Nehemiah (1and2) Nehemiah Decides to Rebuild the Wall

  It had been 100 years since God touched the hearts of the Persian kings and allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Judah/Jerusalem and 40 years since God's temple had been rebuilt. The book of Nehemiah is unique. It was written by Nehemiah in the first person style. Which means he wrote of everything that happened to him and around him from his vantage point. So we are going to let Nehemiah tell the story in his own words. So whenever you read the words Me or myself or I, it is Nehemiah talking about himself.
  Hi, my name, as you already know is Nehemiah. For the past one hundred years, my countrymen, the Jews, have been making the 800 mile trek from Persian back to Jerusalem. Many of my friends and family have made the journey. But I have remained here in Persian. Mostly because I have a comfortable life here. I work for the king and live in his palace. I am the king's cup bearer, which means I taste the king's drink and food to make sure no one is trying to poison him. Yes, it is a dangerous job, but it is also a respected job because the king trusts me. Sometimes he even asks for my advice on some issues that arise in his kingdom. But I do miss my friends and family.
  So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that my brother and some of his friends were returning to Persia for a visit. When I heard that my brother was inside the kingdom walls, I ran out to meet him and his friends. My heart was beating as I asked how he and all the returning exiles were doing back in Jerusalem. But my heart sank when my brother answered, "Not good."
  "Why? what is going on?." I asked.
  "Without a wall around the city, the people are afraid to leave their homes, especially the women and children." My brother answered and then continued."The men are fearful that some neighboring countries will send troops through the city and snatch up all the women and children and the temple has yet to be decorated with the ornate silver and gold pieces that originally graced the walls and sanctuary."

  The walls had been torn down and burned by the Babylonians more than a hundred years ago. I knew it was not good for the people to live in fear. How can people live a God honoring life if they are afraid to come out of their own homes? I became very sad for the people there. I even began to cry. For many days after I hears the news, I fasted and prayed to the God of Heaven. I confessed my sin and the sin of all my people. I reminded God of His promise to restore His people and His city if we returned to Him through repentance, worship and obedience. I prayed for about four months that God would do something to help the people. Then something changed. I felt God telling me that I was the one that He was calling to go and help the people and rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.

  God is amazing that way. Prayer is not only asking God, but listening to Him. As we present our requests to Him, He slowly changes our hearts and guides us into His will. As you continue to pray for someone or some situation, listen. God may changing your heart and prompting you to be His tool for His purpose in that very situation!

  Ok, so I heard the clear voice of God. I was supposed to go back to Jerusalem, get the people together, and lead the reconstruction of the wall around Jerusalem. But there was one problem. Approaching the king with this idea was causing me much angst. The king did not even like if anyone was sad around him, let alone make such a life changing request. He could have me thrown in a dungeon, or even worse, put to death! I prayed that God would calm my soul and put just the right words in my mouth.
  I remember it was a beautiful spring morning. I had never appeared sad before the king before, but this particular morning I was feeling so much compassion for my fellow countrymen back in Jerusalem, that my face reflected my sadness. The king noticed and asked me what was wrong. I was
badly frightened, but replied. "Long live the king! I am sad because the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins. The wall has been torn down and the gates burned."
  Then the king asked, "What can I do for you?"
  "Ok.... this was my chance..... don't blow it." I thought to myself so under my breath I said a very quick prayer to the God of Heaven, and answered. "If it please the king and you are pleased with me as your servant, I humbly request that you let me go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall around the city."

 Next time we will see if the king throws Nehemiah in the dungeon for asking such a thing, or if he grants his request. One thing we found out about Nehemiah so far.... he is definitely a man of prayer.

The Fall of Judah (2Kings 24 &25) and Ezra

 After Josiah, The next 4 kings were bad. (They didn't do right in the eyes of the Lord)  The kings led the people of Judah away from the Lord. They broke the covenant that God had made with them, which meant that their land would become desolate and the people would be scattered, just as it had happened to Israel 136 years earlier when they were taken over by the Assyrians. The four "bad" kings were Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. During the third king's reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, surrounded Jerusalem. He went into the temple and carried out most of the gold and silver that was in there. He also took many of the officials and the king as captives. The people of Judah had one last chance to turn back to God, but the next king, Zedekiah, continued to turn his back on God. 

 God is the God of 2nd 3rd 4th and so on chances. Don't ever feel like you've crossed the line of forgiveness and that you can't come back to God. Just confess it to God (which means that you agree with Him that is was wrong) and repent. (Which means turning away from the wrong doing and turning back to God)

King Nebuchadnezzar and his troops continued to surround Jerusalem for the next eleven years. The food ran out and all the people fled. As they were fleeing, King Zedekiah was captured. Then Some of the Babylonians went into Jerusalem and destroyed walls of the city and burnt the temple of God to the ground. They took what few Jews that remained back to Babylon and made them servants and slaves. With all the people gone, the wall torn down and the temple destroyed, the message that the Lord had given through the prophet Jeremiah came to pass. 'The land laid desolate for 70 years.' During the seventy years, the Babylonian empire was taken over by Persia.  .... That concludes the book of 2Kings.
 The next two books of the Bible are 1Chronicles and 2 Chronicles. These two books are recounts of the two Kings books. They begin with the first King of Israel, King Saul, then David's life is recalled with a few more details and finally King Solomon.  After King Solomon died,  2Chronicles  tells of how Israel split into the north kingdom, (Israel) and the south kingdom, (Judah). Finally the fall of Israel and the fall of Judah were covered. So we will pick up our story seventy years after the fall of Judah in the book of Ezra.

