Nehemiah's Prayer Through Brokenness

Well, I'm sure you've already turned in your Bible to Nehemiah chapter 1, Nehemiah chapter 1. I'm going to read verses 5 through 11 here in a few moments, but we will not make it all the way to the end of this prayer. Verses 5 through 11 are Nehemiah's prayer after verse 4, after the great brokenness that came upon him. Now, we know this story by now. We know this story with Nehemiah and God using Nehemiah. This is part of that third wave of Jews returning. Now, these Jews are going back to rebuild the wall where the previous Jews, the previous waves, went back for other tasks we know from our study in the book of Ezra.

Now, Nehemiah was in Persia. Remember, he was the king's cupbearer. He receives a report from his brother concerning the Jews there in verse 3. And we know that this report was devastating. You need to have that firmly fixed in your mind. When he heard this report, it was devastating spiritual news to Nehemiah. I've said this several times. This became a great low point for Nehemiah as well as a great high point. Years later, when he was used greatly of God, he could look back and see that that was a great turning point in his life.

A low point because it was devastating, but a high point because God used it to draw him and catapult him into his work. I don't know about you, but I can look back on my life. There are turning points. There are times in my life that were great turning points. Some were low points and some were high points. It's just the way a sovereign God chooses to work. Now, through this grief, you can call it grief. Sometimes I might call it brokenness. We see Nehemiah's reaction. And Nehemiah's reaction was prayer. Last week, I said that Nehemiah was a great man of prayer. And that's why he reacted in prayer.

Had he not been a great man of prayer, he might not have reacted in prayer. Now, I want to make a little application here. And you and I, we really need to see the difference in Nehemiah. What I mean by Nehemiah, I mean Nehemiah as a man in our day and in most churches that we are familiar with. In our day, in most churches that we're familiar with, most people in the church would start a plan in this type of circumstances. But not Nehemiah. He didn't plan. He prayed. And the reason he prayed was because he was a man of prayer. Now, beginning in verse 5, we see Nehemiah's recorded prayer.

Verse 5 to the end of the chapter is this recorded prayer of Nehemiah. Now, there are two observations that I want to make in this prayer or make of this prayer. First, this recorded prayer, verses 5 through 11, this recorded prayer is reflective of what he has been praying in brokenness for days. Remember, verse 4 states that he prayed for days. So this prayer is reflective of what he had been praying. Second, this prayer is a prayer of intercession and confession. We see this same type of prayer in Ezra, Ezra chapter 9, verses 6 through 15, exactly the same kind of prayer. We see this type of prayer in the life of Daniel.

In Daniel chapter 9, verse 4 through 19, we see this type of prayer. Let me read you Daniel chapter 9, verse 4. And notice what Daniel says. "I prayed to the Lord my God, and I made confession saying, 'O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.'" It's almost like Daniel is looking over the shoulder of Nehemiah, isn't it right? But that is their heart. These are great men of intercession and confession. So this prayer of intercession and confession was prayed through Nehemiah's prayer. He'd been praying, and now he makes a public prayer.

This prayer was formed from that previous prayer. This prayer was refined in that prayer. This was not a casual prayer. This was not a casual prayer. It was birth in true spiritual brokenness and from a work of God in Nehemiah's heart. I ran across a little short quotation from John MacArthur this past week. He says, "This prayer represents one of the Scriptures most moving confessions and intercessions before God." And I think he is correct in that assessment. So tonight, what are we looking at? We're looking at Nehemiah's prayer through brokenness. Because it was through this brokenness that he was able to pray in this way.

So Nehemiah's prayer through brokenness. We're only going to deal with two major truths tonight. The first one out of verse 5, his statements about God. And then out of verses 6 and 7, his confession to God. And then next week we will finish up the rest of the chapter. So we see his statements about God and his confession to God. I'll go back and let's read these verses. And he says, "I beseech thee, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.

Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open to hear the prayer of thy servant, which I am praying before thee now, day and night. On behalf of the sons of Israel, thy servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. I and my father's house have sinned." And then verse 7, "We have acted very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which thou didst command thy servant Moses." Now I'll pause there for the sake of time. And then also because that is as far as we will go in the message. So let's look at main truth number 1.

