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Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever had what you might call “Sadness of Heart” and if so, what did you do about it? Join me again today with Mr. Nehemiah as he is beginning to tell us his remarkable story which we find in the Bible book which bears his name. Yesterday we saw Nehemiah was so deeply troubled by the report he received from his brother Hanani about the broken-down walls of Jerusalem, that Neheimah went into a time of profound ‘mourning, fasting and prayer’. (Nehemiah 1:2-4) We also looked closely yesterday at the prayer Nehemiah records for us which he poured out before God.
You’ll recall Nehemiah was ‘cupbearer’ to King Artaxerxes and therefore his ‘mourning, fasting and praying’ was all done, you might say, on his personal time, never on ‘company time’! By that I mean Nehemiah was not able to call in sick or take vacation days to manage his grief. His role required that he was available, on call, for the King at any time, day or night, 24/7/365!! And therefore, Nehemiah wants us to witness what happened when he was bringing food and wine to the king one day during his time of ‘mourning, fasting and prayer’. Nehemiah records it this way: “In the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me, ‘Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.’ I was very much afraid…” (Nehemiah 2:1,2)
Oh my, what a delicate and precarious moment for Nehemiah and in the history of both the Persian kingdom and the people of Israel! Again, as I have before, may I help us step into the story and understand it. Why would Nehemiah give us the name of the month and year this happened? Because you’ll recall Nehemiah’s story begins in the month of Kislev (Nehemiah 1:1) and therefore Nehemiah wants us to know he had been ‘mourning, fasting and praying’ for FOUR months before he risked bringing his concerns to the king! Why?
Because it was a capital offense for anyone to bring bad news to the king, or in any other way cause the king grief or pain! Yes, that meant kings needed to work hard to find trusted advisors who would be honest with them about the reality of the world around them! Thus Nehemiah, who we presume was in the king’s presence every day and perhaps multiple times a day, needed to ALWAYS be positive and encouraging regardless of what was going on in his life or behind the scenes in the palace!! Now, think about that for a moment.
The fact that the king recognized Nehemiah’s countenance and asked him about his ‘sadness of heart’ tells me they had by this time developed a very special trust relationship. So again, I ask, how often have either you or I experienced “sadness of heart” and what do we normally do about it? Of course, the truth is a great deal of the economy of most societies is built on dealing with ‘sadness of heart’ and helping people find happiness, right? It’s the entertainment industry; the cruise and vacation industry; the alcohol and drug and porn industries; it’s the gambling or gaming industry; it’s the video game and competitive athletics industries; it’s the destination wedding industry and the restaurant industry and the fashion etc. In fact, as you see, almost every segment of society works to help people find relief from “sadness of heart”. In truth, it’s the Religion industry too, isn’t it?
But have you discovered, my friends, that the very best antidote to ‘sadness of heart’ is a personal, powerful, enjoyable, fully trusting relationship with Almighty God the Father, God the Son our Savior, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit, alive and well residing in you and guiding you? There is nothing that compares to living in an authentic, vibrant, dynamic, love relationship with the God who created us; saved us from sin condemnation and bondage; and lives within us as our Counselor! While Nehemiah didn’t know anything about Jesus, already in his story I can see Nehemiah is a man of prayer and the Holy Spirit guides him powerfully.
Pause for a few seconds. May I give you a fresh, personal example? As I’m writing this the sun is shining outside my window but for some reason, I feel a very strong sense to get up and go outside. As I just did that, I found a very small dark cloud had moved over my house and it was actually beginning to rain! My car, which has cloth seats, had all the windows down! Had I NOT gone outside, well you know what would have happened to the inside of my car. So what was this strong sense I had to get up from “Walking with Jesus” and go outside? I say that is the Holy Spirit of God alive in me guiding me. And if you have the same Holy Spirit inside you as Nehemiah had and I have, then you understand how God can work in us to deal with this ‘sadness of heart’ issue, right? Do I hear AMEN rising up wherever you are in the world?
Nehemiah was suddenly in a quandary. Remember, it was a terrifying potential to bring bad news to the king! But Nehemiah’s heart, while sad, was ready for this moment, and guided by the Holy Spirit, Nehemiah responded to his majesty the king: “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” (Nehemiah 2:3) My guess is Nehemiah perhaps had his head bowed a bit so as to not look his majesty King Artaxerxes in the eye with this brief explanation. I don’t know if the king pause to ponder, but if he did, I suspect every second seemed like an eternity to Nehemiah as he wondered if suddenly a bag would be placed over his head and he’d be rushed out of the king’s presence to execution, as had happened to Haman in that very same room several years before, remember the story? (Esther 7:5-10)
Instead, Nehemiah heard these words from King Artaxerxes: “What is it you want?” Only five little words, but oh my what powerful words, what great words of hope for Nehemiah! What would you say if the most powerful man in the world asked you that five-word question today? What if God sent an angel to you with the same question? We need to look carefully at what Nehemiah did in this ‘defining moment’.
Nehemiah writes: “Then I prayed to the God of heaven…” (Nehemiah 2:4) Oh my that is so very powerful my friends, that I urge you to put a big circle around that verse in your Bible and put today’s date next to it! What if that was how you and I lived for the rest of our lives?Every day, in every situation, FIRST, quickly PRAY, asking God for HIS guidance before we react or respond; before we say or do anything in the circumstances around us… just as Nehemiah did! What difference could that make in our lives?
I think we need to pause right here to think about what we are seeing in that royal throne room and what Nehemiah is experiencing. We need to look closely at ourselves and the authenticity of the relationship we have, OR DON’T HAVE, with God, and what we do about ‘sadness of heart’.
On Monday, we’ll look to see what happened next, for it is remarkable! Meantime, here’s a great worship song filled with great promises from God for you and me, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend with Jesus…
Today’s Scripture: Nehemiah 2:1-4.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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