Nehemiah is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Susa: a position of proximity and trust at the highest level of Persian imperial administration. When his brother Hanani arrives from Judah with the report that the remnant is in great trouble and shame, that the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates destroyed by fire, Nehemiah sits down and weeps. For days he fasts and prays.
The prayer of Nehemiah 1 is the model of covenant intercession. He addresses God as the keeper of the covenant and chesed: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed. He confesses sin: both I and my father's house have sinned. He reminds God of his own word through Moses: if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are at the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them. And then the specific request: prosper your servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, Artaxerxes, whose favorable response Nehemiah needs and cannot compel.
Four months later the king asks why Nehemiah's face is sad. Nehemiah breathes a prayer and answers: if it please the king, let me go to Jerusalem and rebuild it. The four-month gap between the prayer and the answered prayer is significant: Nehemiah did not stop praying. He prayed and waited and worked in the ordinary duties of his position until the moment opened.
Thread 1 is the God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and is keeping it still in the court of a Persian king. Thread 4 is Nehemiah's genuine weeping, genuine fasting, genuine prayer, and genuine courage in speaking to the king when the moment came.
Nehemiah hears the report of Jerusalem's broken walls and weeps and fasts and prays for days: then asks the king for permission to go and build; the sequence from prayer to action is the model of Thread 4 operating inside Thread 1's sovereignly ordered circumstances.
שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וְהַחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו (shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed le-ohavav u-le-shomerei mitsvotav): that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed (the keeper of the covenant and chesed, the double object names God's two-sided faithfulness: the covenant as the structural commitment and the chesed as the relational warmth that flows within it; both are kept by the God Nehemiah addresses; this phrase echoes Deuteronomy 7:9's foundational character statement)
threads t1 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 7:9 · Nehemiah 2:1-8 · James 5:16
Nehemiah is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Susa: a position of proximity and trust at the highest level of Persian imperial administration. When his brother Hanani arrives from Judah with the report that the remnant is in great trouble and shame, that the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates destroyed by fire, Nehemiah sits down and weeps. For days he fasts and prays.
The prayer of Nehemiah 1 is the model of covenant intercession. He addresses God as the keeper of the covenant and chesed: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed. He confesses sin: both I and my father's house have sinned. He reminds God of his own word through Moses: if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are at the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them. And then the specific request: prosper your servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, Artaxerxes, whose favorable response Nehemiah needs and cannot compel.
Four months later the king asks why Nehemiah's face is sad. Nehemiah breathes a prayer and answers: if it please the king, let me go to Jerusalem and rebuild it. The four-month gap between the prayer and the answered prayer is significant: Nehemiah did not stop praying. He prayed and waited and worked in the ordinary duties of his position until the moment opened.
Thread 1 is the God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and is keeping it still in the court of a Persian king. Thread 4 is Nehemiah's genuine weeping, genuine fasting, genuine prayer, and genuine courage in speaking to the king when the moment came.
Nehemiah hears the report of Jerusalem's broken walls and weeps and fasts and prays for days: then asks the king for permission to go and build; the sequence from prayer to action is the model of Thread 4 operating inside Thread 1's sovereignly ordered circumstances.
שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וְהַחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו (shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed le-ohavav u-le-shomerei mitsvotav): that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed (the keeper of the covenant and chesed, the double object names God's two-sided faithfulness: the covenant as the structural commitment and the chesed as the relational warmth that flows within it; both are kept by the God Nehemiah addresses; this phrase echoes Deuteronomy 7:9's foundational character statement)
threads t1 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 7:9 · Nehemiah 2:1-8 · James 5:16
Nehemiah is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Susa: a position of proximity and trust at the highest level of Persian imperial administration. When his brother Hanani arrives from Judah with the report that the remnant is in great trouble and shame, that the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates destroyed by fire, Nehemiah sits down and weeps. For days he fasts and prays.
The prayer of Nehemiah 1 is the model of covenant intercession. He addresses God as the keeper of the covenant and chesed: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed. He confesses sin: both I and my father's house have sinned. He reminds God of his own word through Moses: if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are at the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them. And then the specific request: prosper your servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, Artaxerxes, whose favorable response Nehemiah needs and cannot compel.