Let's notice his statements about God. This comes right out of verse 5, the beginning of his prayer. Now it is important for us to examine what Nehemiah says about God. That's something that we can overlook. But what Nehemiah says about God reveals to us his view and his understanding of God. We will see that his understanding about God is based on accurate knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures. So two observations out of just this one verse. First of all, he sees God as the great God of heaven. What does he say? "Abba, seach thee, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God." Now he's not just piling on adjectives for no reason.

He's doing this for a reason. Immediately, Nehemiah recognizes and he appreciates who God truly is. He is speaking of his majesty and his greatness. He is not a God, little gee, that is made by man's hands. But God is the one true God, the God of all mankind and the God of creation. So just in that short portion of scripture, Nehemiah sees God as the one true great God of heaven. Second, notice he sees God as a covenant-keeping God. What is he saying? The great God, the great and awesome God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. So we see that he sees God as a covenant-keeping God.

Now one of the central themes running all throughout the Old Testament is covenant. You'll run across that if you study the Old Testament. And here Nehemiah is recognizing the fact that they were a covenant people. All the Jews were a covenant people. In fact, it can be said that they were a covenant people and they were a people of many covenants. They were bound by one covenant, but in their history they were connected by many covenants. Let me give you a short list here. The first covenant we see was in the garden.

Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, here God promises the redemption through the redemption, though this was at the cost of bruising the heel of the seed of woman. That's speaking of who? Jesus. Then the second covenant we see with Noah in Genesis 9-9. Here God promises to preserve man and never to judge the earth with water again. Then third, we have what's called the Abrahamic covenant. Genesis 15-18, here God promises Abraham a son and that all the generations would be blessed through his descendants. Then we have the Mosaic covenant in Exodus 19 starting in verse 5. Here God has designated Israel as his special chosen people.

Fifth, we have the Levitical covenant. We see that in Numbers chapter 25 starting in verse 12. Here God is making reconciliation through the priestly atonement. And then sixth, we have the Davidic covenant. And second Samuel, chapter 23 verse 5, here God promises salvation through a Messiah, which is through David's lineage. Now, those are many covenants that are part of their history. And so we see the different covenants all throughout their history, but the foundation of all of these covenants and the circumstances these current Jews are in are bound up in what is found in Deuteronomy.

Now, I don't necessarily want you to turn there, but notice what we see Moses saying, or God saying through Moses, in Deuteronomy chapter 4 starting in verse 25. "When you become the father of children and children's children, and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you shall surely perish quickly from the land, where you are going over the Jordan to possess it.

You shall not live long on it, but shall be utterly destroyed." Does that sound familiar? "And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where the Lord shall drive you." That sounds very familiar, does it not? "And there you will serve God's little gee, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God." Why? Because they are a covenant people, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and with all of your soul.

When you are in distress, and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. "For the Lord your God is a compassionate God. He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them." Now why do I take the time to read that passage? That is the covenant. And here we see the covenant they were under, the promised judgment if they were disobedient, and the promise of grace and redemption if they would turn their hearts back to God. So it is vitally important for us to see here what Nehemiah is doing in the opening of his prayer.

He is calling on God to do what he promised he would do. Nehemiah is calling on God to do what he had already committed to do. Nehemiah is calling God on his own word. So right there in the beginning of Nehemiah's prayer, he is exalting God as the great and mighty, and then he launches. Head first immediately to the covenant. That is the only solid ground that he has to approach God, the covenant. You see? Now we know this is part of the Old Testament history of the Jews. And we know that we are not bound by that Old Testament covenant because we are under the new covenant. But how can we learn and what can we learn from this verse?

Remember this main truth? His statements about God. He is exalting God for who he is, and he immediately goes right to the covenant, and he calls God on the covenant. Now how can this apply to us? I want to start by asking a question. On what ground can we come to God? Now we do come, obviously. We believe in what is called the priesthood of the believer, and we come under the blood of Christ. In other words, I don't have to have a prophet or a priest to go before God on my behalf. I can go before the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because I have been redeemed. But as a church collectively, what is our solid ground? Nehemiah had the covenant.

