Prayer Answered and Action Commenced (Nehemiah 2)

The day had arrived that Nehemiah had prayed about. He was engaged in serving his earthly sovereign, but he also was determined to serve his heavenly King. It looks as if he had not been engaged in recent weeks in the service of his earthly master, so perhaps the emperor had been away from his capital. If so, he was now back, and normal service resumed in the palace. Except Nehemiah did not feel normal. Instead his inner sadness showed in his face to such an extent that the emperor noticed it.

Fear can be good

In addition to feeling sad, Nehemiah was now also afraid because it was a great offence to be sad in the presence of the Persian emperor.

It is surprising how the Lord opens doors at times. In fact, it can seem that providence is shutting the door rather than opening it, but often the two go together. David Livingstone believed he was called to serve God in China and prepared for going there. Then the door was shut by the committee of the missionary society he intended to work for. What was going on? God wanted him to go to Africa, but could he not have used another method such as speaking to him in a vision and informing him that he was to go to Africa? Instead, God used the men whom Livingstone thought would help him to prevent him from going. Later on, Livingstone would be glad of a closed door that led to an open door, but what would he have thought at the moment when the door was closed?

Further, it is a fact that God can take us into situations in which we will be afraid. Perhaps Nehemiah had prayed that God would hide his sadness of heart from the gaze of the emperor. If so, he was reminded that God desires conformity of body and mind. From God’s point of view, there was nothing wrong with a sad heart in his service even if it would offend the sensitivities of the emperor on his throne.

Thinking about being led into situations of fear should remind us that such a leading happened to Jesus when his Father led him to the garden of Gethsemane. There, as the reality of the cross bore down on his human mind, he experienced such fear that he asked his Father to take away the cup that he had been given. We should not assume that the presence of fear somehow indicates a lack of faith. Instead, such fear can be present when faith is most active.

Perhaps you have been burdened to do something for God but the more you have thought about it the more apprehensive you have become. Maybe you think the devil is getting at you, trying to hinder you. But you should realise that there is nothing unusual in being afraid. Nobody truly called by God is marked by silly self-confidence. Rather they are realistic because they realise that even the least activity for God cannot be done apart from divine grace. So if you are afraid, thank God for pointing out your weakness.

All of this reminds us that the Lord is the one who opens the door for prayers to be answered. Nehemiah would not have anticipated this was how that would happen. And that is often the way. What we have to do is continue in prayer, persisting in it until the Lord’s time for his answer comes. And we should be ready for it taking place in case it comes in a very unexpected way. Often we will show we are ready by offering up an arrow prayer in a difficult place.

An arrow prayer

We observed that Nehemiah had prayed for several months in preparation for this meeting. Yet during the meeting with the emperor he discovered that such prolonged prayer would not be suitable at this time. The king, having discovered the problem behind Nehemiah’s sadness, immediately asked him what he wanted.

Perhaps if that had happened to us we would have said to ourselves, ‘The Lord has answered my prayer,’ and proceeded to state what we thought should be given to us. Nehemiah heard the offer, but he responded in a different way; he responded to it with further prayer. Here we have an example of James’ assertion that the effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much. Maybe here we have an example of the Lord’s promise that, before people will call on him, he will answer because Nehemiah did not have to wait.

Of course, as Spurgeon pointed out, ‘Probably the interval was not long enough to be noticed, but it was long enough for God to notice it—long enough for Nehemiah to have sought and have obtained guidance from God as to how to frame his answer to the king.’

Yet there is another aspect to the invitation of the king and that becomes clearer when we realise is that he was responsible to some extent for the mess that Jerusalem was in. The Book of Ezra recounts a process in which some opponents of the Jews had appealed to Artaxerxes to stop the rebuilding of the city, and he had cancelled all the building work until he found out what previous decisions had been made by Persian emperors about its recovery. Eventually, the historical approvals were located, and work resumed. But obviously there was still much to be done. Yet in order to tell the truth about his burden Nehemiah would have to point to a problem that was connected to the king’s own policy. It is not surprising then that he shot up an arrow prayer.

The Bible stresses that we should pray about everything, even about matters that demand an instant answer. Christians recognise this necessity and if they have been believers for a while they will have become accustomed to short prayers and longer prayers, to one-off prayers and to repeated prayers. Their hearts will be attuned to pray in the most suitable way.

Therefore, arrow prayers should be a common Christian experience (v. 4). This is a reminder that in prayer the problem is not the perceived distance between us and heaven, and it is true that success in prayer can be achieved by short prayers if they are suitable and necessary at a given time.

There are some obvious benefits of arrow prayers. Such prayers can be made at any time, in any place, and on any topic. Since no one is aware that we are praying in that manner, there should not be a temptation to show off before others, although sadly it is always possible to be proud of any spiritual activity. Since such prayers should be very frequent, there should be so many that we will not have a clue how many we have made, and therefore cannot rehearse them in a self-focussing manner that highlights our spirituality. Here is the possibility of prayers without display, without self-promotion, and the usual reason why they are offered is because a person has been reminded of his inability to do anything about the situation without God’s help.

