843
THE K I NG ' S BUS I NESS
hand. (11) 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 cup bearer.
them ; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet w ill I gather them from thence, and w ill bring- them unto the place that X have chosen to set my name there. (10) Now these are thy servants and th'y p eo ple, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong Outline: (1) The Depression, vs. 1-4. (2) The Confession, vs. 5-7. (3) The Intercession, vs. 8-11. Introduction: The hook o f Nehemiah continues the story of the return of -Israel from cap tivity. Thirteen years after Ezra’s ex pedition, Nehemiah was led of the Lord to journey to Jerusa- LESSON lem and rebuild the EXPOSITION walls which were brok- T. C. Horton en down. Nehemiah is the lat est historical book of the Old Testament, and is the sequel to the record given by Ezra. Judea was thinly populated by the Jews, and Jerusalem— an open vil lage—was exposed to all kinds of at tacks from its enemies in the neighbor hood. The order of the restoration, as re corded in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, includes Zerubbabel, the prince; Joshua, the High Priest; Ezra, the scribe, and Nehemiah, the layman. Nehemiah is not to. be confused with the Nehemiah mentioned in Ezra 2:2, who accompanied Zerubbabel in the first return. -(1) NEHEMIAH’S DEPRESSION, vs. 1-4. “ I sat down and wept, and mourned— and fasted-” Nehemiah is a sample of a clean-cut, honest, honorable layman, with an in telligent mind and a big heart. He was a real manly man. He was the cup bearer to the king— a position of high honor and of confidence, the same rela tion as that which the butler bore to the king of Egypt, and which was the
means by which Joseph was lifted to a place next the king. There are three things in the char acter of Nehemiah that are outstanding and manifest in this lesson. He was a sincere man. Not a politician in the sense in which we are compelled to use that term in these days. He would be true to his king, but he would never have bowed his knee to Baal. His face would be toward Jerusalem in his prayer. His motives were pure, his de sires honorable. He was a sympathetic man,—-his heart went out toward his fellows. He was a spiritual man. He believed God; he believed in His promises and adapted himself to the conditions. When the story of conditions in Jeru salem came to his ears, (for he had in terest enough to ask about them) he sat down and wept. His soul was sick. His people in great reproach and affliction and the gates burned! ' Why need he care? Did he not have a good position? Must he not look out for Number One? But he had a heart like that of Elisha who could weep over sinful conditions (2 Ki. 8:11). He mourned and fasted and prayed. There was need of it. Some one mu§t always bear the burdens with the Lord. Daniel was such a man (Daniel 9:3) “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes." No man who is a true patriot can fail to be deeply distressed over conditions in our own land. They call it a “ crime wave” . No, it is not that. It is some thing deeper, something that lies at the heart of our national life.
Made with FlippingBook HTML5