Have you ever experienced something that made you want to disappear? Jerusalem had suffered 3 invasions in a short time frame that destroyed their Jewish kingdom, scattering their people to the point of losing their identity. Therefore, they knew what it was like to live with shame, but what can we learn from their experience?
So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.
Nehemiah 2:11-13, 2:17-20
Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”
Dissapearing Acts
Oftentimes things like speaking in public, being called on in class, or questioning how we appear to others can make us want to disappear in shame.
Johatsu 蒸発 causes people to vanish altogether due to experiencing overwhelming shame. When people purposely disappear or evaporate from their established lives because of a failed business, a broken relationship or a severe financial hardship, many lives are destroyed by shame. We want to remain steadfast and trustworthy as people. But how can we when our lives are broken by shame?
Other times, these shame storms threaten to dissolve the solid sovereignty of a nation’s identity. A core element of our identity just disappears. This happened to the Jews when Jerusalem was destroyed. They were in danger of their national identity vanishing after being conquered by the Babylonians. Shame storms can also destroy our own lives. We long to be found trustworthy, but we can’t remove the rubble of shame on our own.
Nehemiah was no different. He heard about the shameful state of his homeland Jerusalem from a family member who visited Nehemiah in a far away place. God called Nehemiah from the palace at Susa serving the Persian king as his cupbearer to face the destruction and discomfort of shameful brokeness. Susa is located on the west side of modern day Iran.
As cupbearer to the king, Nehemiah would have had exclusive and frequent access to his courts. Commentators believe working as a cupbearer was an important position. But in spite of his position, what could Nehemiah do for Jerusalem being so far away from home?
No matter how far we travel or how hard we fight to appear perfect … shame is overwhelming.
God’s good hand prepared Nehemiah’s defense.
Prepared to Go Beyond Ourselves
God prepares us for plans that go way beyond ourselves as well because God is our defender.
1. He prepares us.
2. He examines us.
3. He delivers us.
We need him.
I am defenseless against shame, so I need God’s defense.
God Prepares Us
God prepares us for his plans. Nehemiah was sent on a rugged reconnaissance with limited resources, in the dark. That was anything but comfortable. We recall that Nehemiah lived in the comfort of Susa with the king.
God puts his plans in our hearts to protect them, but he also requires us to rise up in response to them. And sometimes that means being uncomfortable.
We see in verses 11-15 that God personally prepared Nehemiah to experience his destroyed homeland Jerusalem for:
- a set period of time, (3 days)
- in a certain way, (at night)
- with predetermined people / resources. (few people / one animal)
Facing the Night
When we rise at night in the dark, it’s hard to see. Our next step is not always clear. The fact that Nehemiah went out at night was repeated three times in the span of five verses. Why?
God prepared Nehemiah in the dark to face a broken and destroyed Jerusalem. Just like the first time a dental hygienist ushers a patient into the dark with a towel as they prepare to clean our teeth, God prepared Nehemiah as he went out by night, not knowing the extent of his experiences on this expedition. Nehemiah refused to sit in the safety of Susa’s citadel because God put his plans into Nehemiah’s heart. Nehemiah rose up and went to Jerusalem. He went out by night.
God Prepares Us for His Plans
When I was a teenager until my early 20’s I lifted heavy weights. The training preparation was planned months in advance to compete at a high level in powerlifting competitions. Straining to move heavy metal can put a lot of pressure on your teeth when you clench down on them. And if you don’t listen to your mom’s solid advice to wear a mouthguard, overtime your teeth can actually break … like one of mine did. I wasn’t prepared for the solution because I was a bit ashamed of my situation. Also, I didn’t really trust dentists that much either.
But, Dr. Joe Nguyen was different. He didn’t push me to replace my temporary fake tooth, yet at every cleaning he would share a little bit more about preparing a stable solution for patients like me. Over time, he eventually built me a bridge securing my rebuilt tooth in place, but it was the wise preparation for his plans that made all the difference.
Taking Action in the Dark
God’s plans prepare us to rise and take action in this dark and dangerous world. But, following God’s plan for our lives isn’t easy. How can we be sure that we are following God’s plan for our lives? Some of us are staring at the rubble of broken family relationships wondering how these broken relationships could be rebuilt? Extreme brokenness requires reassurance that only God can deliver. But, our part comes in the form of prayer which can lead to trusting God more. God prepares us for his plans through prayer and by drawing near to him. I don’t know how to describe this exactly, but it’s not a quick “thank you for this food” type of prayer, nor is it a long winded “look at how much I prayed” type of “prayer session” either. It’s bringing our burdens to God … moving one step closer to trusting him with these broken relationships. And that means leaving the outcome in his hands, as difficult as that can be at times. Practically that looks like defending our schedules from the business of life, preparing and prioritizing our time alone with God to pray.
