Doubtless because of his probity and ability, he was apparently at an early age appointed by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, to the responsible position of cupbearer to the king.
There is now no possible doubt that this King his king was Artaxerxes, the first of that name, commonly called Longimanus, who ruled over Persia from to BC. The mention of the sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria, in a letter written to the priests of Jerusalem in BC, among whom Johanan is especially named, proves that Sanballat must have ruled in the time of Artaxerxes I rather than in that of Artaxerxes II.
The office of cupbearer was "one of no trifling honor" Herod. It was one of his chief duties to taste the wine for the king to see that it was not poisoned, and he was even admitted to the king while the queen was present Ne It was on account of this position of close intimacy with the king that Nehemiah was able to obtain his commission as governor of Judea and the letters and edicts which enabled him to restore the walls of Jerusalem.
The occasion of this commission was as follows: Hanani, the brother of Nehemiah, and other men of Judah came to visit Nehemiah while he was in Susa in the 9th month of the 20th year of Artaxerxes. They reported that the Jews in Jerusalem were in great affliction and that the wall thereof was broken down and its gates burned with fire.
Thereupon he grieved and fasted and prayed to God that he might be granted favor by the king. Having appeared before the latter in the 1st month of the 21st year of Artaxerxes, BC, he was granted permission to go to Jerusalem to build the city of his fathers' sepulchers, and was given letters to the governors of Syria and Palestine and especially to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, ordering him to supply timber for the wall, the fortress, and the temple.
He was also appointed governor of the province of which Jerusalem was the capital. Armed with these credentials and powers he repaired to Jerusalem and immediately set about the restoration of the walls, a work in which he was hindered and harassed by Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, and others, some of them Jews dwelling in Jerusalem.
Notwithstanding, he succeeded in his attempt and eventually also in providing gates for the various entrances to the city. In doing so, he proved himself a great leader. Nehemiah was a man of constant prayer as can be seen in the fourteen recorded prayers in the short book of Nehemiah.
Model of Ancient Jerusalem. Inside Science — In the 6th century B. Your email address will not be published. Skip to content Press Enter. Listen Now. Jewish tradition identifies Nehemiah himself as the primary author of this historical book.
Much of the book is written from his first-person perspective. Nothing is known about his youth or background; we meet him as an adult serving in the Persian royal court as the personal cupbearer to King Artaxerxes Nehemiah — Though he remained in Persia after the exiles had been allowed to go home, he was highly interested in the state of affairs in Judah his brother Hanani [] had returned there earlier.
The book of Nehemiah could be read as a sequel to the book of Ezra, and some scholars believe the two were originally one work. However, most scholars believe the book was written by Nehemiah. Later that year, Nehemiah traveled to Israel, leading the third of three returns by the Jewish people following their seventy years of exile in Babylon. The previous chapter on Ezra describes the earlier two returns.
Most of the book centers on events in Jerusalem. Note: Ezra was not following any particular Old Testament law in choosing not to receive royal protection. Rather, this decision reflected his personal convictions about what it meant to trust God in the real challenges of leadership. The text seems to suggest that Ezra and company completed their journey without a threatening incident.
Once again, the book of Ezra shows that human efforts are successful when God is at work in them. The last two chapters of Ezra focus on the problem of Jews intermarrying with Gentiles. The issue of work does not emerge here, except in the example of Ezra, who exercises his leadership in faithfulness to the Law and with prayerful decisiveness. The first chapter of the Book of Nehemiah introduces the book bearing his name as a resident of Susa, the capital of the Persian Empire.
Implicitly, he was formulating a plan to remedy the situation in Jerusalem. The connection between the temple and the wall is significant for the theology of work.
