After Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem, he zealously promoted a God-centered life among the Israelites. Do not think that a life devoted to God is one of poverty, dryness, pain, or dullness. On the contrary, God will surely enable you to live a life of abundance and beauty! Do you desire a good job? Do you want to transform from a struggling student into an academic achiever? Do you want a financial turnaround? Do you desire a thriving career? Do you desire a happy marriage and family life? Do you desire healing from illness? After reading this chapter, you will see how to embark on the path of blessing. All that you seek will surely be realized, yet by then, you will not be overly concerned with these things, for you will have discovered a greater and more beautiful kingdom of God, and you will become a person pleasing to God. Amen!

Questions for Reflection:

• Using firm measures, in what aspects did Nehemiah promote a God-centered life among the Israelites? Why did he do this?

• In what aspects does Abundant Life Church promote a God-centered life among the brothers and sisters? Which aspect do you find most edifying?

• If you were a pastor, how would you guide your flock into a God-centered life? Compared to Nehemiah, in which area do you most need to improve?

First Reflection: God Remembering Me

The theme of this chapter is May God Remember Me. Why did Nehemiah express such a sentiment? In reality, a person who serves God is often not well-liked, because he is certainly not someone who garners majority approval. So, it is likely that he is a very lonely person. Nehemiah, apart from holding administrative power as an official, as a governor, did not have much political influence in that place. He returned to Jerusalem alone from the Persian king. He had no other options and had to use these priests. If someone had been willing to be zealous for God at that time, he would have surely appointed that person.

I believe Nehemiah was very lonely in that place. So lonely that he could only cry out to God, May God remember me. Imagine if everyone in that place opposed you, you could not continue as the governing official. Let us examine the situation: although he served as governor in that place for some time, returned to the court, and then requested leave from the court to return again, the entire situation had completely changed. That is to say, the heart of the people was not at all inclined toward the God-centered life he desired. The heart of the people was not at all inclined toward pleasing God. You will see that there were political alliances, self-established territories, and commercial activities in that place. Nehemiah did not focus his attention on the economy, nor on politics, and consequently, he was very lonely.

In this world, there are not many who want to live a God-centered life, few who want to please God. Under such circumstances, none of the things he promoted were popular with the people. The pressure was unimaginable. Imagine if all the common people jointly petitioned the emperor, his position would be untenable. People like Tobiah certainly had such influence. He was very popular in that place, and the high priest was also very popular. This is because their eyes were fixated on the needs of the people, while Nehemiah's eyes were fixated on the needs of God. These two modes of thinking, one pleases the people, the other pleases God. Today, as we ponder this question, we truly need everyone to broaden their perspective. If your gaze is only fixed on your small circle of life, even if people do not deal with you, God's hand will deal with you. If God's hand deals with us, how can we live well?

Today, we must learn to let go of some things. Although they are pleasing to people, we must choose to let them go and solely focus on pleasing God. This is a character trait. This character trait is called fortitude. We can see that, because of this character trait, regardless of whether people's hearts are willing to live this kind of life, at least the service of the temple has begun to be restored. I think achieving such a thing requires fortitude. Because before he first said Remember me, he did many things, such as making the Israelites sever ties with foreigners. This is very hurtful. Imagine, for example, forcibly cutting off girls from their former best friends, separating those who were already married. One can imagine how unpopular these things were. And these people did not understand why this was being done; they were forced to act according to Nehemiah's administrative orders. How much resentment must have been generated!

Secondly, there was a very powerful person in that place named Tobiah, essentially the local overlord. He could even influence the high priest. In order to consolidate his position, the high priest allied himself with Tobiah. In today's terms, such a person would be called a financial magnate. The governing official in a place, in reality, does not have the final say; he is actually manipulated by the local financial magnates. This situation was very difficult for Nehemiah. Then Nehemiah expelled Tobiah from the temple. Nehemiah did not care what these people did behind his back; he only cared about God, so he prayed, God, remember me.

Thirdly, he began to restore the salaries of the Levites and those who worshiped. You can imagine that at that time, if the local financial magnates made some moves, these people's lives would be immediately affected, and everyone would stop donating. If whoever donated would suffer, who would donate? Nehemiah had not actually been gone for long, but everyone had stopped donating. The Levites and others had all gone back to farming or doing business.

Fourthly, he sent people to manage the storehouses, in order to distribute salaries to these temple workers on time. In reality, the amount of money handled was substantial. Nehemiah solely trusted in God, even though doing these things was unpopular with the people, as long as it pleased God. Although there were local overlords in this place, although the people in this place did not want to live a God-centered life at all, he still used firm administrative measures to promote it, just to gain God's favor. I am solely focused on gaining God's favor. Do you see a person like Nehemiah?

Second Reflection: God Remember Me

I encourage everyone to continue to reflect. The second time Nehemiah said: God, remember me, have mercy on me. He was restoring the Sabbath.

