Road Trippin With Rachael

I said, ‘LORD, the God of the heavens, the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keep his commands, let your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to hear your servant’s prayer that I now pray to you day and night for your servants, the Israelites.’ – Nehemiah 1:5-6 (CSB)

I’ve read through the Bible multiple times during my life. At different times, different parts have stood out to me, and I gain a new appreciation and love for what it is that I’m reading. In some periods, I’m more involved with the Psalms, others have had me going through the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), and recently I went through the Gospel of John.

But while I was in college, I needed to read through Nehemiah for an administration class. That was the beginning of me falling in love with the book of Nehemiah, and spending more time in it over the years. So for the next several weeks I’m going to be basing my blog posts off of the book of Nehemiah. The Nehemiah blogs will be on the first and third week of the month, and the off weeks will be a completion of the Gospel of John that I had begun last year; unfortunately, I had some thing come up last year that prevented me completing those, but I’m excited to get them up in 2025.

You’ll be able to find additional materials on my YouTube Channel, Road Trippin with Rachael. The Gospel of John is already up on the channel, so feel free to go there to view them.

Back to Nehemiah….

As we go through the first chapter of Nehemiah, we really get a picture of who Nehemiah was a person, but also we are given some hints as to what was happening in history at the time. We’ll touch on that as we go throughout the series, but here in this first chapter, we can observe five truths about God’s relationship with believers.

Our Relationship wit h God should Make Us Want Others To Have That Same Relationship

As we open the book of Nehemiah, we immediately begin to learn about his heart. He deeply cares about his people. Not only the people that had remained in the empire, but also for those who had been able to return to their homeland of Israel. Verses 2-4 records that there was much distress because the walls of the city were in disrepair and the gates had been burned. This means that the stronghold if anything were to happen would not be a place of safety for the people. Nehemiah’s response to this was to sit down and weep. He mourned for a number of days, and he fasted and prayed before the God of heaven (1:4).

From the Christian perspective, the relationship that we have with God should make us feel a similar pain for those who do not have that same relationship. The best example that I can think of regarding this is a former pastor of mine. Him and his wife have three adult children, and one thing that he used to always say was that he wanted everyone to experience how wonderful it was to be married. To paraphrase something he said to me once, “I love being married to my wife so much, despite the hardships that we have faced, I want all young people to experience how great it is to come home to someone who loves them, and whom they have built a life together with.”

In the same way that my former pastor loved matrimony to the point that he was consistently setting up unsuspecting seminary students with people he “happened” to know (since I’m still single, he never just happened to introduce me to anyone), so too must we love God to the point that it pains us to know that someone is not experiencing the same relationship we are. Here is someone (God) who knows you so well, that you can’t do anything that would shock him; you can’t do anything to surprise him; he can take your anger and frustration, your tears, your joy, and even when you royally mess up he loves you anyway.

This is why missions are of the utmost importance. As Christians we are called to go out into the world and tell people the wonderful news that Christ died for our sins and was raised again o the third day (Matthew 28:18-20). We go out and tell our neighbors. We go on mission trips, or support those who go out (Acts 1:8). Like Nehemiah, there should be a burden that is placed on our hearts for those who don’t know God, and we should want to do what we can to help them know why they need him and how they can enter into that relationship.

We Know Who God Is

I said, “Lord, the God of the heavens, the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keep his commands.” (Nehemiah 1:5)

As I wrote earlier, there are certain expectations place on me in my relationship with God -therefore, I need to have a full awareness of who it is that I am in a relationship with. When the church I grew up in was looking for a new pastor, I told one of the members that before she and her husband made any decisions about whether they wanted to find a different church or stay at the same one, they needed to try and stay for three months with the new pastor (they did and they are still at the church 5+ years later). Why three months? Because, most likely, the honeymoon is going to be over in three months; you will know exactly what you got in a pastor, and he will now exactly (or a mostly) what he got in a church – meaning that the church and the pastor aren’t on their best behaviors anymore.

As with any relationship, the more time that you spend with that person the more you are going to get to know them, and you understand who that person is. In the same way, we need to have an acute understanding of who God is. This doesn’t mean that every Christian needs to register for classes at a seminary – they might appreciate it financially, but it really isn’t a necessity. What it does mean is that we need to learn and study theology (the study of God). We need to know that when the hard times come that God is going to be there, and when things are going well that he is rejoicing with us.

I can’t answer the questions that are bound to come: the “why” questions. But I know that God is holy. I know that sometimes God allows bad things to happen because we live in a sinful world, that he allows us to have freewill and that there are lasting consequences for those choices for more than only us individually. I know that God is constant in his love or me, that she shows grace and mercy. I know that God is my creator, my savior, and the closest friend I can have, and he is there for me when it feels like no one else is.

Confessions Is A Constant Conversation

I confess the sins we have committed against you. Both I and my father’s family have sinned. – Nehemiah 1:6b (CSB)

I like to believe that I am never wrong – of course this is deceptive on my part, because I know for a fact that I’m regularly wrong. We screw up all the time, both as individuals and collectively as a culture. The events that have taken place over the last decade have shown us that there are a lot of things that collectively we have done that is wrong. As a Christian, I am incredibly grateful for the grace, mercy, and forgiveness that I have and continue to receive. As believers we have received a new heart that has been placed in us, and we are now indwelled with the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27), but we are still sinful beings and just because we now have Christ as our Savior, that does not mean that we have license to continue to sin in every which way. As Paul says in Romans 6:1-3, we do not sin because grace can multiple, since we (Christians) have died to sin we are no longer living in it.