God Examines Us
So, we remember that God prepared Nehemiah to see brokenness and destruction with his own eyes, but why?
God reveals the depths of damage to examine Nehemiah as seen in verses 13 and 17. Nehemiah said, “I inspected the walls of Jerusalem” in verse 13. That word inspected means to probe a wound like a doctor analyzing every detail of it. Surely the intense suffering of being face to face with a family wound of brokenness and destruction was too much for one man.
In verse 17 we see Nehemiah voicing the shameful state of Jerusalem that God showed him firsthand. But, Jerusalem’s destruction affected his fellow Jews, which is why he said: “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned.” The word trouble translated from rah is an adjective that means evil. It’s the idea of being malignant. The root word of rah denotes an injury. So we have an evil, malignant, injury that had been festering for quite some time in Jerusalem. Nehemiah experienced the shame of Jerusalem’s brokenness, in prayer and face to face with it at night so that he could pass this probing along to his fellow Jews.
A Little Boy’s Life
If you sometimes wonder why we go through God’s examinations, consider how God probed a little boy’s life to bring about good. Born on July 2nd, 1932 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he was given up for adoption shortly thereafter. When he was 5, his adoptive mother died from rheumatic fever. He went from city to city with his adoptive father, who showed him little compassion. This constant change broke friendships, community and belonging. The little boy and his father ate out every night. He saw families around him dining together and his heart noted their laughter, smiles as well as the difficult discussions. He clung to these experiences and his grandmother’s teachings to look for the good in the examinations God sent his way. But when his father told him they were moving once again, he finally refused. Through the experiences God brought him through, he started one of the most innovative and successful fast food restaurants in the world. The little boy’s name was Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s.
Purpose Looks Like …
We all want to live a purposeful life like Dave Thomas. But when our life experiences feel like examinations, it’s hard to see how they come together to build purpose. We want our hard fought examinations to immediately solidify our purpose. After all, our life experiences should mean something, but they can often feel more like a bunch of heavy bricks lying around an abandoned construction site. God examines us to bring good to others so that he is honored. Your experiences are like bricks of purpose in God’s hands. Our job is to not throw our hands up leaving the construction site, but to remember we are his work in progress. He is building what he wants to see in us. The progress is made through trusting the builder to use the pieces that he examines. Don’t try to figure out what the wall should look like or even where the pieces fit, but know that God will bring good to others and honor himself through our examinations. That makes life worth living.
God Delivers
The God of heaven delivers us when we’re despised.
In verse 17 we see that Nehemiah and the rest of the Jews who were to do the work suffered “derision,” that means they were looked down upon with disfavor. There was a nasty sense of superiority, resentment and hatred by Sanballat, Tobian and Geshem towards Nehemiah and his fellow Jews who agreed to rebuild the wall. This is strange in one sense because Tobiah was actually Jewish. He was even associated with the high priest. In verse 18 Nehemiah told the builders about “the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me.” God’s hand of blessing and favor with the king had been overwhelmingly evident to some, but not others. God supplied everything that was needed for the work. The materials, the authority, and the people. God assembled all the pieces. Nehemiah wasn’t about to waste his time explaining this to Sanballat and the others because they had nothing to do with God’s plans for Jerusalem. God delivered Nehemiah and the rest of the Jews. They rebuilt the wall in 52 days.
Our Deliverer is Coming
It’s comforting to know that God prepares us, examines us and delivers us. He prepares us for his plans. He brings us before brokenness and destruction to examine us. We can trust that he is our deliverer.
Both Jesus and Nehemiah knew what it was like to move through difficulties in darkness, but both were broken for different plans. Nehemiah left the comfort of a king’s palace for the darkness of Jerusalem. Jesus left the comfort of heaven to deliver sinful people like us. He gave up his body to destruction for 3 hours in total darkness on a cross.
Nehemiah risked his life to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall. Jesus died and rose from death to rebuild our lives. We are God’s work in progress, he will never give up on us!
Nehemiah didn’t deliver people by himself. Jesus was left to himself and built a way back to heaven.
Nehemiah was hated but it didn’t halt the rebuilding. Jesus saw the evil in our hearts, was hated without cause, yet he prepared a permanent place for Christians, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven.
Nehemiah was sent to deliver the Jews from a shameful situation, Jesus delivers us from the penalty of our shameful thoughts, actions and motives.
He rescues us from our shame forever! Jesus is our deliverer.
Amen.
Finding Fulfillment