Learning From the Past

You have undoubtedly begun a project and then found yourself facing challenges or opposition That was the case for Nehemiah in the Old Testament and today on Truth for Life we begin a study in the book of Nehemiah. Alistair Begg shows us that like you and me, Nehemiah was just an ordinary person going about his ordinary life when God called him. We'll see today what we can learn from the challenges he faced. Now, what I'd like to do for you is to take a kind of panoramic view of the history of the people of God. Let's start—we've got to start somewhere—let's start with the shepherd boy David. Why? Because he was gonna beef Goliath.

Nobody was prepared to do it. He was sent up from the family home by his dad, go up and see your brothers, take them some bread, take them some cheese. Shows up on the battlefront, and they say, What are you doing here, you young whippersnapper?

He says, That the kind of welcome that I get for bringing you bread and cheese? They essentially say, Buzz off. He says, Somebody better deal with Goliath.

They said, We know that, clear off. He said, I'll deal with Goliath. So said, If you're gonna deal with Goliath, wear this. He said, This is no good to me, I can't wear this. So he took it all off, and he did what he knew what to do.

Five stones, one sling, use one, keep four, bam! The guy's down, he chops his head off. And the Philistines of Gath run.

Okay? Samuel anoints him king. And the history of the people of God flourishes. Despite all the aberrations of David's life, he was a man who followed after God.

Remember too is that even in following after God, we're not free from sin, we're not free from our own moral perversity. And God exalts his kingdom. And at the end of his 40 year reign, the nation of Israel is strong financially and militarily.

It is immensely powerful. And it is into the care of his son Solomon that he entrusts this unbelievable empire. Solomon, you remember, was a bright guy. Bright to start with, because when he was asked what he would like, he was smart enough to ask for wisdom rather than stuff. Whether he figured that he would get stuff because he asked for wisdom, we don't know, but he sure did.

Plus, he was really smart. And verse 24 tells us that the whole world saw an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart. Okay, so he's wise, he's powerful, he's inherited a 40-year established kingdom of the people of God, and basically, he's all set. But look at verse 1 of chapter 11. King Solomon, however, that word however is important, loved many foreign women.

You can't go into all the history, but God said you're not going to love foreign women. And the reason for this was that God's purpose, his covenant purpose for the people of God was to be channeled and to be determined by the purity of the people of God in terms of their relationships. It was essential that they did not intermarry with foreign women and thereby dilute the line through which the very Messiah himself would come.

So God took it very seriously when people disobeyed his parameters concerning that. Nevertheless, the end of verse 2, Solomon held fast to them in love. Verse 3, he had tons of them. Verse 4, they messed him up. They turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been. And he started to worship the goddesses of the wives that he married.

Let me tell you something in passing. You cannot play fast and loose in relationships. You cannot take the Word of God in its clear instruction, set it aside, embrace sin, and live without consequences.

You cannot walk the wire successfully. Solomon tried it, and he failed miserably. And following his death, this tremendous nation that had been built up under God, under the tutelage of his father, was divided. When you read Old Testament theology, you discover it under the heading, The Divided Kingdom.

What happened to it? Well, there were twelve tribes. Ten of them went north, settled in Samaria, and were called Israel. Two of them went south, settled in Jerusalem, and were called Judah. It was civil war.

It was like America, but worse. People were fighting themselves. God sent his messengers, calling his people back. They put their fingers in their ears, and in 722, God moves the Assyrians to invade the northern kingdom, and the ten tribes were completely decimated.

Some of the people from the north slipped down into the south to try and save themselves from the conquest of the Assyrians. And Judah, the two tribes in the south, centered in Jerusalem, manages to hold on for three hundred more years. That's a long time. That's a lot of moms and dads, a lot of grands and grandpas. That's a long time.

