The Power of a Conversation - NEHEMIAH STARTS

We tend to skip the little moments in the Bible. We do this because the Bible has some impressive stories: seas splitting, dead people rising, outnumbered armies winning, and shepherds ruling. But there are moments that stick out if you slow down and read closely. That is why I love this project of going through the Bible slowly and journaling the journey. Nehemiah, one of the post monarchy heroes becomes "Nehemiah" because of a simple question that led to a conversation that became a prayer and turned into an opportunity to change the world.

Nehemiah 1:1–3 (ESV) The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”

Nehemiah is not one of the returned exiles to Jerusalem. No. He's one of the cosmopolitan Jews who did really well for himself after the nation was taken captive. He's the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes of Persia. He lives in the opulent palace in the opulent capital city. He didn't have a powerful position at all. He was the guy who made sure the king stayed alive. But he must have done his job really well because the king noticed when he was sad and funding him for his mission (we'll get to that later).

But Nehemiah's lofty position in a foreign nation is about to be upended. It all started with a conversation. Actually, it started with a question. "I asked them concerning the Jews..." And notice the phrase, "who escaped...". You get the feeling that although Nehemiah is in a position of importance in Persia, he still feels a bit trapped like he doesn't really belong. 

Nehemiah's name means, "the Lord comforts". And you get the idea that he believes he's comforting the wrong crowd, wasting his gifts. He knows he's a Jew and he knows his name, but nothing about his life seems to be what he was made for. Guess what changed it all? A conversation. He asked how people were doing and he found out. 

Now there's a danger to asking questions. You will get answers that may alarm you, shock you, and devastate you. The latter is true for Nehemiah. Notice his response:

Nehemiah 1:4 (ESV) As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

I love Nehemiah's action though. He doesn't simply get depressed, he prays to the "God of heaven." Believers know they have a God who is over whoever is over them. They always have a phone line to the one with the power to change their situation. Nehemiah next offers one of the Bible's great prayers. We will look at that next post. In this post, we can stop with this simple thought: What question do you need to ask in your life? Finding what God made you to do could be on the other side of that moment. 

Imagine if we had this game plan every day? Imagine if instead of thinking about ourselves as we are trained to do 24-7 by our culture, we looked at others and wondered how they were doing? I think the last 18 months of our world's history have been some of the loneliness and saddest times in some people's lives. Maybe this is a perfect time to reach out and ask how someone is doing.

Nehemiah would eventually live up to his calling. The work would be hard, he and his leadership would be challenged and questioned constantly, but the job would get it done. The people of Israel would be comforted by a man who cared enough to ask about the condition of those he cared about.