Week #2 in the “When the Walls Fall Down” Series - …Make a Plan

Nehemiah 2: 1-8, 11-18 (NIV)

Last week we were introduced to Nehemiah.  Born more than 450 years before Jesus, he was a Jew living in exile.  He had never seen his ancestral homeland of Jerusalem, but he grieved for what had become of it.  

Conquered by the Babylonians roughly 150 years earlier, Jerusalem and the great temple of Solomon had been destroyed.  Since the Persians had defeated the Babylonians some 50 years after that, they had been much kinder to the Jewish people allowing some of them to return to Jerusalem, but the city was still pretty much in ruins and it broke Nehemiah’s heart. 

What God was about to do through Nehemiah was an amazing thing, and in his story, we find lessons from which we can draw when our worlds get turned upside down and life takes us in directions that we could not have anticipated.  Last week, we learned that the first thing Nehemiah did was to pray, and that prayer should be our first option rather than our last resort.

However, Nehemiah did not stop there.  As we discussed last week, Saint Augustine said, “Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you.”  

As we see from this point forward that’s exactly what Nehemiah does. 

Text

¹In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, ²so the king asked me, "Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart." I was very much afraid, ³but I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?"  ⁴The king said to me, "What is it you want?" Then I prayed to the God of heaven, ⁵and I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it."  ⁶Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, "How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?" It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.  ⁷I also said to him, "If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah?  ⁸And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?" And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.

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¹¹I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days ¹²I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.  ¹³By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire.  ¹⁴Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; ¹⁵so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate.  ¹⁶The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.  ¹⁷Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace."  ¹⁸I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work.

Introduction

Author Don Fields relates a tale about the legendary 19^th century evangelist, Dwight L. Moody.  The ship Moody was sailing upon caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  One of Moody’s traveling companions asked him, “Don’t you think we should go and pray, Brother Moody?”  

Moody replied, “You can go and pray, brother, but I am going to man the water buckets…. There is a time to pray and a time to put the fire out!”

As we discussed last week, Nehemiah knew there was a time to pray.  Now we learn how he intends to go about putting the fire out or in this case, rebuilding the walls.  

If you remember, when Nehemiah hears that Jerusalem is still in ruins, he hits his knees in prayer.  It’s not a quickly muttered prayer either.  When Nehemiah begins to pray it is, on the Jewish calendar, the month of Kislev (roughly mid-December on our calendars).  The next thing we know it is the month of Nisan (which is roughly mid-April).  That means that about four months have passed and – on the surface – nothing has happened.  

It is only natural to wonder about the delay.  There are those who speculate that King Artaxerxes had gone away for the winter.  That’s certainly a possibility.  It’s also possible that Nehemiah just never felt the time was right to initiate the conversation.  After all, we note that when the conversation between Nehemiah and King Artaxerxes finally takes place, it is Artaxerxes who initiates it.  

Perhaps this is a great lesson for us as we go about planning how to rebuild the broken walls in our lives.  Some things are just too important to rush.  That’s a little counterintuitive for us in our world today which seeks immediate results and instant gratification.  We tend to equate the significance of a task with the speed with which we need to approach it.  We say things like, “This is so important that we just can’t wait on this.”  And there are times when that may be true – like when your ship is on fire in the middle of the ocean.

There are, however, certain situations which call for a more deliberate approach.  Just a few days ago, the entire world watched transfixed when a group of young Taiwanese soccer players who had gotten trapped in a flooded cave were miraculously rescued.  That rescue was not something rushed into, but rather something well planned and thought through and, even then, one diver lost his life in the preparations for the rescue.    

Rushing headlong into a major life decision is rarely a good idea.  My stepdad is fond of quoting the old carpenter’s axiom, “Measure twice.  Cut once.”  Some things do not allow for do-overs, and they are too important to rush.    

I suspect that the worst thing Nehemiah could have done after getting the news about the state of the people and the condition of the walls in Jerusalem, would have been to jump up and run into the king’s presence unannounced and say, “King Artaxerxes, you just have to let me go to Jerusalem.”  

As a rule, kings don’t like being told what to do by their servants, and while cupbearers are important to a king, they’re not irreplaceable.  If Nehemiah had done something rash, Artaxerxes could easily have turned to one of the royal guards and said, “Get rid of this guy.”

And the royal court would have said, “Dilly, dilly.”  

No, I’m just kidding, but obviously he could have easily been replaced – if not executed – for doing something that reckless.  In Genesis 40, which is part of the narrative of Joseph, we read of a cupbearer – like Nehemiah – and a baker were arrested for offending the King of Egypt.  The baker was later executed.  So, when Nehemiah says he was afraid, we can understand why.  

Well, fear or not, there is – as the example of Moody teaches us – a time to pray and a time to put out the fire – or in this case repair the wall.  So, when Artaxerxes asks Nehemiah what is wrong, Nehemiah swallows hard, prays a quick, silent prayer and finds the courage to pour out his heart to the king. 

Nehemiah may have been afraid, he was not unprepared.  In the months since he had first learned of the condition of Jerusalem and the Jews living there, he had clearly thought long and hard about what it would take to reverse the situation.

There’s a lesson here…    

When the walls of our lives have fallen down, when life takes some unexpected directions for us and things seem to have fallen part, the best thing – after we have prayed – is to take a deep breath, look for the presence of God, trust God’s timing and start making a plan to get out of this mess.  

What follows next is surprising perhaps to everyone but Nehemiah and maybe even him too.  When Artaxerxes cracks open the door, Nehemiah is ready to walk through it, having carefully considered his course of action.  He was ready.  