Longer than any one of us will ever live. And living in Jerusalem, the people of God had the prophets of God sent to them. And these men would come and say, now listen, God said it, and he said it clearly, if you will walk in this way, I will bless you and I will prosper you. If you choose not to, I will send judgment upon you. And they said, get out of here. We don't want to hear bad news from you or from anyone.

Go home. But the fellows who came around with a message of peace, peace, and tranquility, they loved them. In fact, they had big congregations. The guys with the truth had relatively small congregations. The guys with the lies were bursting at the seams. Because you see, we love the soothing tones of falsehood, because they make us believe that we can continue to disregard God and still be okay. We don't want to go to a church where the Bible is taught in such a way that there's any sense of having sat on a pincushion.

We like to be soothed, like to be encouraged, like to be told it's okay, even if we know it's not. So the people of God, over a period of three hundred years, are drawn to themselves these proclaimers of falsehood, and then judgment strikes. 722, the north is gone, 586, the problem comes for the south. The invasion of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar, the big guy, shows up, and the people are hammered. Here they sit, manacled, broken, defeated, singing their dreadful dirges. Is it over?

No, it isn't over. If your Bible is still open at 2 Chronicles 36, look at the 20th verse. He carried them into exile.

The remnant who escaped from the sword, those were the ones that were carried in, and they became the servants to him and his sons. Now notice this little phrase, because here's the hope. Until the kingdom of Persia came to power. This didn't last forever. Because in 539—and that's the third of three dates you need to know of your interest.

It's 722 for the north, 586 for the south, and then 539—actually, there's one more, there's a fourth—but in 539, the Babylonians got blown out by the Medo-Persian empire. You say, big deal. It was a big deal. Significant. Phenomenally significant.

Because God's plan and purpose was this, that in taking this Babylonian power and moving it away and setting up these new kings and authorities, he was going to provide the opportunity for the repatriation of his people for the reconstruction of the wall which was indicative of their own dreadful circumstances. Note this, and note it well in passing. We need to learn how to read our newspapers. We need to learn how to read the events of our world. Do you believe that God is sovereign in all these events?

Absolutely. There is no significance ultimately that will be explained in terms of the linear progression of human history, save that which intersects with and is designed and divined by God himself as it relates to his people. Because if you come from 35,000 feet now, as it were, from the panorama, and you descend where you can see not simply that there is a river and a lake, but it is this river and it is this lake, you begin to understand that God was sovereign in all of the machinations of the events of human history.

And he was purposing that at such a time in this, he would raise a man to the authoritative position in whose heart there would be the willingness to see the re-establishment of God's purposes and God's glory. You see, so much of the stuff that we are on the receiving end of makes me feel like this. It suckers me into feeling that I am the answer to everything. That my telephone call is the key to everything.

That my letter is the answer to it all. That somehow or another that we're deists, that God took his hand off it all and we're supposed to fix it all up ourselves now. No, God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year. The rise of kingdoms, the fall of kingdoms, the exaltation of leaders, the decimation of countries is all under the control of God and that's what was becoming apparent here. The Lord determines the history of his own people, but he also fulfills his will through the mighty kings of foreign powers. Now, that is exactly what is made clear in Proverbs chapter 21. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and he guides it the way he guides water courses and rivers. Now, for those of you who are still with me, let me try and bring this up to the first verse of the first chapter because, after all, we're supposed to be studying the Hamayah and we never even got there yet.

So let's do a little review. We started with David, shepherd, cheese, bread, everything. Goliath, history. King, crown, forty years, Solomon shows up. Solomon has seven hundred wives, too much for any man, and as a result of a few of these girls, he gets completely messed up. As a result of being messed up, the kingdom is divided, ten in the north, blown out, 722, two in the south, go on for three hundred years, 756, their history as well. Babylon crashes in, all the folks are in exile except for a few left back amongst the rubble, and basically the people back in the rubble are going, It's over.

And the people are eight hundred miles away going, It's over. But God is working his purposes out. God has a plan, and God has a man. God always has a plan, and he also has a man. Does he have a woman? Yeah, sometimes.

