A Faithful People: Applications from Nehemiah
“Was it because I loved Jesus or did I have other motives?”
Lately I have been reflecting a lot on the first two and a half years of my Christian life. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. every day for maximized study time, was overloading on LFBI classes, and all my spare time was spent in coffee shops studying. I met up with people regularly for coffee with a plan to share the gospel, and after that invite them to church, and after that invite them to Bible study. Somewhere in my methodically planned out strategy they would get saved, discipled and so on and so forth. I started questioning why I was doing all of this in the first place. Was it because I loved Jesus or did I have other motives? I came to the conclusion that so much of my “works” was rooted in a desire to see the growth of my personal ministry agenda and not the glorification of God. I dreamed of being a missionary and was convinced the more I did and the harder I worked the faster I would get there. I was consistently frustrated with myself because I lacked understanding and God's heart even though all I did was strive. I didn’t understand why God wasn’t using me more than I thought I deserved because of all that I was doing “for Him.”
For the past year, the C&YA Bible studies have gone through the book of Nehemiah. Going to chapter 7, once the walls had been built, Nehemiah gave out appointments for office positions accordingly. Nehemiah 7:2 says: “That I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.” It’s written plainly here that Hananiah was given the charge over Jerusalem first “for he was a faithful man.” Okay, so he was given charge over Jerusalem because he was faithful, but what did it mean to be faithful? Our Bible study looked at the two other mentions of “faithful man” in Proverbs 20:6 and Proverbs 29:20. We discovered that, in Proverbs 20:6, a faithful man does not proclaim his own goodness, and in Proverbs 29, he abounds in the Lord's blessings, not in his own haste to riches. We came to the conclusion that a faithful man does not promote himself in any way. The word “faithful” means “full of faith.” Not only was Hananiah faithful, but he also “feared God above many.” Being full of faith, and fearing God, go hand in hand. Faith produces action. If we really believed that God is who he says he is, our faith would drive us to make decisions that reflect that belief. We would continually depart from evil and learn the way of truth. We can see this in Proverbs 16:6, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” Hananiah would have been a man who believed God was who he said he was, and so lived in faith of that reality. If we are really full of faith, and really fear God, the reality of our life should speak for itself — 1 Corinthians 8:3, “But if any man love God, the same is known of him.” We wouldn’t have to strive to prove anyone, we wouldn’t have to strive to get promoted or manipulate circumstances, we would simply just do what’s right in front of us with no agenda.
“If we come to the Word with the determination to hear from Him according to His will, then we will receive understanding”
In Nehemiah 8 we see the people gather at the water gate to hear from the Word of God. Many of our Bible studies would have made the connection that the water gate was a representation of the Word of God (John 4:10-11). Every living organism on earth needs water to survive. So much more do we need the Word of God for our spiritual survival. In verse 3 they were “attentive” to the book of the law. They were thirsty to listen and to understand. Imagine you are running a marathon, which is about 26 miles long. If you tried to run the race without drinking any water throughout that time, you would suffer from dehydration resulting in a trip to the hospital. The same is true spiritually. If we are only being nourished by the Word once or twice a week, we won’t have enough sustenance to be able to finish the race. But what about those who do get in the Word every day but feel like they can’t understand anything? Or those who get in the Word every day but still struggle with feelings of guilt, depression, inadequacy and condemnation? In our Laodicean age the world tells us to live according to how we think and feel, and I believe we can fall into the trap of bringing that same mindset into our relationship with the Lord. Sometimes we may even come to the Bible to make us feel better when what we need is to allow the book to make us more like Christ. Nehemiah 8:3 says, “And he read therein before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.” To be attentive means to listen closely or to hear. If we come to the Word with the determination to hear from Him according to His will, then we will receive understanding.
Proverbs 2:3-5 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; 4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
“If we choose to agree with the Word and apply it, then we fulfill his commandment to us”
However, if we come to the Word with our own personal agenda, then 2 Timothy 4:3-4 is our result: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” What we have in Nehemiah 8 are those who were attentive to hear the Lord according to his will. In verse 8 they “read in the law of God distinctly.” For something to be distinct, it has to be clear, or clearly set apart. For example, you can distinctly tell the difference in the smell of perfume vs the smell of poo. Not only did they read the book distinctly, but they caused them to understand the reading. The first mention of understand comes to us from Genesis 11:7, where the Lord had seen the people of the earth become as one, attempting to built a tower that would go up into heaven. He says, “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” To deal with the issue, he scattered the people across the earth and changed their languages so they couldn’t understand each other. The opposite of having understanding is confusion. In Nehemiah 8:8, the Word of God was clear and there was no confusion. If we aren’t attentive to the Lord’s voice, then we run the risk of being confused. We’ll be confused about what we are reading, who God is and who we are. God hasn’t withheld any foundational understanding from us. We get confused and frustrated because we can’t understand God’s word when actually we just aren’t agreeing with him in our mind, we have our own agenda. Its like when you want to lose weight, and you work out every day, but you still eat Taco Bell for every meal, and then wonder why you aren’t losing weight. There is something in your flesh you want, and instead of agreeing with what God says it, we hold onto it, and so then we aren’t on the same page as God, and so we can’t understand his language. Our attention isn’t on the Lord, it’s on what we want. Sometimes, it takes God allowing us to try it our own way before we come back to him humbly, tired and with some bruises and scars, ready to be aligned with his will and not ours. After years of exile, this is where we find the Israelites in Nehemiah 8. They were ready to align with God's word, so much so that in verse 9 they wept after hearing the words of the law. They had heard, understood, and agreed with what God had said. This is where they had the opportunity to walk in true victory. Once they were agreed with God, they could walk in the power of God. Nehemiah charges them to not mourn, weep or be sorry, rather to go their way and do good, “for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” There is really no special formula; it’s simple. If we choose to agree with the Word and apply it, then we fulfill his commandment to us (2 John 1). Here we get to have true fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, not according to our thoughts or feelings, but according to the reality of his Word.
“Fulfilling what God has in front of us is where we find Him”
Nehemiah 9:1 says “Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.” By this time, the feast of tabernacles would have been over. There was no written work of the law that they had to be specifically performing on the twenty and fourth day. After they had received and understood the Word, they continued in worship in their freewill. They weren’t doing these things out of duty or with any other motive in mind, but because they wanted to.
In Matthew 25:20-21 is the parable of the talents. To the two men who had done well, and multiplied their talents, the lord invited them to “enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” This invitation was extended to them for being faithful in the few things they were given. Our American culture has conditioned us to always be searching for the next best thing and to never rest content. When we do this, we miss everything that is right in front of us. Fulfilling what God has in front of us is where we find Him, where he can teach and use us, rather than dreaming about what he might have for us in 10 years. (Psalm 119:105).
Matthew Carey is a member of Midtown Baptist Temple and is a part of C&YA. He serves in the C&YA hospitality ministry and is a member of a Rockhurst University men’s Bible study.