This is an important concept, because there are some sisters and brothers who equate planning and preparation on our part as human beings as somehow being contrary to the will of God.  They will quote snippets of scripture, like Proverbs 3: 5-6 to illustrate their point, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”  In their eyes, any planning on our part conveys a lack of trust in God.   

I would suggest that if we rely solely upon our human wisdom, then yes, we are going down the wrong road, but living the life of faith is a little like whitewater rafting.

I have only been white water rafting once.  Thirty years ago, the youth group, I was part of went down the New River in West Virginia.  I regard it as a deeply spiritual experience, I spent the entire day holding on for dear life and praying, “Help me Jesus!”  I was confessing sins I hadn’t even committed yet.  

In whitewater rafting there is a rule that your guide will share with you prior to the start of your journey.  The guide will say, “If you fall out of the raft, you must be an active participant in your own rescue.”

What is true in whitewater rafting is absolutely true in the life of faith.  The Lord may order our steps, but we still have to take them.   

Seeking the will and guidance of God and God’s plan for our lives as we plan our next steps in the rebuilding of the broken walls in our lives are not mutually exclusive – as Nehemiah illustrates for us.  When the king asked him how long his mission would take, Nehemiah gave him a definite time.  He had carefully, as well as prayerfully, prepared his plans.  

Chuck Swindoll, in writing of Nehemiah’s planning, wrote, “The presence of faith does not mean an absence of organization.”

So, how did Nehemiah go about making his plans?

He gathered information, engaged in preparation and trusted God for the transformation.

I am an information junkie.  As soon as I hung up the phone with Paul Fryman – the district superintendent who informed us we would be moving to Pikeville, the first thing I did – well…after I called Julie – was to begin to learn all I could about our new church family and community, but as my family will tell you, I’m the same way about planning for vacations.  I want as much information as I can get.  

As we learned last week, Nehemiah started gathering information by interviewing a group who had just returned from Jerusalem, and then this morning, we read that – upon his arrival in the city – he engaged in a scouting trip to examine the city’s walls.  The Hebrew word for “examine” used in verse 13 has an almost forensic quality to it.  He was going over everything with the fine-tooth comb to see what needed to be done.

When we find our world has turned upside down, gathering information is an important step in rebuilding our lives.  Proverbs 19: 2 says, in part, “Desire without knowledge is not good….”  Information, for the sake of information, may not be helpful, but if we continue to be a praying people, we may just hear the voice of the Lord speaking to us as we learn more.  Nehemiah gathered information.  

While the text doesn’t specifically tell us this, I believe that we can infer that once he made up his mind about what he wanted to do, Nehemiah began to make a list as to what he would need to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls.

Over the course of four months, Nehemiah prepared himself for his conversation with Artaxerxes.  I have no doubt he continued to pray, but I believe he engaged in the process of visioning what the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem would look like and what he would need to make that happen.  I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn that he had checked the city walls of his home in exile to see what he would need to do when he arrived in Jerusalem.   

Later, when Artaxerxes asked Nehemiah what he would need to rebuild those walls, Nehemiah did not say, “Let me think about that for a while and get back to you.”  Instead his response was more like, “Well, your majesty, as it just so happens I have a list of a few things I am going to need.” 

In speaking of Nehemiah’s preparation, Swindoll said, “…planning is hard work.  Thinking isn’t as exciting as involvement, but without it confusion is inevitable.  Good leaders do their homework.”

If our lives, our careers, our homes are falling apart then part of the process of rebuilding them is doing our homework.  It is no substitute for seeking the presence and guidance of God, but it adds tools to our toolbox and gives God more room in our lives with which to work.

And make no mistake, we need to leave room for God to work. Nehemiah gathered information, engaged in preparation, but one of the most difficult parts of his task was to trust God for the transformation.  In the case of Nehemiah, he had to trust God to prepare Artaxerxes.  

In our first Sunday together, I told you that one of the first century principles that was going to make a difference in the 21^st century church, was that we must be rooted in the reality of the resurrection.  If the tomb of Jesus Christ is empty, we can, and must, trust that God is capable of doing far more than we could ever hope or imagine.  

Nehemiah recognized the hand of God was at work when he wrote, “And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.”

In looking at the text, Swindoll caught something that got past me in the many times I had read it.  In verse six, Nehemiah was sure to note the presence of the queen.  Now, why would he do that?

The Hebrew word for “queen” as it is used here, doesn’t necessarily mean Artaxerxes’ spouse.  It could mean an intimate friend, a female advisor or a confidante among other things.  

Maybe she nodded, slightly nudged the king or perhaps even cleared her throat, but her presence there was no accident.  What the bible will later tell us about Esther may be true of this unnamed queen, perhaps she was there that day for just such a moment.  

When we put our trust in God and prepare ourselves, God has a way of putting the right people in the right place at the right time to meet the needs of his children.  Some people think of it as a coincidence, I prefer to believe it to be more of a “God-incidence”.  

It’s one thing for the king to let some Jews go back to Jerusalem, it’s another thing altogether for him to allow one of his servants take an extended leave of absence, give him a hall pass and allow him to swing by the lumber yard with a massive requisition form on his way out of town.  God made this transformation possible.

Nehemiah gathered information, engaged in preparation and trusted God for the transformation.  What about us?  Some of us find the walls in our lives broken down.  Things may not be what we thought they would be.  What should we do?

Follow Nehemiah’s example, pray first and then begin to make a plan as we gather information, engage in preparation and trust God for the transformation.  We may be amazed to see how God rebuilds our lives.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, let us pray….