is touching. It often finds expression in Psalms. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." Ps. 137:5, 6. Nehemiah not only wept over the condition of Jerusalem, but went into a period of mourning, fasting and prayer, We next have a record of the prayer he offered. The God of heaven. This expression occurs often in Nehemiah and is unknown to the earlier Jewish writers. It is a Persian phrase, and natural to Nehemiah, who was born and bred at the Persian court.

      5. O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God. This expression occurs in several places in Nehemiah, and is taken from Deut. 7:21, and the remainder of the verse from Deut. 7:9, showing that Nehemiah was familiar with this book. He reminds God of his faithfulness in keeping his covenant and showing mercy to those who love and obey him. It should be noted all through the Scriptures that the Divine blessings are conditional. The covenant between man and God implies, 1st. That man is to love and obey God. 2d. That God will show mercy and bless. If man breaks his part of the covenant it is no longer of force. If Nehemiah and the Jews were faithful then he could call on God to reveal his arm in mercy and protection.

      6. Confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. God had not proved unfaithful. It was Israel who had broken the covenant, and had thus alienated the favor of God. The lowly state of the people was due to their own sins. This Nehemiah humbly confesses. So it is still. If the church is languishing the fault is to be sought within. God will bless abundantly when it is worthy of blessing. Nehemiah first makes a confession of sin for the nation and then a personal confession. "Both I and my father's house have sinned." [61]

      7. We have dealt very corruptly with thee. He next specifies the nature of their sins. The commandments, the institutions, and the judgments or penalties, that God had established through the law of Moses had been disregarded. When King Josiah heard the copy of the law, found by Hilkiah, read and saw how it was broken and heard the penalties pronounced, his soul was filled with terror and sorrow. It was this broken law which had destroyed the temple and Jerusalem and sent the nation into captivity, not the power of Nebuchadnezzar.

      8, 9. Remember . . . . if ye transgress I will scatter you abroad among the nations. The reference is not to any particular passage, but to various statements to this effect; such passages as Lev. 26:33-45, Deut. 4:25-31, and 30:1-5. Twice have these predictions been fulfilled, once at the time of the Captivity, and once five hundred years after the time of Nehemiah, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. But God had not only declared that he would scatter them on account of their sins, but if they "turned and kept his commandments, though they were cast to the uttermost parts of heaven," he would gather them, and bring them again to their own land. It is to this promise that Nehemiah clings, and of which he reminds God. To set my name there. In the worship of the temple of God. Here his name was hallowed and recorded.

      10. Now these are thy servants, thy people. Those who had returned to Jerusalem were those whom God had gathered out of the nations on their repentance. Their cause Nehemiah pleads. They are the servants of God, his people, redeemed by his power out of the Captivity.

      11. Prosper thy servant, this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. This [62] leads to the object of the prayer. He desired to obtain a great favor from an arbitrary and despotic king, no less than to be appointed governor of Judea, with permission to rebuild the walls. He desired God to help him to present his request in the wisest way and to incline the king to grant his prayer. We can now form little conception of the perilous character of such a request. A Persian king was regarded almost divine, and it was held one of the highest of earthly privileges to be in his presence. To ask to leave his court was almost treason. Unless it could be asked in such a way as to succeed the request was likely to prove Nehemiah's ruin. "This man" refers to the king. For I was the king's cupbearer. This was a very important office in ancient courts, both on account of the confidential nature of the office and the opportunity afforded of approaching the king. Oriental monarchs were seldom seen by the people. The cupbearer presented him his wine daily, was one completely trusted, as otherwise he could poison the king, and always tasted the cup before he gave it to the king. Nehemiah's relation would give him an opportunity of making his request in person.

      It was several months before he saw a fitting time to make his request, (chapter 2d,) and then he succeeded in obtaining all that he asked, accompanied by a promise to return again to Shushan after his work was done. Going to Jerusalem, before he had made known his purpose, he made the circuit of the walls in the night, in order that the enemies around might not suspect his design and then suddenly set the whole population to work, assigning to various families parts of the wall. By night and day they labored, every rank and order, and when the Samaritans, Ammonites and Arabians became threatening, one-half the people stood ready for defence armed, and the other half worked on the wall with their swords at hand. In fifty-two days the united effort of the people erected the walls and towers so that they could defy their enemies and Jerusalem, after a lapse of over a century and a half, was again a walled city, ready to enter upon a new career of prosperity.

      1. Earthly prosperity cannot make us happy if we have evil tidings from those we love.

      2. When our own arms are too short to deliver the only hope is in God. To him we may appeal, sure that he will hear in justice and mercy.

      3. The peace and prosperity of Jerusalem should be the heart's desire of every child of God. We should pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and be able to sing:

      4. If the people of God sin they will suffer for their sins. If they repent and turn he is faithful and just to forgive their sins if they confess them.

      5. The prosperity of Zion depends on the faithfulness of the servants of God. When God's people "walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit they are multiplied." No church ever languishes or dies save by its own fault.

      6. When we have any great and trying work to do we should prepare for it by [63] special prayer. It is the men who have prayed much who are God's mighty men. It was on his knees that Luther wrestled for Germany, Knox for Scotland, and Judson for Burmah. Nehemiah not only prayed and fasted before he made his request to the king but when he made it. "Then the king said unto me, What dost thou request? So I prayed the God of heaven. And I said unto the king: If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it." Strengthen thyself for great works by prayer.

      7. The Christian must be a builder, but he must also carry the sword, the sword of the Spirit.

      8. Dr. Judson, the great missionary, gives his experience as this: "I never was deeply interested in any object, I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything, but it came. At some time, no matter at how distant a day, somehow, in some shape, probably the last I should have devised,--it came."

[CLC01 58-64]