Who Was Nehemiah In The Bible? A Christian Study

Who was Nehemiah? What was it about his character that gives us reason to study his life in the Scriptures?

Who was Nehemiah?

Nehemiah was a high official in the Persian court of King Artaxerxes and was the king’s cupbearer (Neh 1:11c). A cupbearer doesn’t sound like a very great position of authority but think of it this way; the king trusted him with his life since the cupbearer was often the first one to taste the king’s food and drink to ensure that it wasn’t poisoned. He had access to the king like no one else. The cupbearer had to be the most trusted man in the kingdom because of his accessibility to the king and he heard every plan and every secret counsel that the king ever heard so Nehemiah was placed in a strategic place by the sovereignty of God for a very special reason as we shall read.

The Fallen Walls of Jerusalem

When Nehemiah heard the report that “The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire” (Neh 1:3b) he “sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven” (Neh 1:4). Why did Nehemiah react like this? That’s because this was the city of God, the place where God had placed His name and to Nehemiah, it was a sacred site. That’s why he fell down on his face and began to pray to God and asked Him to “hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses” (Neh 1:6-7). He was seeking God’s forgiveness and confessing the sins of his people. He knew that this was a judgment form God, thus this was why he fell down on his face and began to pray to God.

Nehemiah’s Risk

No one ever had a sad countenance in the king’s presence. It could be sudden death but Nehemiah could not help himself. When the king noticed this, he said “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid” (Neh 2: 2:2) meaning that it could cost him his life. The term “very much afraid” could be stated “he was terrified.” Then Nehemiah courageously asked the king “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it” (Neh 2:5). The king not only granted Nehemiah permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and the gates (Neh 2:8b) but also gave him “letters to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy” (Neh 2:7-8a). Just like that, Nehemiah had a pagan king’s blessing and provisions to rebuild Jerusalem proving the proverb is true; “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov 21:1).

Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem

Nehemiah is believed to have returned to Jerusalem about 445 B.C. as the provincial governor, further indicating Nehemiah’s position of authority in the Persian court of King Artaxerxes was more than most people think for a cupbearer. He quickly began assembling the manpower necessary. He had to set up guards to defend and protect the workers against the continuous threat of those who were opposed to their efforts. The opponents included the armies of Samaria, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, no small force, yet they “built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work” (Neh 4:6). Nehemiah, even though he was the governor, never once took advantage of his office to allocate food, land, or laborers for his own needs and in fact, he paid out of his own pocket (Neh 5:14-19). Not only that, he had seen how the landowners and nobles had taken advantage of the people and he rebuked them for that saying “You are exacting interest, each from his brother” (Neh 5:7) and “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies” (Neh 5:9) so the people had their properties returned.

Failed Conspiracy

Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab continually conspired to destroy the work, instill fear in the workers, and even tried to deceive Nehemiah by trying to set up a meeting with him but Nehemiah knew “they intended to do me harm” (Neh 6:2c). Despite all the best attempt of Nehemiah’s enemies, “the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days” (Neh 6:15). Amazingly, due to the hurried work of repairing and rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls and the gates it was completed in only fifty-two days, which even by today’s engineering technological capabilities and standards, is extraordinary.

Conclusion

The lessons we can learn from Nehemiah are that great rewards often take great risks, like when he approached the king and ask for help; that being continually in prayer is vital to any success; that just because someone is in a position of power they don’t need to take advantage of others (like the nobles did); that perseverance against the enemy is essential; and that God can do some amazing things when we seek Him and to do it for His glory.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon.