NEHEMIAH 1:1 - 3:14
WALLS: Prov 25:28 says, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls." This is someone with a messed-up mind and no self-discipline. He becomes fair-game for the enemy ("carnal mind", "the mind of the flesh"), vulnerable to even a lame attack. When there are no gates, we allow anything to come in at any time it wants to!
COMFORT: "Nehemiah" means "Comforter", and he is a type of the Holy Spirit, Who is grieved about our broken areas and is committed to make us whole and restore order to our lives. Dan 9:25 says that the walls were rebuilt and restored "in troublous times", ”in the presence of our enemies". But, like EZRA, NEHEMIAH'S TRUMP CARD: "the good hand of God is upon him." (Ne 2:8) AND he travelled to Jerusalem with an armed guard and a royal decree!
THE RUBBLE: The rubble of our soul includes doubts, confusion, imaginations, reasonings against the Word of God, unclean thoughts, fears, lust, bitterness, anger, resentment, jealousy, lack of confidence, lack of loyalty, hindered growth, indecisiveness, hopelessness, weak resistance, apathy. Any kind of human mess. Walls and gates are destroyed, creating a BREACH, when we are passive and apathetic (Prov 24:30-34), when we tear it down with a perverse tongue (Prov 15:4), through unbelief and iniquity (Isa 30:12-13), through idolatry (putting anything in place of God) (Psa 106:19-23). Nothing hinders the rebuilding of our walls more than condemnation and guilt. It takes time to be conformed to Jesus' image. Nehemiah asked for 12 years!
PRAYER: God molded Nehemiah into the answer to his own prayer. Nehemiah carried this prayer burden for four months, before coming to the King. Prayer makes us conscious of God's purpose and the part we are to play in the plan. Prayer is a source of power over insurmountable obstacles, and it gives us perspective and helps us to set priorities, as we see in Nehemiah's life and assignment.
OPPOSITION TO WHOLENESS: THE WORLD, THE FLESH, & THE DEVIL: Sanballat (the devil), Tobiah (the Flesh), and Geshem (the world) opposed the work of restoration. "it grieved them exceedingly". Sanballat (the devil) was a Moabite (perpetual enemy of Israel) and felt threatened by Nehemiah's authority and his opposition. Tobiah was an Ammonite, another perpetual enemy, but had a Jewish name and had married a Jewess. He represents compromise and creeping uncleanness of uncrucified flesh. The world-spirit (Geshem) works in tandem with the devil and the flesh. We are tempted us in our flesh. So it all comes down to "the mind of the flesh" (Rom 8:5-8; Eph 2:3).
RESPONSE: Is all this really necessary? Does it take "all that" to heal a messed-up life? Apparently. The Bible says we are deceived about sin and its effects. It says we have no idea how bad we really are - because our minds are backwards (Rom 8:7). No wonder some of us are so vulnerable to attacks. The Bible says to "guard your heart...."(Prov 4:23) and we don't always think it's necessary. All this work is done in the presence of adversaries, inside and outside. At times, we don't identify them as adversaries, either - and we listen to their advice! Did the Holy Spirit really weep and wail over my condition? Does He still?
1 CORINTHIANS 7:1-24
CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AND ITS LIMITS: The opposition to marriage may have come from an IMMATURE, over-reaction to the licentiousness of the city. There is nothing unbecoming in living in celibacy, but as honorable as celibacy is, it should not be the rule. In fact, marriage is analogous to the relationship between Christ and God (11:3). However, marriage negates personal independence and you shouldn't be making any unilateral decisions, so a spiritually mature person understands that ORDER TRUMPS FREEDOM. So, based on his knowledge of their human weakness, it is better to marry than to be tempted. Paul has lifted marriage into the Spirit realm, and given it the honor that God gave it. When we marry, we do so because we believe we can serve God better by being married, and certainly by being married to the person God chose.
WHY CAN'T I JUST GET RID OF HIM? If both husband and wife are believers, there is to be no divorce. If you choose to live apart, neither one of you should be "dating"! The reason Paul addressed "the rest" is because sometimes one mate gets saved AFTER the marriage, or even married an unsaved person in the first place! (Jesus didn't address that situation because He wouldn't have condoned that marriage in the first place (believer and unbeliever AFTER one is already saved. And so Paul spoke up based on principles of spiritual maturity.). If the unsaved person is willing to stay married, then do it. If he leaves, he leaves and you can't stop him (or her). YOU DO NOT DEFILE YOURSELF BY STAYING MARRIED TO A HEATHEN! BUT, you DO "sanctify" all you touch: your husband, your children, your home! That is, you exert heavenly influence and power. The other BIG reason you stay married is that your CHILDREN would be deprived of family life if you do not.
HOW MATURE CHRISTIANS MAKE "PERSONAL" DECISIONS: Every Christian ought to remain in the earthly situation in which the call to salvation found him (unless you are doing something antichristian, of course). If you heard and received your call to Christ in your position, it is because God orchestrated it for His glory. The Gospel is an INWARD change, so don't use it for an EXCUSE to make outward changes just because you don't like them! ORDER limits FREEDOM. Your external circumstances become the context whereby YOU will learn to be spiritually mature. We keep our eye on God, walking in His Presence wherever we are. This is how we exercise Christian INFLUENCE and POWER, excepting everything to transform everything; submitting to everything to rise above everything.
RESPONSE: When I was in college, many of us quoted 1 Cor 7:9 as our excuse for hurrying to the altar: "It is better to marry than to burn." My mother, on the other hand, quoted right back, "Marry in haste, repent at leisure." She warned me that I would probably spend the next 80 years with that one man (I was 20 when I married him.). THAT gave me second thoughts! We have been married 45 years so far, only 35 years to go!
However, my mother was saved many years into her marriage to my father. She used to smoke, get drunk, go dancing in bars with him, and generally "party-hardy". When she got saved, she was delivered from ALL THAT stuff, and didn't even think of divorcing my father. They had six children, and even though my father hated my "new" mother, he stayed for the children's sake, but my mother suffered terrible persecution. She was ridiculed, laughed at, screamed at, her Bible ripped up and burned in front of her, called names, all of this in front of her children. But she never gave up! She submitted, matured, loved, served, and outlived him. My earliest memories of her are of coming down to the kitchen from my bedroom in the morning, and seeing her at the kitchen table reading her Bible, or praying for all of us kids and our father to be saved. So far, it's 6 out of 7! Even my father got saved 22 years after the divorce (after the sixth child had gotten married and left home).
PSALM 31:19-24
These are good verses to read out loud to your heart if you are in my mother's situation (above). Take heart! God is FOR you. He sees it all and knows the truth concerning you. He knows right where you are.
PROVERBS 21:4
Looking down your nose at anyone isn't just a moral failure, it is SIN. In fact, anything the godless produce is unclean.
RESPONSE: THE REMEDY FOR STRESS: Teach your heart to trust God with everything. Talk out loud to your heart, like the Psalmist did. God will comfort you, strengthen you, encourage you, while everything around you could be falling apart! He sees it all, and you just stay in His Presence where you can take instruction from Him. Your flesh may feel the pressure. Your flesh will want to react or "vent". But don't do it. If you give in to your flesh, you are just "practicing" for the next time! Only the next time will be worse because you build on your past. The real issue with stress is CONTROL. So submit to God, submit to one another, submit to being a servant --- and you will rise above it all!
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