What do we have? I want to show you a verse that I have really meditated on through the years. You can jot this down for your later study. Matthew 16, the great famous confession of Christ by Peter, starting in verse 13. It's a great work of the Spirit there. The Spirit of God revealed to Peter who Christ truly was. He made an accurate confession. Jesus really looked at Peter and said, "Well, you didn't get that from man. You got that from God, and it's very true." But then Jesus turns things here. And for the very first time, He uses this word called church.

And He goes on and He says, "And I also say to you that you are Peter, small stone, and upon this rock, large stone." Two different words. He's not talking about building the church on Peter, but building the church on himself. So He says, "And I also say to you, you are Peter, small stone, and upon this rock, talking of himself, I will build my church. And the gates of Hades shall not overpower it." I'll give you another verse. This is our solid ground. This is one of many. Acts 20, verse 28. Paul is speaking to the Ephesian leadership. This is the last time he will meet with them.

We know that the church at Ephesus was the flagship church in the region. Started by Paul, a great history there. Timothy ministered there. But notice what he says to these elders. "Be on guard for yourselves and for all of the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." Now, here's where I'm going. We, as a blood-bought people, have been purchased by His own blood. And we are part of this institution called the church. And we can come on the solid ground of what Jesus Himself has said.

We can come before God collectively, and we can say, "Lord, we want a victorious church. We want a powerful church. We want a strong church. We want a church strong in its theology, strong in its doctrine, governed by men who love you. We want a church that's comprised of solid families. We want an evangelistic church that will go all the way around the world. Lord, we don't care about what type of building we have. We don't care how much money we have. But, Lord, spiritually speaking, we hunger for the church, the true church. And we can come and say, "Lord, You promised that You would not allow Your church to languish.

You said the gates of hell will not prevail, so we want to see that now today." You see? We are His possession. The church is the center of God's activity here on earth. The church is the means by which He redeems mankind. The church is the evangelistic arm that go into the world. And it's the means by which He gets glory in this day and this time. So what I'm showing you is, just in verse 5, we see that Nehemiah comes before God and says, "God, the covenant, the covenant." And we must see that we can come before God and say, "God, I am sick and tired of churches. We've always had it." We want a real, true Bible church.

You've heard me pray many times, "Lord, help us to reach our potential and then expand our potential." Now, a question or two here. We know this is a statement about God, but what about our statements about the church? Nehemiah said so much just in that one verse about who God was and is and about the covenant and the people. How are our statements framed and phrased about the church? Do we say things this accurate according to the scriptures? Do we make statements about the church that are this powerful? Do we say statements and make statements concerning the church that are much like Nehemiah? Well, what about our prayer?

What is our prayer like for the church? Is our prayer like Nehemiah's prayer? What is our approach to the church? What are our expectations about the church? You see where I'm trying to go? Now, I want to share something with you, and this is personal, and I can speak with confidence on behalf of Brother Keith about this and what I'm going to say, because we've discussed it many times. Brother Keith and I, there is no plan B. It's the church. We're not banking on anything else but the church. I'm expecting to see the Lord Jesus do a work in this church that's going to impact you and your families.

We're expecting the Lord Jesus to raise up a new generation of solid Christians out of those in the back. We're expecting the solid families of the future to come out of the children in the back, out of our children and your children. We're expecting God to do great things through you. Listen, we have no plan B. Nehemiah had no plan B. He comes before God and he says, "God, you are the one true God, the great and mighty God," and immediately he launches right into the covenant. "Lord, you said." What boldness, what authority. "Lord, you said." If we would come back, you would bring us back home.

So we can come before God and say, "God, you said you would build your church." You make those kinds of statements. Let's move on. Let's notice truth number two. Truth number two, I want us to see. His confession to God. His confession to God. We pick up here in verse six. He says, "Let thine ear now be attentive, and their eyes open to hear the prayer of thy servant, in which I am praying before thee night and day," or day and night, "on behalf of the sons of Israel thy servants confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against thee. I and my father's house have sinned." Rather lengthy verse there, verse seven.

"We have acted very corruptly against thee, and we have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which thou didst command thy servant Moses." After Nehemiah comes to God on very solid ground, which was the word of God, this was the covenant or his word, Nehemiah comes seeking mercy and grace for the situation at hand. Not only does he know that God is a covenant keeping God, but he knows that God is full of mercy and grace for his people.

