Why The Old Testament Matters: Lessons from Nehemiah

Why The Old Testament Matters: Lessons from Nehemiah

For such a relatively short book of the Bible, Nehemiah is packed with lessons. But before we get into them, let’s catch up on where this book fits in the story of the Bible. Babylon had attacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and taken most of the Israelites into exile. Shortly thereafter, Persia defeated Babylon. Persian kings allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem, and the Israelites rebuilt the temple but not much else of the city (which is covered in the book of Ezra). About 140 years after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and about 70 years after the temple was rebuilt, Nehemiah, an Israelite directly serving the Persian king, was sent with official orders to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah took a scattered remnant of people living in and around a ruined city and rebuilt the walls of that city in less than two months, all while under constant threat from non-Israelites living nearby. Because of this remarkable accomplishment, many people consider Nehemiah a prime example of leadership. And while the significance of good leadership is a valuable lesson that can be learned from this book, other lessons are just as—if not more—important.

In the 13 chapters of Nehemiah, there are 14 explicit mentions of him stopping to pray. While that alone should tell us something, let’s focus on the first two mentions of prayer. At the very beginning of the book, Nehemiah learns from his brother (who had traveled from Persia to Jerusalem and back again) that while there were once again Israelites living in Jerusalem, they were facing a lot of hardships since their city had no walls or gates—they were defenseless. Nehemiah was deeply troubled by this, and he responded by spending four months in prayer and fasting. Immediately after this, we see the second mention of prayer—and it couldn’t be more different! Nehemiah is serving the Persian king, who notices that Nehemiah is troubled and asks what is bothering him. Nehemiah tells the king that he is troubled by the state of his people’s city, and the king asks Nehemiah what he wants to do about it. We see his response in Nehemiah 2:4b–5a: “So I prayed to the God of the heavens and answered the king.” Notice that Nehemiah’s prayer here doesn’t appear to have even been audible, just a quick pause to invite God into the situation.

Prayer is a critical part of our relationship with God, and it takes many forms. These two examples show us two extremes of what prayer can look like. Often, when a situation is deeply troubling us or we have to make a big decision, one of the best things we can do is bring it before God in prayer and fasting. The reason prayer and fasting go so well together is that the purpose of fasting is to take the time you would spend doing “normal” things (whether that’s eating, playing video games, watching Netflix, or doom-scrolling through Instagram) and replace it with active, intentional time with God. As it says in James 4:8, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” When we give more of ourselves to God, we allow Him more room to be at work in our lives. But sometimes, we may not have months, days, or even hours to spend time in deep prayer and fasting. Sometimes, we may not even have a full minute and need to respond within seconds. There’s still time to invite God into the situation, however. Even if we don’t have the time for a full, formal prayer, or we are in a situation where we can’t pray out loud, we can still pause for just a second and ask God to be with us and to guide us or someone else. This is what Paul was talking about in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when he said to “pray constantly”—not necessarily spending every second of every day in constant, active, audible prayer, but remembering that God is with you in every situation, and that He is always just a breath away.

Even if we don’t have the time for a full, formal prayer, or we are in a situation where we can’t pray out loud, we can still pause for just a second and ask God to be with us and to guide us or someone else.

Another really important lesson comes from the final chapter of Nehemiah. The temple has been rebuilt, and the walls and gates of the city are standing and being guarded once again. Jerusalem’s enemies are afraid. Ezra and Nehemiah have teamed up to reteach the Law of Moses to the Israelites, and the Israelites have confessed their sins and begun to observe the law again. Nehemiah stays as governor of Jerusalem for 12 years to make sure everything is going well, and then he briefly returns to Persia. We aren’t told how long he was away, but when he returns, the Israelites have already turned away from God yet again—the very thing that resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and their exile in the first place! In fact, this is where the book of Nehemiah ends, and it’s one of the last parts of Israelite history before the New Testament. This may seem like kind of a downer, and if that’s where the Bible ended, it would be. However, we have the benefit of the New Testament and Jesus’ death and resurrection. It doesn’t matter how much we do, how much we know, how safe and secure we are—those aren’t going to ultimately save us. The only thing that can save us is Jesus. And while it may not say it, that’s what the ending of Nehemiah points to—the need for a supernatural intervention due to human failure.

If you have more questions about prayer or fasting, or if you are ready to accept Jesus into your life, feel free to reach out to us on the Experience Community Church app, or on our website, experiencecc.com.