Bible Commentary - Nehemiah 1

In this chapter, Nehemiah learns about the struggles of Jerusalem and prays for God’s favor for his petition to the king.

As the beginning of the book, this chapter establishes a couple different points.  First, it establishes Nehemiah’s attitude towards God.  Namely, he is keenly aware of his people’s failings, how they have sinned and turned away from God, but he also reminds God of his promise that if the people return to God, then God would bring them back to the promised land.

Second, the chapter establishes that Nehemiah himself is in captivity (in Susa) and is a cupbearer to the king.  It might sound like menial service, but in ancient times being a cupbearer was a highly trusted position because you were in a place where you could potentially poison the king’s wine.  In addition, cupbearers were often called upon by the king as advisors, so they would also have occasional political responsibilities.

Third, it establishes the difficult situation in Jerusalem.

Fourth, and lastly, it establishes that Nehemiah himself is deeply concerned about the status of his people.

Take all four of these points together, and we can see that Nehemiah is in a fairly senior political position, he cares about Jerusalem, learns about its distress and believes that God will bring his people back to the promised land if they obey the covenant.  The obvious conclusion is that Nehemiah will seek to return to the promised land and he believes that God will aide him in this endeavor, and this is the object of his prayer when he asks God to give him favor with “this man” in v. 11.

In the introduction to Nehemiah, I mentioned that Nehemiah and Ezra were contemporaries who both left Susa and returned to Jerusalem.  Beyond that, there were thousands of other men and women who went with them, fulfilling the “gathering” that Nehemiah talks about in verse 9.  I think Nehemiah is quoting that verse with an awareness that this was the time.  I think he knew that the king was favorable to his people returning to their homes and I believe that Judeans were likely already making the journey home before Nehemiah, so Nehemiah realized that this prophecy was coming to pass.

A lot of the time when I am reading a bible passage, I like to ask myself what God is trying to say through this passage.  And in this particular chapter, what I see is Nehemiah quoting from God’s word (essentially paraphrasing Deuteronomy) and Nehemiah recognizes that he is living in the moment of God’s promise fulfilled.  He recognizes the need for his personal return and he recognizes that he is living in the season when God is opening the door for his people to return to the promised land, and in this moment Nehemiah is praying that God would give him success because Nehemiah is about to act.

So what I learn from this chapter is that we should always keep our eyes open to understand what is our season (individually and in our community), understand what God is doing in that season, praying for favor and then acting.  The action doesn’t happen until chapter 2, but Nehemiah is clearly a man who is willing to act in partnership with God’s purpose for his people in this time.  In the same way, we should seek to discern our present season, understand God’s intentions for us, pray for grace as we follow God’s leadership and then act, letting our actions follow God’s direction.

In the next chapter, Nehemiah does exactly that and he petitions the king for his right to return to Jerusalem.