He echoes what the psalmist says in Psalm 36.5, "For your steadfast love," the King James says mercy, "is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds." He echoes what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy, because in Deuteronomy it said that God would come get his people. That is grace and mercy. Now, out of this convention, I want to make two observations right out of these two verses. First of all, he had a confidence in his prayer. There was a great confidence in his prayer. We see this at the beginning of verse six.

"Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open to hear the prayer of thy servant, which I am praying before thee now." So right here in the beginning of the verse, we see Nehemiah expresses a confidence that God would hear his prayer. But notice his humility in the midst of the confidence, because he calls himself a servant. All of the translations use this word servant. So this confident approach to God can be seen in many places in the Scripture. All throughout the Psalms, there is a confident approach to God. So Nehemiah has this confident but yet humble approach to God.

He says, "Let your ear be attentive to hear my prayer your servant." Second, I want you to see that he prayed a prayer of confession. He prayed a prayer of confession. We see this beginning, the second part of verse six. He says, "Let thine ear now be attentive, thine eyes open to hear the prayer of thy servant, which I am praying before thee day and night." Here's where it changes. "On behalf of the sons of Israel, thy servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, I and my father's house we have sinned.

We have acted very corruptly against thee, and we have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the ordinances, which thou didst command thy servant Moses." After he expresses a confidence to God in his prayer, Nehemiah begins to confess sin, and his confession is multi-dimensional. There's many layers here. Notice first, he confesses the sin of the people of Israel. We read that earlier. In his confession, there is no doubt that he is laying the blame at their feet. He says that they have sinned twice here in this portion of Scripture. Now, this prompts a question. Listen to the question.

Was this the original sin which led them to captivity and judgment in the first place? Is that what Nehemiah is talking about? Is he going all the way back before the time of Ezra? Is that the sin that he's talking about? Was this the sins which the exiles had committed after they returned? Remember, we studied, they failed to complete the work, and they had taken foreign wives. They had children with those foreign wives. Was that the sin he was talking about? Was this sin specifically connected to the failure to rebuild the walls and the city gates? Remember, he heard the report. He was brokenhearted. So what sin is he talking about?

There are various opinions, truthfully. You read different Bible commentators. They all seem to have different opinions here. It really wouldn't hurt my feelings if you take a blanket and throw the blanket on all of the sin. I think it applies to all because they were very much a sinful people. So notice he is confessing the sin of Israel, and that goes back generations. You see? Notice, second, he identifies with the sin. Let me go back and read the verse. "On behalf of the sons of Israel, thy servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel..." Now notice how he gets personal. "...which we have sinned against thee.

I in my father's house have sinned." Verse 7, "We have acted very corruptly." So notice his wording, "I in my father's house." "We have acted corruptly." All the translations we study say "corruptly." Now in the original it means to offend, which tells us that Nehemiah knew that they had offended God. Now notice verse 7 points out the area of offense. "We have acted very corruptly." "We have offended you, God," is what he is saying, "against you." "And we have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the ordinances which you gave Moses." So the point of offense was they had disobeyed God's Word.

They had broken His commandments that God had given them through Moses. So the heart of the matter is disobedience, not just their outward actions, not just that they had taken foreign wives, not just that they had failed to complete the work. Those outward actions were as a result of their disobedience to the Word of God that they had. So here we see that Nehemiah confesses, Nehemiah intercedes, but this is a confident confession. Not only is this a confident confession, but this is a complete confession. It was complete in that it encompassed everyone from himself and his family on down. You see?

Now in application, this leads me to two questions. The first question is, do we in our personal prayer life, do we have a confidence in prayer? Be careful how you ask that, or answer that, excuse me. Do we have a confidence in prayer? When we come and we bring so many of these needs that we have in our own lives, when we come on a Wednesday night and we pray corporately, when we come with our family and our family prayer time, do we have confidence in prayer? Do we truly believe that God can work and will work? Be honest.

