We all remember where we were when we heard about the attack on the World Trade Center. For previous generations, they can tell you the moment they heard the news of JFK’s assassination. Or the Challenger explosion. Bad news does that. It doesn’t just burn into brains but our hearts. Nehemiah will never forget where he was when he got the agonizing news about the walls of Jerusalem. It was during the winter “in the twentieth year” of Artaxerxes reign as the king of Persia (Neh 1:1). He was working his regular shift as a servant in the winter palace over in Susa. It was just like every other day. Until his brother came to talk to him. He heard the latest from Jerusalem. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all. Despite 140 years of rebuilding, renovation, and resettlement, the city is still in shambles. Nehemiah will never forget where he was when he heard the bad news. The breaking news about the broken walls breaks his heart.
It’s somewhere around 445-444 BC when “Hanani, one of my brothers, came with men from Judah” to see Nehemiah (v2). The two boys grew up together in the home of their dad Hacaliah during the time of the Babylonian captivity (Neh 1:1). They heard stories and read all about Jerusalem and the Promised Land but had never been there. They heard all about how God used Moses to lead God’s people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into the land of milk and honey. They heard all about the glorious temple that Solomon built. They heard all about the rebellion of God’s people that led to them being hauled off into exile for another 70 years. They heard all about the Messiah who would come one day to rescue God’s people and bless the entire world.
Hanani gets the chance to make the journey to Jerusalem, apparently as part of the second expedition under Ezra 13 years ago. His brother and his buddies have just gotten back in town “from Judah” (v2). They break the bad news. “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire” (v3). The overall situation is not good. “Great trouble and shame” (v3). The specifics aren’t any better. The city walls are rubble. The gates are in ashes.
They paint a depressing picture. When Hanani speaks of “trouble,” he uses the Hebrew word ra’), which can be translated evil, wickedness, affliction, adversity, distress, harm, or disaster. A little later, Nehemiah relates, “I had not been sad (Heb. ra’)” when he was around the king (Neh 2:1). But Artaxerxes takes one look at his cupbearer and knows something’s up. “Why is your face so sad (Heb. ra’)?” (Neh 2:2). Probably the best way to understand the situation in Jerusalem is that it’s sad. Very sad. Depressing. Have you ever driven through a neighborhood that clearly the rest of the city would like to forget? Dilapidated buildings. Broken windows. Filled with people who have lost hope. It’s sad. It’s depressing. That’s the scene in Judah.
It’s so bad that Jerusalem has become a joke. Hanani talks of its “shame” (Heb. cherpah). This term describes disgrace, reproach, rebuke, and taunting. We read of the trash talk throughout Nehemiah’s account. Sanballat and Tobiah openly laugh at the Jews and their broken down city (Neh 4:1-3). Nehemiah responds by crying out to the LORD, “Hear, O our God, for we are despised (Heb. cherpah)” (Neh 4:4). Despite being God’s chosen people, they had become the local chosen punchline and the object of the “taunts (Heb. cherpah) of the nations our enemies” (Neh 5:9). When Nehemiah eventually returns to the city and talks with local officials, he remembers his brothers’ own words when encouraging them to get to work. “You see the trouble (Heb. ra’) we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision (Heb. cherpah)” (Neh 2:17). The once glorious city on a hill is now the butt of the joke.
Zerubbabel and Ezra had accomplished a lot in resettling Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple. But Hanani lets his brother know that the situation in Promised Land is still jacked up. Hanai confirms that the walls of the city are exactly in the same situation they were when Nebuchadnezzar’s army knocked them down and torched everything in sight (2Ki 25:8-10). The bad news breaks his heart. “As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven” (v4). Ezra responded in just about the same way when he got the horrible news of about the large number of Jewish men shacking up with their pagan girlfriends. He “sat appalled” (Ez 9:3). He sits. He cries. He mourns. Not just for a few minutes. Not just for a couple of hours. He “mourned for days” (v4)!
The crisis in Jerusalem totally consumes Nehemiah. Have you ever had your heart ripped apart by gut-wrenching news? Have you ever been absolutely blindsided and simply sat and cried for hours? Yeah, me too. Then you and I know exactly the pain Nehemiah feels right now. There’s only one place to turn in his tears. There’s only one Person to take his pain. Nehemiah takes this breaking news and his broken heart and lays it before the “God of heaven” (v4). This particular name for the LORD is very popular in the Old Testament when calling on the One who oversees international affairs. You see the “God of heaven” mentioned in a lot in Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and Jonah. Each one of these describes accounts of God in action around beyond the borders of Israel. We need to remember to call on the God of heaven terrorists spill innocent blood in Paris. When ISIS marches and murders across the Middle East. When tsunamis kill hundreds of thousands in the Pacific. Our God of heaven rules and reigns over more than your neighborhood, your city, your state, and your nation. Nehemiah knows that. He takes this breaking news of the broken walls and his broken heart and lays them all before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah is no prophet. He’s no priest. He’s simply a servant working in the royal palace in Susa (Neh 1:1, 11). But the distressing news of the ongoing destruction and shame in Jerusalem brought him to his knees. What’s interesting is that there’s absolutely no evidence that Nehemiah had ever even been to the city before. How could he? It’s been 140 years since Nebuchadnezzar sacked the city and carried God’s people into captivity in Babylon. And as a lowly slave doesn’t exactly get enough vacation he would need in order to travel the nearly 1,000 miles from Susa to Judah. Yet the painful report from his brother tears him up. The breaking news of the broken walls breaks his heart.
Nehemiah is a shadow of the One was to come. He’s a preview of the Messiah God has promised to send to the rescue. A few hundred years later, Jesus weeps and prays for Jerusalem. Our heartbroken Savior cries over the crisis of sin in the city (Mt 12:37-39; Lk 13:34-35). Knowing that destruction is around the corner, a tearful Jesus prays for the future of the city (Lk 19:41-44). And like Nehemiah, Jesus leaves his home in the palace and comes to the rescue. You see, God doesn’t simply sit on His heavenly throne and feel sorry for His people when they become they’re in trouble. He does something about it. He gets involved. He gets His hands dirty. He makes the ultimate dumpster dive to do for us what we could never, ever do for ourselves. He lives the perfect life that we fail to live. He dies the death for our sin that we should have died. He rises to a new life that we don't deserve. Nehemiah gives us a glimpse of what Jesus will do. He gets involved. Compassion gets involved. Love gets involved.
That’s what happens when the breaking news of broken walls breaks Nehemiah’s heart.
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