A Nation in Distress

 

 

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.  It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire. So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.  Nehemiah 1:1-4

    

Let me begin by giving you a brief background on the rebuilding process after the Israelite captives were allowed to return to Israel.  I believe that history is important and vital to our learning process.  As the old saying goes, “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

In the year 538 BC King Cyrus of Persia issued a decree allowing the exiled Israelites to return to their homeland.  The first group of returning exiles was led by a man named Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the grandson of Jehoiachin, the captive king of Judah.   A descendant of David, he was in the direct line of the ancestry of Jesus.  With the blessing of Cyrus, Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest led the first band of captives back to Jerusalem. They also returned the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had removed from the Temple.

After rebuilding the Temple foundation, the first two years, construction came to a standstill for 17 years, because of, among other things, opposition from settlers in Samaria. The Samaritans disrupted the building project.

Urged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, Zerubbabel resumed work on the Temple in the second year of the reign of Darius of Persia. Zerubbabel received large grants of money and materials from Persia, and continuing encouragement from the two prophets.

The Temple was finished in four years, around 515 BC and dedicated with great pomp and rejoicing. Historians designated the second Temple as "Zerubbabel's Temple." On God's instructions, Haggai promised Zerubbabel a special blessing: "I will take you, Zerubbabel My servant, the son of Shealtile, says the Lord, and will make you as a signet ring; for I have chosen you."

 Now, ninety years had passed since the returning exiles had arrived at Jerusalem. They had encountered many difficulties which had marred their progress and cooled their enthusiasm. The Temple, indeed, was rebuilt, but Jerusalem still lay in ruins, and its walls remained as they had been left, by Nebuchadnezzar’s siege, some century and a half before.

A little party of pious pilgrims had gone from Persia to the city and had come back to Shushan with a sad story of weakness and despondency, affliction and hostility. One of the travelers had a brother, a youth named Nehemiah, who was a cup-bearer in the court of the Persian king. Living in a palace, and surrounded with luxury, but his heart was with his brethren; and the ruins of Jerusalem laid heavy on his heart. 

Scripture tells how Nehemiah was affected by the sad news and how he wept and prayed before God. The accurate dates given in this book show that this period of brooding contemplation of the miseries of his brethren lasted for four months. Then he took a great resolution, flung up brilliant prospects, identified himself with the afflicted colony, and asked for leave to go and share, and, if it might be, to redress, the sorrows which had made so deep a dint upon his heart.  He felt a burden for his people, a great burden for the city of King David.  His ancestors shed blood, sweat, and tears to build the great city and now it lay in desolation.  He could not let it go.

Nehemiah might have made a great many very good excuses for treating lightly the news that his brother had brought him. He might have said: ‘Jerusalem is a long way off. I have my own work to do; it is no part of my business to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. I am the King’s cupbearer. They went with their eyes open, and experience has shown that the people who knew when they were well off, and stayed where they were, were a great deal wiser.’ These were not his excuses. He let the terrible news fill his heart and burn there until he had to do something to bring about a change.

Nehemiah knew that he would face a great many challenges.  He knew the task that laid before him was an impossible thing.  He needed to convince King Artaxerxes to allow him to travel to Jerusalem, he needed materials for the rebuilding process, and then he had to convince his brethren in Jerusalem to rebuild.

Now, how many of us are there that know-and don’t know-what is going on round about us in this nation? How many of us are there who are habitually ignorant of what we actually know, because we never, as we say, ‘give heed’ to it. ‘I did not think of that,’ is a very poor excuse about matters concerning which there is knowledge, whether there is thought or not. And so, I want to press upon all you Christian people the plain duty of knowing what you do know, and of giving an ample place in your thoughts to the stark staring facts around us.   

 Why! An incalculable number of people at present seem to think that the miseries, and hideous vices, and sodden immorality, and utter heathenism, which are found down amongst the very foundations of every civic community are as indispensable to progress as the noise of the wheels of a train are to its advancement  If the avalanche of immorality we have seen in America recently is what we call progress, I would rather go backward as to progress any further.

So, we gloat about our modern civilization, which means turning men into cities. We praise the progress we have made, which isn’t really progress at all when you stop to consider all the abominations and debauchery that accompanies this so-called progress. 

You say, we live in an age of great technological advancements.  We have mobile phones that fit inside your pocket.  You can watch movies on them, you can communicate with someone thousands of miles away via video chat.  We have virtual reality, cars that can stop themselves, park themselves, and even drive themselves short distances.  We are living on the cusp of a fully computerized society.  How can you say that isn’t progress?

I’m not discounting the amazing technological advancements that have been made in the last century there are some truly wonderful inventions that have made life much easier for many people, but all this technology, as amazing and wonderful as it is, comes with some horrendous side-effects.

 Take for instance an increased rate of identity thefts, cyber-bullying, cyber-scams, and the list goes on and on.  If progression, which makes so awesome a feature of modern life, brings with it such abominations as we live amongst and never think about, then, better that there had never been civilization in such a sense at all.

Every consideration of communion with and conformity to Jesus Christ, of loyalty to His words, of a true sense of brotherhood and of lower things-such as self-interest, every consideration demands that Christian people shall take to their hearts, in a fashion that the church hasn’t done since the dark ages and may never do again.  I say that with the heaviest of hearts.  There simply may be no time left.

I’m not trying to be cynical, although I am to a certain degree, cynical I mean.  I’m simply stating a fact.  American Christianity and the American church are so far removed from the teachings of the early church and the commandments of God that we may never recover what has been lost.  And what has been lost is, by all intents and purposes, the crown jewel of the faith…a healthy fear of God a respect for his authority.  We no longer have it.

 This is the sad, awful fact that we need to deal with in this great nation before our time runs out, if it hasn't already.