We had a great discussion about Nehemiah on Tuesday! First, a little fun thanks to Joel:
Who is one of the only people we know that was smaller than Zacheus?
Knee-Hi-Miah (Nehemiah)! Ha, Ha!
Ok, now that we got the corny joke for the week out of the way, on to the guts.
Nehemiah is an amazing character. One interesting fact is that he was not a religious leader or prophet. He was a cupbearer to the King Artaxerxes and the first part of the book is Nehemiah's own person recollections of what happened.
As he worked for the King, he came to realize through a brother, that the Jewish remnant was in peril. The Jewish remnant was the people that were left after the Babylonians took over Jerusalem years earlier (around150 or so!).
Amazingly, Nehemiah get this news and he is extremely troubled and mourns, fasts and prays for "many days" (actually about 3 months!!!). It is really amazing that he has this reaction when the destruction happened so many year before. Joel explained that a good example would be if we were deeply troubled that President Lincoln died. Well, that happen many years ago and that does not affect us today. But, for Nehemiah, God turned his heart to this issue and he had compassion for his people.
What things in our lives is God leading us to? What are we going to do about it? Will we have a heart that is responsive to God's leadings?
Nehemiah was responsive to God's call and he did not worry about the obstacles that were in his way. He new that he had a divine job to do and he did it! The mark of a good leader is that leader knowing who is in control of the situation!
Stay Strong, PLD
STP, an IronMan
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