In his providence, God so worked in the heart of the pagan king that he was willing to give whatever Nehemiah asked for. Here we have an Old Testament example of Paul’s claim that God can give more than what we ask or think. Nehemiah was quick to pray in this way, but he was also quick to acknowledge the goodness of God in bringing this about (v. 8). We can imagine him underlining the sentence, ‘And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.’

Hindrances appear (vv. 9-19)

When he arrived at Jerusalem, Nehemiah discovered that the enemies of the kingdom of God were quick to state their strong objections even although he had the emperor’s documents and soldiers with him. It is interesting to observe that different groups can unite together to oppose any advance of the kingdom of God. Sanballat, Tobiah and Gershom governed sections of the empire within the vicinity of Jerusalem. Sanballat had Samaria, Tobiah had Ammon, and Gershom had areas to the south of Judea. Nehemiah would not have been surprised when the devil worked to bring such diverse groups together against the work of God’s kingdom. But how did Nehemiah respond to their opposition?

First, he did not allow his inner convictions about his call to be diminished: ‘what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem.’ He knew that God had given him a burden and he knew that God had opened the door in providence for him to act. The fact is, if God had not given him the burden concerning the recovery of the city he would have given up because of the opposition.

Second, he did not make a great noise about his intentions initially. We might have assumed that it would be helpful to gather a lot of support from various groups that he knew would yet be involved. But he did not do so to begin with, and he takes pains to list the ones he did not tell: ‘And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.’ Perhaps he did not trust them or maybe he realised that they would expect him to know his facts.

Third, he decided to discover the state of the city, which he did by riding through the various areas, noting what was needed here and there. The obvious lesson from this strategy was that he wanted to have the necessary information before he would speak publicly about the situation.

Fourth, once he had all the information that he needed, he gathered the people of God together and explained to them why he had come (vv. 17-18). In his address to them, he identified himself with them even although they had been ineffective before. This is a reminder that God can use those who have failed. Nehemiah also informed them of the reasons why they could be successful – God had guided him so far and even the emperor was willing to help them. The result was that the people were inspired by his address.

Fifth, Nehemiah ignored the taunts of the opponents (vv. 19-20). Mocking is often the last resort of those who discover that their time of hindering the progress of a work of God has come to an end. Nehemiah responded to their taunting by expressing confidence in the purpose of God, that he could cause his people to get involved, and that the opponents were irrelevant as far as the rebuilding was concerned.

It was a fairly straightforward strategy that had begun with much prayer for a few months, that was given an impetus by God moving the heart of the ruler in result to an arrow prayer, that was helped by his personal assessment of the mess, that was comprehensive in that he expected all the Lord’s people to work, that took seriously the disgraceful situation in which the people of God were dismissed and derided, and all that provided God-given encouragement. The outcome was that the people were encouraged to work together, as Nehemiah indicates at the close of verse 18.

Application

The first application is one that reminds us that God is in control of our times. We can see this truth in the way God opened up the opportunity of Nehemiah to get involved in helping the city’s recovery. God’s timing is always right, even when considering the exact moments when the emperor asked his questions of Nehemiah.

A second application is the need for carefulness in our lives. Nehemiah illustrated this in two ways. First, he was careful to give God the glory for all the progress that he had made when he informed the Jewish leaders why he thought they could make progress in the things of God. Second, we see his care in the way he insisted on visiting every location in the city. He would only know the problems if he searched them out. All kinds of application can be made here. One is how careful we should be in mapping our own hearts and checking if each aspect of our souls is in good order. Another is that some are quick to say what should be done, but we soon realise that they have not looked at the state of things, so we should not listen to them. That is not the way to make progress.

A third application is the importance of prayer and planning. Some people imagine that they cannot co-exist, but they do. Nehemiah had a clear target to aim at and he wanted his plans to agree with God’s plan. Therefore it was important that he pray at every stage. As Harry Ironside put it, Nehemiah walked with God because he talked with God. The steps in his plan were the steps that God in his plan wanted Nehemiah to make.

There is a fourth application from Nehemiah’s example for our daily employment. We should not imagine that this was the first occasion he had used an arrow prayer. There would have been many opportunities for him to ask God for his help. It will be similar with us. Circumstances may be difficult, but none are so difficult as to prevent sending an arrow to God. Circumstances may be easy, but none are so easy that they can be faced without such a prayer.

Fifthly, we should observe Nehemiah’s conviction that his God could enable him to complete the task assigned to him concerning Jerusalem. His belief that the God of heaven could prosper their work is an Old Testament example of Paul’s verse when he asked, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’