The temple might seem to be a religious institution, while the walls are a secular one. But God led Nehemiah to work on the walls, no less than he led Ezra to work on the temple. If the walls were unfinished, the temple was unfinished too. The work was of a single piece. The reason for this is easy to understand. Without a wall, no city in the ancient Near East was safe from bandits, gangs and wild animals, even though the empire might be at peace. The more economically and culturally developed a city was, the greater the value of things in the city, and the greater the need for the wall.
The temple, with its rich decorations, would have been particularly at risk. Practically speaking, no wall means no city, and no city means no temple. Even on strictly military terms, the temple and the wall are mutually dependent. Likewise with government and justice. No temple means no presence of God, and no presence of God means no military strength, no justice, no civilization and no need for walls.
This at least is the ideal towards which Nehemiah is fasting, praying and working. This means not only that he had immediate access to the king as the one who tested and served his beverages, but also that Nehemiah was a trusted advisor and high-ranking Persian official. When the king granted him permission to oversee the rebuilding project, Nehemiah asked for letters to the governors through whose territory he would pass on his trip to Jerusalem Neh. This disagreement demonstrates how easy it is for godly people to come to different conclusions about what it means to trust God in their work.
Perhaps each was simply doing what he was most familiar with. Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king, familiar with the exercise of royal power.
Both Ezra and Nehemiah were seeking to be faithful in their labors. Both were godly, prayerful leaders. But they understood trusting God for protection differently. Carlisle explores how science and faith both contribute to her work.
Trying to prove or disprove God with science is like trying to screw in a flat-head nail with a screwdriver Apparently he wanted to know the size and scope of the work he was taking on before he publicly committed to doing it. The fact that success came from the Lord did not mean Nehemiah could sit back and relax.
Quite to the contrary, Nehemiah was about to commence an arduous and demanding task. Nehemiah was able to inspire collegiality and to organize the project effectively. But then, just as in the story of the rebuilding of the temple in Ezra, opposition arose. So what did Nehemiah lead his people to do? Pray and trust God? Or arm themselves for battle? In fact, when threats against the wall-builders mounted, Nehemiah also stationed guards at key positions.
Because of their faith, the people were to fight. Yet this was not an invitation to the Jews to put down their weapons and focus on building, trusting in supernatural protection alone. Rather, God would fight for his people by assisting them in battle. He would be at work in and through his people as they worked.
We Christians sometimes seem to act as if there were a rigid wall between actively pursuing our own agenda and passively waiting for God to act. Yet, at moments, we are tempted to become passive while waiting for God to act. If you are unemployed, yes, God wants you to have a job.
To get the job God wants you to have, you have to write a resume, conduct a search, apply for positions, interview, and get rejected dozens of times before finding that job, just as everyone else has to do. If you are a parent, yes, God wants you to have enjoyment in raising your children.
Certain wealthy Jewish nobles and officials were taking advantage of economically difficult times to line their own pockets Nehemiah 5.
They were loaning money to fellow Jews, expecting interest to be paid on the loans, even though this was prohibited in the Jewish Law for example, Exodus Nehemiah responded by demanding that the wealthy stop charging interest on loans and give back whatever they had taken from their debtors.
In contrast to the selfishness of those who had been taking advantage of their fellow Jews, Nehemiah did not use his leadership position to enhance his personal fortune. Instead, he generously invited many to eat at his table, paying from this expense from his personal savings without taxing the people Neh. In a sense, the nobles and officials were guilty of the same kind of dualism we have just discussed. In their case, they were not waiting passively for God to solve their problems.
Instead, they were actively pursuing their own gain as if economic life had nothing to do with God. Nehemiah connects an economic issue usury with the fear of God. The issues of Nehemiah 5, though emerging from a legal and cultural setting distant from our own, challenge us to consider how much we should profit personally from our position and privilege, even from our work.
Should we put our money in banks that make loans with interest? Should we take advantage of perks made available to us in our workplace, even if these come at considerable cost to others? In practice, that means we each owe God the duty of caring for the cloud of persons who depend on our work: employers, co-workers, customers, family, the public and many others.
Put people first.
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