Bible Study Library

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Background Summary

• The Jews of Judah were captured, and Jerusalem was destroyed (including the temple and city wall). Nebuchadnezzar did this in 587 BC.
• Seventy years later, the Jews were allowed to go back to Jerusalem.
• During the next forty years or so they started worshipping and offering sacrifices again, rebuilt the temple, and purified their lives.
• One hundred forty three years after Jerusalem was destroyed, Nehemiah discovered that Jerusalem’s city wall was still demolished. Without the wall, outsiders wouldn’t respect the Jews or god and Jerusalem was vulnerable to attack.
• Through much prayer, Nehemiah was convicted that God wanted him to give up his high position with the King, travel 900 miles to Jerusalem, and rebuild the city wall.
• God moved the King’s heart to let him go, and he did.

 This lesson

• The King not only let Nehemiah go, he sent an army with him and made Nehemiah the Governor of Judah.
• The first thing Nehemiah did when he got to Jerusalem was scope out the project. He didn’t tell anyone why he was there until he fully understood the job in front of him.
• With the job clearly in mind, Nehemiah rounded up a team of workers. He motivated them exactly the same way he himself was motivated - by helping them realize the importance of the job and by clearly demonstrating to them that God had initiated this work.
• Two political rivals — Sanballat and Tobiah, who were governors of surrounding areas - began to stir up trouble. They accused Nehemiah of wanting to lead a revolt against the King.
• Nehemiah didn’t flinch. This was God’s job; he was simply God’s servant. Nehemiah knew that success wasn’t his own responsibility, only faithfulness. If God wanted this to happen He’d make it happen. So that’s exactly what he told the troublemakers.
• An important thing to know about these two opponents was that only Sanballat was an “outsider.” Tobiah was a Jew, one of God’s chosen people and someone who should be concerned about Jerusalem being rebuilt. He evidently valued his political position above his God.

 Application/Commitment

This part of Nehemiah’s story teaches us a few important things:

1. It’s important to scope out the job before getting to work. Obvious? Maybe. But we all agreed we’ve seen people in ministries they simply weren’t gifted for (song leading, greeting, teaching, etc.). That comes from determining where to place people by what ministries exist — rather than determining the ministries by the gifts people have.
2. We agreed that putting people in ministries they don’t belong in is cancerous to the church:
      - It prevents those people from doing what God really wants them to do
      - It prevents the people God wants to do it from having the opportunity
      - It makes the work less effective
   Scope out the job, know what needs done, and see if you have the right people. If so, press on. If not, abandon. God equips the church with just the right gifts to carry out what He truly desires. In fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be (1 Cor 12:18)
3. It would be unusual for God to call us to work in isolation. He normally calls us to work together as a body, not apart as limbs.
4. When God places something on your heart and you’ve scoped out the job, gather people together that are gifted to help.
5. When you gather a group, call them to doing God’s work rather than your own. Show them why it matters and ask them to commit to being His servants.
6. Opposition to doing God’s work can come from both outside and inside the church.
7. If what we are doing truly is God’s work, we won’t be swayed by opposition. How could we, when success isn’t up to us?
8. The only real response you need to give to opposition is stating the facts: God is doing this, we’re just His servants. ‘Nough said.