Seeds for 09/18/2024 - Nehemiah 4:4-6
Scripture:
4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
Observation:
Yesterday we observed the negative reaction to Nehemiah and the Jewish people on the part of Sanballat and Tobiah. So, how do Nehemiah and the workers respond?
First, their reflexive response was to pray. The passage is interesting in that rather than narrating that they prayed, Nehemiah simply transitions into prayer in the account of what happened, as if it’s in real time: “Hear us, our God, for we are despised.”
Second, the prayer is reminiscent of what are called the “imprecatory” psalms. Nehemiah is voicing his anger at their antagonism toward the people of God. Nehemiah is also entrusting his anger both to God’s power and God’s wisdom. It’s possible, isn’t it, that honest anger is preferable to fake niceties? After all, God will ultimately decide how or how not to answer this prayer.
Third, they keep working “with all their heart” to continue advancing the project. They are not deterred by the antagonists. Having given it to the Lord, they keep focused on the vision and the work.
Application:
How automatic is prayer for you in the midst of your day when you encounter trials?
How inhibited or uninhibited are you in expressing/entrusting anger to God about things in your life in prayer?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, work in my spirit so that prayer is my first response when I encounter trials of all kinds. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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