But this brings up an important point: even as born again believers, we are still sinful. We live in a sinful world, and we will never be fully without sin until we have gone on to glory. We shouldn’t focus on sin, but we need to be aware that it still exists, and that we are going to be engaged in constant battle between our own selfishness and doing what we are compelled to do because the Holy Spirit lives in us. That is why we confess our sins through prayer; it isn’t because God needs to know what we have done wrong (I’m pretty sure he knows – and by pretty sure, I mean absolutely), but it forces us to confront our sin and realistically it keeps us humble.

Sometimes we need to assess what it is that we are doing and how our choices are being perceived. One of the things that I regularly told college students when I worked with them was that perception mattered. And it does. But what matters even more is when you are actually doing wrong. When we confess our sins to God, he is faithful to forgive us, but we also have to go and make right by the people that we have wronged, be that are church, work, or even within our own families.

Nehemiah knew this, and in his prayer he confesses not only his own sins, but he also recognizes that as a people – who was supposed to be God’s people, and live a life that was different from the cultures that were around them – they had failed. They were facing the consequences of their cultural sins, and even though the full responsibility of that sin does not lie with Nehemiah, he is still a part of his culture. We today have to recognize that no matter our culture or context, there are things that we collective do wrong or don’t handle well, and corporately we need to confess. Now that is not a statement to anything that is happening currently, nor is it a statement about any past actions; however, I challenge each individual and church to take a hard look and see where they need to corporately confess and repent.

God Will Chastise Those Who Do Wrong

Please remember what you commanded your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. – Nehemiah 1:8 (CSB)

I mentioned it above, but as hard as it is to admit when we do wrong, sometimes it is also hard to accept that we do have to face the consequences of our actions even after we’ve repented. The consequences aren’t always because we were the ones to do the sinning, nor are they always punishments. Typically, we look at a consequence as being a negative, but sometimes they can also be positives. We live in a sinful world, and everyone has freedom of choice – not all of the choices that people make are going to be good, and there are often long standing consequences of the choices that you and I make. Conversely, sometimes something is removed from our lives because it hinders more than helps us. There is a big difference between “I’m facing spiritual ansk” and “this was taken because I valued it more than God” (which is sin).

For the Hebrew people during the time of Nehemiah, they had turned their backs on everything that God had given them. Where he had given them freedom from their captivity in Egypt, a land to call their own, and physical prosperity – the people chose to turn away from God. They turned from him the way Gomer left Hosea (Hosea 2). They chose to chase after their own selfish desires.

God tells us in Exodus that we are to have no other gods before him. Nor are we to have idols (Exodus 20:3-4). The word “God” means this thing/being is worth of receiving worship. An idol is anything that we set up to replace the only thing that is worthy to have the title of God. So what are some of the idols of our time? Business? Money? Popularity Politics? social Standing? There are many tings that can be our god, but if we are going to claim to be a child of the One True King, then we need to realize that God is zealous for our praise. And as a parent reigns in their child when they see them going off in the wrong direction, so to is our Father going to reel us in to correct us, because it is for our benefit.

God Dwells With His People

As we have gone through this opening of the book of Nehemiah, there is one final thing that we need to keep in mind – God is always with his people. He loves his people, so much so that he walked with them i the garden (Genesis 3:8). He heard them crying out in Egypt (Exodus 3:9). He gave them judges, and continuously rescued them when they called out to him during their time of oppression (Judges). He redeemed Israel when she had nothing to offer (Hosea). He called his people back to him through the prophets (I & II Kings). He dwelt among his people as a pillar of fire and smoke (Exodus 13:21), and he was present in the tabernacle (Exodus 25:8), in the Holy of Holies. He has always been among his people. Later we see Jesus, the Son of God, walking among his people. He healed, fed, taught, ate with, and celebrated with them. He was raised in and among the people of Israel. They were his people.

So what now? Jesus isn’t roaming around, and there aren’t any pillars of fire or cloud, and we aren’t making sacrifices at the temple down the road. Instead, God has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell in believers. Acts 1:5 records Jesus telling his apostles that the Holy Spirit is going to come upon them, and we see this come to fruition in the following chapter in verse 4. The Holy Spirit did not only come to the apostles, but to all who become believers. Both the Old and New Testaments confirm this occurrence with Joel 2:28 and I Corinthians 2:10-14.

We see where God is silent, but at no point do we ever see a situation where God is not with his people. Take comfort in this truth: you are not alone. When you are one of God’s children, at no point in time are you alone. This doesn’t mean that you will not face times of loneliness, depression, trials or temptations; it means you are never going to be going at it on your own. And that is a beautiful thing that should bring peace of mind and heart.

Final Thoughts

Take comfort in these truths. Because we have a relationship with God, it should upset and discomfort us to know and interact with others who do not have the same relationship that we do. Since Christians are in a relationship with God, it means tat we should have an acute awareness of who he is. This means that we are continuously reading, memorizing, and mediating on the person of God, what he has done, is doing, and will do. We must realize that even though we have been forgiven of our sins, we still need to confess the sins we are committing. Once gain, this is a part of being in a relationship. Your spouse vows to love, honor, and cherish you – but that does not mean you are off the hook for admitting when you wrong your spouse. Our relationship with God has some hallmarks of a parent-child relationship, specifically in the fact that as a father will correct his child for disobedience, so too does God chasten his children. Sometimes this will mean that God allows us to remain in a sin because the only way that we will see our need for utter dependence on God. In both cases, it assumes that we have that relationship with him; but as with God allowing people to choose to do right and wrong, he also allows us to choose him or reject him.