Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 1-3.

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I don’t remember if I pointed this out last year, but I think it is important to bring up as part of setting the stage.  For a long time I assumed that the broken down walls and burnt gates were leftover from the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem.  More recently I have come to understand that the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt to at least some extent since the exiles returned to Jerusalem and then been destroyed again.  So when Hanani told Nehemiah that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the gates burned, it was news that indicated a change of state from what Nehemiah had known about Jerusalem.  Nehemiah’s reaction to this news was to begin praying.  Nehemiah’s prayer seemed to contain three parts.  First, he acknowledged that God was just in causing suffering for the descendants of Jacob.  Second, he declared an intent to turn back to God.  Third, he requested that God give him aid and direction in fixing the problem.

However, in addition to praying, Nehemiah planned.  When he appeared before Artaxerxes, he was prepared to answer the questions which the king asked of him.  Not only did he have answers to the king’s questions, he was prepared with additional requests when it became obvious that his initial request met with the king’s support.  Nehemiah did not just pray for God to take care of things.  He prayed to God but also made plans to address the problems of which he was aware.   We should follow this model: pray and plan.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.