446 BC
For the next 3 weeks (weekdays only), I’m going to be reading through the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, which is all about rebuilding after disaster.
Talk about timely.
You in?
(Trust me—it’s one of the most inspiring stories in the Bible, and most of it is told in first-person as a direct memoir from Nehemiah himself.)
Scripture for Day 1 (9/14/2020):
The story begins in November 446 BC, and to understand what’s happening, a few historical facts are in order:
In 586 BC, the Babylonian empire destroyed Jerusalem and carried off the Israelites into exile in Babylon;
In 539 BC, the Persian empire conquered the Babylonian empire;
In 538 BC, the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great permitted the Jews to return home to begin to rebuild, and a small group of them did so;
Over the next several generations, the rebuilding moved forward slowly, in fits and starts (this story is told in the Book of Ezra).
Much of the book of Nehemiah is a memoir written by Nehemiah himself, and as the story begins in November-December 446 BC, he is working for the Persian emperor in the Persian citadel of Susa.
Prayer becomes an essential part of Nehemiah’s story, and before he makes his move (we’ll read about it tomorrow), he spends 4 months in prayer.
What do you need to circle with that kind of intense prayer today?
P.S.
My sermon yesterday was about today’s Nehemiah passage, and it centered on this question:
What if God needs to change you before he changes your circumstances?