Observing the Sabbath actually caused a lot of inconvenience to people. For example, if there was no soy sauce at home, no one would sell it; if there was no salt, no one would sell it; all the shops were closed. So, we are very convenient today. Twenty-four-hour stores mean that whenever you go to buy something, it is available. When things are very convenient, there is no need for much planning. If we run out, we just go and buy it. But at that time, because of the Sabbath, people had to restore a planned life, so things had to be arranged properly on Saturday. However, many people had not developed this habit. On Sunday, they offended many people. And the Sabbath was the easiest day to do business, the day to make the most money.

What action did Nehemiah take? He locked these people outside the city gates. These merchants waited outside the city gates. Some people preferred to risk falling from the window. Paul escaped in a basket, they fell from the window to go outside the city to buy things and violate the Sabbath. As a result, Nehemiah took strong measures to deal with these foreigners outside the city. It was simply a deterrence, notifying them with an administrative order. If Nehemiah lived today, he would definitely be exposed on the internet, as a very strict city administrator. So Nehemiah was really difficult at that time. There were some things he could manage, but when his subordinates went out to do some things, he might not be able to manage so much.

Some people made some deviations in executing his orders, such as deliberately causing deaths, and then spreading it wildly on the internet. Nehemiah's days were quite difficult. So when he restored the Sabbath, it meant that he was dealing with people's desire to make money. Think, offending people's desire to make money, how many people would be offended! So today, to restore a God-centered life, to live a life that pleases God, it is easy to offend many people. The easiest people to offend are merchants. If people wrote to the emperor saying: The economy in our place is getting worse and worse, why? Because Nehemiah restored the Sabbath, our people can't eat or drink. Thinking any person listening would feel that Nehemiah makes no sense. What is he for? He is for keeping God's law.

The Third Time God Remembered Me

The third time he said God remembered me, showing me grace, was at the end. He did two things: First, he dealt with the Israelites who had intermarried. At this point, he quoted Solomon, the wisest of men, who fell into sin because of political alliances through marriage.

Any marriage alliance is basically driven by economic or political considerations. For example, your family is in this business, and our family is in that business. If we marry, we are no longer competitors but allies against other competitors. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? At that time, foreigners were thriving in business in Israel. So, intermarriage, marrying foreigners, was a political alliance, a commercial alliance.

Nehemiah told the Israelites how Solomon’s political alliances ultimately trapped him in sin. Did you think the Israelites would listen? If they had listened, they wouldn't have done it. The Book of the Law was right there. From the time of Ezra, decades ago, in the era of Zerubbabel, in the era of Ezra, in the era of Nehemiah, this issue persisted. Everyone understood it. Ezra thoroughly dismantled those who had married foreign women. But what happened? Ezra retreated from the platform, losing his authority.

In Nehemiah's time, Nehemiah reinstated him as a scribe, to do the work of teaching, which was actually a very difficult task. Nehemiah was well aware of the risks involved. He was risking his head to serve as governor, risking the greatest setback in his career. Wasn't it better for him to be a cupbearer in the royal palace? But here, he took great risks, offending everyone in Judah, both Israelites and foreigners alike. The Levites were probably thinking, Who knows how long Nehemiah will last? We'll secretly do some small business on the side. When he's gone, we can go back to doing what we were doing.

Think about this group of people. I hope that in our church, God can restore such a work, so that I don't have to work as hard as Nehemiah. Nehemiah's second action was to dismiss the priests who had intermarried with foreigners, then restore the first fruits of the land, the basic necessities, and supply them to the temple, restoring the normal operation of the temple.

Nehemiah's Character

Through these things, we see several very important aspects of Nehemiah's character: First, he was a man of great zeal for God; second, he was uncompromising when it came to sin. Anything that violated God's commands or God's law, he dealt with uncompromisingly; third, he was a man of courage and boldness, absolutely unafraid of offending anyone. Offending people was not his concern. As long as he didn't offend God, what did it matter if others were offended? He didn't care much; fourth, he was a man of great vision and faith. You can see that he acted very decisively. His character was very strong. This man also had a great temper, grabbing people's beards, grabbing people's hair, and pulling it out; fifth, he was a man of strong action and execution. Building the wall, he finished it in fifty-two days.

We will find that when he wrote the Book of Nehemiah, he recorded many administrative details. Everyone must know that serving God really requires some consideration of administrative details; sixth, he was a team builder. Whether they were useful or not, he could transform them into useful people, even using those priests who had intermarried with foreigners to build the wall; seventh, he really had the patience to keep overcoming his opponents; and the last and most important point: he was a man of prayer, who could completely trust in God.

Conclusion

The entire Book of Nehemiah has been studied. We can see one thing: A person who is strong and courageous and trusts in God will surely be preserved by God, and God will surely enable you to overcome your competitors. If you have Nehemiah's character in your job, you cannot but be victorious. Because victory is what God has predestined for us. It's not about what we do that will lead to victory, or how we fail in some area. It's really about having a heart that completely trusts in God, then being strong and courageous, able to withstand pressure, and able to withstand pressure in any environment. In our upcoming spiritual battles, we will still face a lot of pressure. Many of our brothers and sisters still have family members who have not believed in the Lord, or who have believed but have not been completely transformed. The burden on us is still heavy. If you need it, I'll give you a suggestion: Inherit from Nehemiah his strong character, be very strong in your bones, and rely on God. There is nothing that cannot be turned around, and God will surely remember you. Amen!