Esther, for example. So God has his man, God has his woman, God has his person. Ezra chapter 1, you can read it, six chapters, describe the fact that as a result of the Medo-Persian authorities feeling concern for God and for his glory, they are allowed to go back and start building. A few of them go back and start building.

They're into it a wee bit. Another king intervenes and says, Stop building. The whole thing comes to a crashing halt all over again, and as a result of that, the word comes back to Nehemiah, and it is of this stopping of the first rebuilding project that we learn in the first two or three verses of chapter 1.

So let me ask with you four simple questions, with four very simple and brief answers. Look at how the story begins. Number one, who is involved? The answer is Nehemiah. What do we know about Nehemiah? Well, he's the son of Hekaliah. Do you find that really illuminating?

I mean, are you just going like exclamation point? That explains it? No, you're not, because you ain't got a clue who Hekaliah was.

That's okay, because nobody does. This is the only time he's, well, God does, but this is the only time he's mentioned in the whole Bible. Okay, so Nehemiah, son of Hekaliah, what did he do? Don't know. What do you do?

Don't know. Hey, you're never going to get a job like this, Nehemiah. I mean, we need some kind of credentials. Here's a guy whose name appears nowhere else in the whole of scripture, reminding us of something just in passing. Pedigree is no big deal. Spiritual endearment matters far more than educational advancement. Spiritual endearment matters far more than background. Spiritual endearment matters far more than any kind of legacy that we might have that is related to status in the minds of people. And yet we are consumed with all of those things.

Oh, I'll need to be this, and I'll need to do that, and I'll need to advance this. I mean, I can just go out as an ordinary person and be used for God. Isn't that what some of you feel? Some of you actually feel that way.

I know you must. You feel you'll never be useful to God because you haven't done this, you haven't been there, and you haven't got that. That is bogus. That's one of the biggest lies of the devil. You are immediately instantaneously useful to God because he calls you, redeems you by his name, puts his spirit within you, and gives you a desire to serve him. Immediately useful.

Oh, you may not be able to do everything, you may not be able to do a lot of things, but you can do something. And Nehemiah was living proof of that. Who is it?

Nehemiah. When is it? Kislev. In the month of Kislev. It was December. It was the 20th year of the king. It was sometime around 445 BC.

That's the fourth date. 445 BC. Who was it Nehemiah? When was it?

December. Where was it? It was 800 miles from the deepest concerns of his heart. It was Susa, a citadel. It was the Washington DC of the then known world.

It was where you would always find the CNN cameras on the South Lawn. He was in a strategic place. What was he doing? The last sentence of the chapter, I was cupbearer to the king. He went around with the king every time someone saves you like a drink. The king said, hit it Nehemiah. And he took it. If it had a Mickey Finn in it, goodbye Nehemiah.

Long live the king. Okay? Would you like a prime rib? Hit it Nehemiah. Wait for a moment or two.

Everyone okay Nehemiah? Yep. Serve it up. So that was his job. It's a good job for a risk taker who likes food.

If you want to live on the edge and eat a lot of good food, this is a wonderful job. And that was his job. But think about it. There was nobody else closer to the king, apart from his wife, than his cupbearer. Secular history records the fact that these guys who were the cupbearers were often pretty cool, if I might put it that way. I mean, we all have to think of Nehemiah as some decrepit little guy who's going around waiting to take his drink.

No, because the king wasn't going to hang around with any little Joe Blow because the kings like to look good. You don't have this little guy coming along behind you. I mean, you don't even have a point. This guy's your secretary of state. I mean, you're going to go, you come in the chariot and people are going, who in the world is that little creep, you know?

