Expositor's Dictionary of Texts The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, The Church and Social EvilsNehemiah 1:4 I. Note the plain Christian duty of sympathetic contemplation of surrounding sorrows. Nehemiah might have made a great many very good excuses for treating lightly the tidings that his brother had brought him. He let the tidings fill his heart, and bum there. The first condition of sympathy is knowledge; and the second is attending to what we do know. And so I want to press upon Christian people the plain duty of knowing what you do know, and of giving an ample place in your thoughts to the stark, staring facts around us. II. Such a realization of the dark facts is indispensable to all true work for alleviating them. There is no way of helping men but by bearing what they bear. Jesus Christ would never have been the Lamb of God that bore away the sins of the world, unless He Himself had 'taken our infirmities and borne our sicknesses'. No work of healing will be done, except by those whose hearts have bled with the feeling of the miseries which they have set themselves to cure. III. Such realization of surrounding sorrows should drive to communion with God. Nehemiah wept and mourned, and that was well. But between his weeping and mourning and his practical work there had to be still another link of connexion. 'He wept and mourned,' and because he was sad he turned to God—'I fasted and prayed certain days'. There he got at once comfort for his sorrows and sympathies, and deepening of his sympathies, and thence he drew inspiration that made him a hero and a martyr. So, all true service for the world must begin with close communion with God. IV. Such sympathy should be the parent of a noble, self-sacrificing life. Look at the man in our story. He had the ball at his feet. He had the entrée of a court and the ear of a king. Brilliant prospects were opening before him, but his brethren's sufferings drew him, and with a noble resolution of self-sacrifice he shut himself out from them and went into the wilderness. If Christians are to do the work that they can do, and that Christ has put them into this world that they may do, there must be self-sacrifice with it. —A. Maclaren, The Wearied Christ, p. 258. References.—1.4.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—2 Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, p. 334. I. 4, 5.—J. Parker, Studies in Texts, vol. i. p. 48. I. 4-11.—Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 97. I. 11.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvii. No. 2714. II. 4.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No. 1390. II. 10.—J. Marshall Lang, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. 1893, p. 346. That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.
We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer. Nicoll - Expositor's Dictionary of Texts Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission. Bible Hub |
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