I think if the Lord were to peel back our hearts and the condition of our hearts, I think that we would see that we're probably more faithless than we know. So my question is, do we have a confidence in prayer? Now remember the subject here. Remember Nehemiah's circumstances. He had a confidence in God. He was in Persia. He was not trained for the work. He was not familiar with what was going on in Jerusalem other than the report he got from the delegation. He served a pagan king. These were not circumstances which would lend itself to be confident. But he had a confidence in God.

If we're honest, we are facing circumstances that are much bigger than we are. Now you might be on the mountain right now in your life. You might not have difficulties, trials. You might not have circumstances that are going on that are trying. Your day will come. There are some of you here, you're dealing with circumstances that are far bigger than you are. As I was praying with Brother Keith earlier, I don't know where it came from other than maybe the Lord. You are helpless and we are helpless to help you. And we need God's help to help you. Do we really have a confidence in prayer in these circumstances?

These lost loved ones that we've been praying for for years. Some of you are facing circumstances that it might not get better. I know that life can be tough. And there are just certain things that don't work out the way we want them to work out. Do you have a confidence in prayer and confidence that God is working? Even if the circumstances don't work out the way you want them to? You see? Second question is do we confess the sin of our brothers and sisters? Do we even identify with those sins? Now think about it, Nehemiah was not guilty. Did Nehemiah fail to complete the work? Was Nehemiah slow in building the temple?

Did Nehemiah, was he negligent in building the walls and the gates? No, he wasn't even there. Was he guilty of the sins that his forefathers had committed that led them into captivity? No, he wasn't even born yet. He was not guilty of these sins. But you see his heart? He is identifying with his brothers and sisters. Now he was a sinner before God? Yes. But I want you to see he is identifying with the sin of the nation. He is identifying with the sin of the people, of his own family. Yes, even the people that he knew that had gone back to Jerusalem. But he is identifying with the whole set of circumstances even before he was even born. See?

Do you confess the sins of your own brothers and sisters? Do you identify with the sin of the people in this room? When you hear people say the same prayer each week for personal need, do you identify with it? Do you carry that burden? Does it keep you up at night? Wake you up early? Have you gone so far as to say, "Lord, I don't really know my brother and sister real well and in other situations tough, could you use me in their circumstances?" See, when you begin to identify with the sin of your brothers and sisters, you will place yourself willingly to be a part of the solution, to be a help. See?

Do we confess the sin of our brothers and sisters and even identify with those sins? Nehemiah was just saying, "Lord, it's us." And I wonder if we have this type of confession before God. Now, in my heart of hearts, I really wanted to continue through the rest of the verses, but because of time, I felt like it was best to stop here. But in conclusion, I want us to see Nehemiah's great grief again. Verse 4, "Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down on a web that I mourned for days. I was fasting and I was praying before the God of heaven." Verse 4 was a life-altering event for Nehemiah.

It changed him, it changed his heart, it even changed his personality, it changed his vocation, changed his geographical location. I believe that there are things that God can do in us collectively, things that God can do in our church that can be almost equally life-altering. Verse 4 really catapulted him into kingdom work. It was within God's heart to rebuild the walls, it was in God's heart to build the gates of the city, and he needed a man, and he found one, a praying man, a man not necessarily suited for the job. And because of the work of God in him, he was catapulted into God's Word.

Could we be a people that God so changes, our lives are so altered that we are catapulted into his work? Could we allow God to change our vocation? Could we allow God to change our time, how we spend it? Could we allow God to change our habits with our money? You see where I'm going? Could we experience such a life change that we are catapulted into his work? If you study the rest of the story, we see that God led him into a work that was bigger than he was. I've already said this, he wasn't trained, he wasn't equipped.

It's not like he had a great construction company back in Persia, and he packed up his crew and he went, terribly unsuited for the job. Could it be that God would do such a great work in us that he leads us to do something that's bigger than we are? Think about that. What could God do through us if we're willing? You see these probing questions, what I mean by that? Because what do we see? What is the title of the message? Nehemiah's prayer through brokenness. And listen, just in these verses, we see that Nehemiah's prayer reflected not just a brokenness, but a great heart for God. Lord Jesus, I thank you for these verses.

Lord, I thank you for this message. I thank you for what you are saying and what you've been saying.