![]() ![]() Finally there are the enemies in the land, those who out of spite, envy and the lust for power intentionally seek to undermine God’s work in the world. These follow God and faithfully execute His will in service to God’s people, those present in their own time and the ancestors who have long passed. There are the explicit agents of God’s restoration plan we have already mentioned: Sheshbazzar, Zerubabbel, Ezra and our own Nehemiah. Of course there are the other players too. That may be something to keep in mind today, as many suffer under the hand of various “strong” men, both in the East and the West. God works through even the mightiest tyrants and most tyrannical despots. This is in spite of the Persian king’s own ignorance of the divine decree. In allowing him to undertake his mission, Artaxerxes ensures that God’s plan will unfold and His purposes come to fruition. Artaxerxes (probably Artaxerxes Longaminus, but perhaps Darius) releases Nehemiah from his service. There is the Persian king, who, regardless of his own religious loyalties and pagan beliefs, is nevertheless an agent of divine providence. However, there are other players in the story. Nehemiah is our hero, the anointed servant of God. It is in the land, in the Holy City of Zion, that he will meet the enemies of God, confronting those opposed to divine providence. Nehemiah returns to the land after receiving permission from Artaxerxes and focuses his entire being on repairing the walls of Jerusalem. Now Nehemiah will be serving the true King, not merely an earthly prince. To accomplish the final stage of this fourfold restoration plan (People, Temple, Law and City), God calls Nehemiah, the cupbearer to the Persian king, to His service. However, the city of Jerusalem is still in shambles. Either way, by this time the people of God have begun to repopulate the land, the temple of God is reestablished and the Law of God is once again present among God’s people, its authority reimplemented. This is either very shortly after the temple rededication in 516-15 BC or a generation later in 458 BC. ![]() This happens roughly around the year 516 BC, 70 years after the 587 exile at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.Īfter these events, Ezra, the priestly scribe, returns to restore the Law of God to the people. Under Zerubabbel’s leadership, the foundation of the temple is laid and ultimately the temple is rebuilt. Sheshbazzar and Zerubabbel lead the first wave of returnees into the land. It is the final leg in what has up to now been a nearly 100-year-long return of God’s people to the Holy Land.Īlthough scholars have wrestled with the difficult chronology of Ezra-Nehemiah, we can say with confidence that there were three main waves of returnees between roughly 536 and 446 BC (or, on another theory, between 536 and 501 BC). God calls Nehemiah specifically to carry out this task– this divine mission of restoration. This is truly a task of “biblical proportions,” in both the literal and (anachronistically) figurative sense. The work that Nehemiah is tasked to do is on a grand scale: rebuild the dilapidated walls of Jerusalem, so that the exiles who have returned from Babylon can once again worship Yahweh and live in the land in relative peace and security. In the book of Nehemiah, we are told of the last canonical phase of Israel’s history prior to the advent of the Messiah. Perpetual blessings and comfortable lives are rare commodities for those heaven-bent on imitating Christ. ![]() This is a spiritual truth that anyone seeking to please God and follow Christ must be ready to accept. In addition, the greater the work ordained, the more intense and more subtle the attacks will be. When God anoints a man or a woman to do a great work, there will inevitably be resistance. ![]()
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