On to Nehemiah...

What an amazing experience that I had yesterday. I was not in the first chapter of Nehemiah; that had been the day before. I entered into Nehemiah's prayer by printing it out and meditating on it. Even though, I know the context and have been there at Nehemiah in my bible-time many times before, my recent state of mind makes it seem very new. I listen as though this is my very first time in the book. I am introduced to a man in Nehemiah, who clearly has a burden of prayer for His people. He commits it, intently to God in an amazing prayer and it could take me a year to really absorb the depths of His prayer and observation and identification with His people. I do wonder often if anyone today really relates to any group with that type of love and hopefulness.

My eye was on God's hand that kneaded into His Old Testament Saints {through many mothers' instruction, I might add} a sense of unity and identification with one-another's sins and blindspots. What we all do affects all of us, is the amazing perspective of Nehemiah's prayer. Perhaps, the sad state of being in captivity draws our eyes to a cleansing perspective. God had equipped Nehemiah with a vision and a plan of reconstruction. He prayed and left it at God's throne.

I couldn't relate to the leaving of the burden there. I was still stuck in chapter one, when I found myself at chapter 2, yesterday. Nehemiah's hands were already dirty and meeting the enemies and deeply engaged in the battle for God honoring reconstruction and protection of God's people. I wasn't ready for this in my heart. I wanted to stay at the throne and see God laying out the blueprints for Him. I wanted a promise to stand on or a word from the Lord to go on. The prayer happened and God seemed to say, what you are saying isn't the half of where your people are. I am there, God said and thrust Nehemiah straight into the solution, without a promise of completion or support. I guess that was obvious that God was more committed than Nehemiah was. But it shocked me. I wanted to know ahead of time, whether Nehemiah was going to succeed. I wanted to know what God thought about the prayer. Good praying, or something to go on. Next thing he was looking into the eyes of the enemy.

Nehemiah was a real man about it! There was a sense of blessing that men have that type of fortitude then and now.