 The book of Ezra picks up where 2 Kings left off. Babylon had fallen to the Persians and in the first year of Persian King Cyrus' rule, God touched his heart. The king made a proclamation that all the Jews that were in the land could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. The king also personally brought out valuable items that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple. Then he ordered that every single item that was taken from the temple be given to the Jews so that they could return them once the temple was rebuilt. Ezra chapter 2 covers a list of all the Jewish exiles that were returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Chapter 3 describes the first phase of the rebuilding, which was the altar, and then the beginning of the temple rebuild. In Chapter 4, the Jews face opposition when a new king is in charge. The Jews had to put the rebuilding of the temple on hold until the next king, Darius, became ruler of the Persian empire. He reviewed the decree of King Cyrus, and allowed the Jews to resume the rebuilding of the temple. With all the opposition to the rebuilding, it took over 40 years to complete, then Ezra the prophet returned to Jerusalem with many of the Jewish exiles. Chapter 8 of the book of Ezra gives family names of the returning exiles. Ezra made sacrifices in the temple and the people confessed their sins.


Sometimes God touches peoples hearts to fulfill His purposes. Sometimes He touches our hearts too. When God puts something on your heart it is called a burden. He wants you to act. But He won't force you to do anything. If we follow Jesus, we will have burdens placed on our hearts. God may want to bless someone through your actions. And guess what? Then we get blessed too! 

Samson’s Final Victory (Judges 16)

Last time we were with Samson, he had finally told Delilah the truth about his strength. Delilah was only with Samson because of the money she could make by helping the Philistines capture him. The truth about Samson’s strength was: That Samson was raised up as a Nazarite. His hair was never cut. Because God was going to use Samson to help overthrow the Philistines and free the Israelites from their domination, and because Samson’s hair was a symbol that he was dedicated to the Lord, God gave Samson amazing strength.
  Samson told Delilah that his strength was in his hair and that his hair was never cut.  As Delilah let Samson lay on her lap, she signaled to a man that was hiding in the other room. He came into the room with a knife for Samson’s hair and the money for Delilah.

 “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” Delilah screamed as she awoke Samson.
“No problem.” Samson thought. “I’ll just do as I have all the other times and put these Philistines out into the streets.” But he didn’t realize that this time, the Lord had left him.
 So the Philistines captured Samson, gouged out his eyes and sent him to Gaza where he was bound in chains and forced grind grain in prison. But before long, his hair began to grow back.

The Philistine leaders decided to throw a huge party. They wanted to offer sacrifices to their god, Dagon, for finally giving them victory over their greatest enemy, Samson. The people were all yelling and screaming with joy. “Dagon has given us victory! The one who has killed so many, is now in our power! Praise to Dagon! Praise to Dagon!”
 Half drunk by now, the people began to demand. “Bring out Samson! We want him to perform for us!
So Samson was brought from prison and placed in the center of the temple between two large pillars. A servant led him and Samson asked him to place his hands on the pillars to rest. The servant did so.
 The temple was filled with thousands of people. Most of the guards and leaders were there to celebrate and to make fun of Samson.
 Then Samson prayed. “Dear God, please be with me this one last time. Strengthen me to get revenge on these Philistines who have blinded me. Please God Almighty. Please!”
 Samson pressed his hands against the pillars and God gave him back his strength. He pushed with all his might. “Let me die with these Philistines!” He cried out. And the temple came crashing down killing the Philistine leaders, many of the people, the guards and Samson. Samson killed far more Philistines in his death than he did while he was alive. This led to the eventual fall of the Philistine empire and the rescue of the Israelites. Just as God told Samson’s parents would happen. Samson rescued his people from the Philistines.

 Wow! What a story! Not just a story.... A true story! “OK," you may ask. “So what? How does this have anything to do with me?” A lot. Remember at the beginning of the Samson story. God told Samson’s parents that He was going to use Samson to carry out his plan to rescue the Israelites, so they dedicated him to God. Samson was given the gift of great strength to carry out the purposes of God. Do you know that God is still working out His plan? He wants to use each of us and the special gifts or talents that He gave us to carry it out. Are you a good singer, speaker, artist, helper, friend, organizer etc..... God gave you a gift. He gives everyone a gift. That gift is not for yourself, but for others and for God’s purposes. Samson, knew he was strong. He used the gift that God gave him to get girlfriends and do whatever he wanted. God gives us a choice. He gave Samson a choice. But God also has a plan and He is not going to let our choices stop his plans. He still used Samson to carry out His plan. Samson could have done life God’s way and his life would have been a lot easier, but he did things his own way and ended up blind and in prison.
How about you and me? Are we joining God in his plan by using our gifts for Him, or is He going to work His plan in spite of us.  If it the latter, we may be in for some uncomfortable times.