No. You get a Nehemiah to be able to stand up and drink up and eat up and hopefully not drop dead. And that's exactly what he was. There was, and listen to this and listen carefully because we're going to stop. There was no one in the whole world more strategically placed to influence the godless king than the cupbearer. And someday all those years ago when the boots invaded Jerusalem, and when the mothers cried and the fathers beat their breasts, and when the sorry remnant gathered around the desecrated temple area and looked at the broken walls and gates and said, it's over. From heaven God said, no, it's not. For I have a man, and I have a plan, an ordinary guy with an obedient heart and a genuine desire to be available for God.

And so verse 2 tells us that his brother showed up. Your brother comes from eight hundred miles away, what are you going to ask him? Hey, has Mrs. Robinson still got the shop on the corner?

Is the building still standing over there? All those usual things. But you're also going to ask about the things that matter most, and so does Nehemiah. He says, I asked about the people of God, and I asked about the place of God. The things that you and I ask about in casual conversation with our brothers and sisters reveal what's on our hearts. The casual conversations post three minutes after the end of this worship service are as indicative of what's on our hearts as any other thing.

Don't let that be a guilt trip to you, but it's true. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and out of the abundance of the heart, the heart asks. And if we inquire after the spiritual welfare of our brothers and sisters, it's presumably because we're concerned about God and his purpose in their lives.

And so he was. So all of this by way of introduction. What are we going to find out in studying this book?

At least this. One, we're going to find out the kind of people God uses when he chooses to do a work. And here's the great, fantastic thing, it's people like you and people like me. It's ordinary guys.

Ordinary guys. He does extraordinary things with ordinary people. Secondly, we're going to find out that the principles that need to be adhered to for God's work to be a lasting work are clearly delineated in this book.

We don't need to make them up. Thirdly, we're going to discover the organization that is necessary in order to transform vision into reality. We're going to discover the persistence that is necessary to see things through. And all in all, we're going to discover what it means to do God's work, God's way. Can I ask you, are you prepared to enlist in the army?

Do you believe that God in all of his plans and purposes has put you in this place for this time and for this day, that there is something you are able to do that no one else is able to do because God has planned it for you? And if you are prepared to do that, let me tell you what it will take as we embark on these studies. Number one, resolve to prepare prayerfully. Two, resolve to attend regularly. Resolve to listen carefully. Resolve to apply in obedience zealously, irrespective of the cost to my preconceived notions, to my personal finances, to my time, to my materials, to my schemes, to my dreams. And under God, humbly, church history would affirm that we might then look to this particular series as being a veritable watershed in our church's life.

Mark it down. Get ready. We're going.

There are some significant challenges ahead for Nehemiah, and it will be helpful for us to see how he dealt with those challenges. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. Alistair will be back to close today's program in just a minute. Now, in addition to the daily Bible teaching that you hear on this program, we love to recommend books to you to help equip you to walk faithfully with Jesus. Today, we've got something different we want to tell you about. It's a documentary film that highlights how God has revived his church throughout the generations, even in the midst of trials and persecution. The film is called Revival, the Work of God. This documentary explores periods in church history when the gospel spread, when God was at work in the renewal of his church, particularly in the midst of times of spiritual darkness. Ask for your copy of the film Revival, the Work of God today when you give a donation to support the teaching ministry of Truth for Life. There are two viewing options. You can either watch it on DVD or you can stream the documentary.

You can choose whichever works best for you. Give a donation through the Truth for Life mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate. Now here's Alistair with the closing prayer. Father, send your spirit to descend upon our hearts, to fill our minds with your glory. Grant us the spirit of Nehemiah, an ordinary guy who put his hand to the plow, thought big, trusted you, prayed a lot.

And that's the only reason we've got the book to read. In all humility of heart, we want to tell you that we'd like to make some history for your glory. So come to each of our lives, just ordinary people going through our ordinary days. May we hear you say, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And you hear our response. Here I am.

Send me. May grace and mercy and peace from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be the abiding portion of all who so believe today and forevermore. Amen. Thanks for listening today. Tomorrow we'll learn why there is never a revival among God's people without tears. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.