AN ANSWER FOR A CITY LYING IN RUINS
AN ANSWER FOR A CITY LYING IN RUINS
By Kelly Stickle
In 586 B.C., the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and its temple. A remnant of Jews left alive were taken into captivity. Then, in 539 B.C., Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians. Again, a few of the Jewish captives were taken as slaves by the Persians in Susa. The book of Nehemiah begins in 446 B.C. as Nehemiah hears a report from his homeland on the state of his city, Jerusalem. The report comes back that the city is in ruins. Nehemiah 1:4 says that Nehemiah wept for days over the report.
What did he do about it? He prayed.
Nehemiah 1:5-6 Please, Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps the covenant and faithfulness for those who love Him and keep His commandments: let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open, to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have committed against You; I and my father’s house have sinned.
Nehemiah didn’t blame God for abandoning him, and he didn’t even cast blame on the kings and kingdoms responsible for the destruction of his city. He accepted the blame, both personally and corporately. He said, “I and my father’s house have sinned.”
Where you cast blame is also where you assign responsibility. Responsibility is simply the ability to respond. By accepting the blame, Nehemiah also took responsibility for the state of his city, giving himself the ability to respond. He wasn’t just saying words that he thought would appease God. He was sincere.
Look at how specific he got in his repentance.
Nehemiah 1:7-9 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. Remember, please, the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I have chosen to have My name dwell.’
Nehemiah was familiar with the commandments given to Moses, as every Jew was. In traditional Jewish education, students would attend synagogue schools by age six. By around ten years of age, they would have learned and memorized the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah.
Memorizing scripture and living by it are two different things. Nehemiah recognized that while he and his ancestors knew the commandments in the Torah, they had failed to do them. Nehemiah included his shortcomings in his repentance by again accepting responsibility, which gave him the ability to respond.