Four months later the king asks why Nehemiah's face is sad. Nehemiah breathes a prayer and answers: if it please the king, let me go to Jerusalem and rebuild it. The four-month gap between the prayer and the answered prayer is significant: Nehemiah did not stop praying. He prayed and waited and worked in the ordinary duties of his position until the moment opened.
Thread 1 is the God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and is keeping it still in the court of a Persian king. Thread 4 is Nehemiah's genuine weeping, genuine fasting, genuine prayer, and genuine courage in speaking to the king when the moment came.
Nehemiah hears the report of Jerusalem's broken walls and weeps and fasts and prays for days: then asks the king for permission to go and build; the sequence from prayer to action is the model of Thread 4 operating inside Thread 1's sovereignly ordered circumstances.
שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וְהַחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו (shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed le-ohavav u-le-shomerei mitsvotav): that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed (the keeper of the covenant and chesed, the double object names God's two-sided faithfulness: the covenant as the structural commitment and the chesed as the relational warmth that flows within it; both are kept by the God Nehemiah addresses; this phrase echoes Deuteronomy 7:9's foundational character statement)
threads t1 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 7:9 · Nehemiah 2:1-8 · James 5:16
Nehemiah is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Susa: a position of proximity and trust at the highest level of Persian imperial administration. When his brother Hanani arrives from Judah with the report that the remnant is in great trouble and shame, that the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates destroyed by fire, Nehemiah sits down and weeps. For days he fasts and prays.
The prayer of Nehemiah 1 is the model of covenant intercession. He addresses God as the keeper of the covenant and chesed: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed. He confesses sin: both I and my father's house have sinned. He reminds God of his own word through Moses: if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are at the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them. And then the specific request: prosper your servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, Artaxerxes, whose favorable response Nehemiah needs and cannot compel.
Four months later the king asks why Nehemiah's face is sad. Nehemiah breathes a prayer and answers: if it please the king, let me go to Jerusalem and rebuild it. The four-month gap between the prayer and the answered prayer is significant: Nehemiah did not stop praying. He prayed and waited and worked in the ordinary duties of his position until the moment opened.
Thread 1 is the God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and is keeping it still in the court of a Persian king. Thread 4 is Nehemiah's genuine weeping, genuine fasting, genuine prayer, and genuine courage in speaking to the king when the moment came.
Nehemiah hears the report of Jerusalem's broken walls and weeps and fasts and prays for days: then asks the king for permission to go and build; the sequence from prayer to action is the model of Thread 4 operating inside Thread 1's sovereignly ordered circumstances.
שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וְהַחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו (shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed le-ohavav u-le-shomerei mitsvotav): that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed (the keeper of the covenant and chesed, the double object names God's two-sided faithfulness: the covenant as the structural commitment and the chesed as the relational warmth that flows within it; both are kept by the God Nehemiah addresses; this phrase echoes Deuteronomy 7:9's foundational character statement)
threads t1 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 7:9 · Nehemiah 2:1-8 · James 5:16
Nehemiah is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Susa: a position of proximity and trust at the highest level of Persian imperial administration. When his brother Hanani arrives from Judah with the report that the remnant is in great trouble and shame, that the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates destroyed by fire, Nehemiah sits down and weeps. For days he fasts and prays.
The prayer of Nehemiah 1 is the model of covenant intercession. He addresses God as the keeper of the covenant and chesed: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed. He confesses sin: both I and my father's house have sinned. He reminds God of his own word through Moses: if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are at the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them. And then the specific request: prosper your servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, Artaxerxes, whose favorable response Nehemiah needs and cannot compel.
Four months later the king asks why Nehemiah's face is sad. Nehemiah breathes a prayer and answers: if it please the king, let me go to Jerusalem and rebuild it. The four-month gap between the prayer and the answered prayer is significant: Nehemiah did not stop praying. He prayed and waited and worked in the ordinary duties of his position until the moment opened.
Thread 1 is the God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and is keeping it still in the court of a Persian king. Thread 4 is Nehemiah's genuine weeping, genuine fasting, genuine prayer, and genuine courage in speaking to the king when the moment came.
Nehemiah hears the report of Jerusalem's broken walls and weeps and fasts and prays for days: then asks the king for permission to go and build; the sequence from prayer to action is the model of Thread 4 operating inside Thread 1's sovereignly ordered circumstances.
שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וְהַחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו (shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed le-ohavav u-le-shomerei mitsvotav): that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed (the keeper of the covenant and chesed, the double object names God's two-sided faithfulness: the covenant as the structural commitment and the chesed as the relational warmth that flows within it; both are kept by the God Nehemiah addresses; this phrase echoes Deuteronomy 7:9's foundational character statement)
threads t1 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 7:9 · Nehemiah 2:1-8 · James 5:16
Nehemiah is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Susa: a position of proximity and trust at the highest level of Persian imperial administration. When his brother Hanani arrives from Judah with the report that the remnant is in great trouble and shame, that the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates destroyed by fire, Nehemiah sits down and weeps. For days he fasts and prays.
The prayer of Nehemiah 1 is the model of covenant intercession. He addresses God as the keeper of the covenant and chesed: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed. He confesses sin: both I and my father's house have sinned. He reminds God of his own word through Moses: if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are at the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them. And then the specific request: prosper your servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, Artaxerxes, whose favorable response Nehemiah needs and cannot compel.
Four months later the king asks why Nehemiah's face is sad. Nehemiah breathes a prayer and answers: if it please the king, let me go to Jerusalem and rebuild it. The four-month gap between the prayer and the answered prayer is significant: Nehemiah did not stop praying. He prayed and waited and worked in the ordinary duties of his position until the moment opened.
Thread 1 is the God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and is keeping it still in the court of a Persian king. Thread 4 is Nehemiah's genuine weeping, genuine fasting, genuine prayer, and genuine courage in speaking to the king when the moment came.
Nehemiah hears the report of Jerusalem's broken walls and weeps and fasts and prays for days: then asks the king for permission to go and build; the sequence from prayer to action is the model of Thread 4 operating inside Thread 1's sovereignly ordered circumstances.
שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וְהַחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו (shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed le-ohavav u-le-shomerei mitsvotav): that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed (the keeper of the covenant and chesed, the double object names God's two-sided faithfulness: the covenant as the structural commitment and the chesed as the relational warmth that flows within it; both are kept by the God Nehemiah addresses; this phrase echoes Deuteronomy 7:9's foundational character statement)
threads t1 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 7:9 · Nehemiah 2:1-8 · James 5:16
Nehemiah is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Susa: a position of proximity and trust at the highest level of Persian imperial administration. When his brother Hanani arrives from Judah with the report that the remnant is in great trouble and shame, that the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates destroyed by fire, Nehemiah sits down and weeps. For days he fasts and prays.
The prayer of Nehemiah 1 is the model of covenant intercession. He addresses God as the keeper of the covenant and chesed: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed. He confesses sin: both I and my father's house have sinned. He reminds God of his own word through Moses: if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are at the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them. And then the specific request: prosper your servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, Artaxerxes, whose favorable response Nehemiah needs and cannot compel.
Four months later the king asks why Nehemiah's face is sad. Nehemiah breathes a prayer and answers: if it please the king, let me go to Jerusalem and rebuild it. The four-month gap between the prayer and the answered prayer is significant: Nehemiah did not stop praying. He prayed and waited and worked in the ordinary duties of his position until the moment opened.
Thread 1 is the God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and is keeping it still in the court of a Persian king. Thread 4 is Nehemiah's genuine weeping, genuine fasting, genuine prayer, and genuine courage in speaking to the king when the moment came.
Nehemiah hears the report of Jerusalem's broken walls and weeps and fasts and prays for days: then asks the king for permission to go and build; the sequence from prayer to action is the model of Thread 4 operating inside Thread 1's sovereignly ordered circumstances.
שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וְהַחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו (shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed le-ohavav u-le-shomerei mitsvotav): that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed (the keeper of the covenant and chesed, the double object names God's two-sided faithfulness: the covenant as the structural commitment and the chesed as the relational warmth that flows within it; both are kept by the God Nehemiah addresses; this phrase echoes Deuteronomy 7:9's foundational character statement)
threads t1 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 7:9 · Nehemiah 2:1-8 · James 5:16
Nehemiah is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Susa: a position of proximity and trust at the highest level of Persian imperial administration. When his brother Hanani arrives from Judah with the report that the remnant is in great trouble and shame, that the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates destroyed by fire, Nehemiah sits down and weeps. For days he fasts and prays.
The prayer of Nehemiah 1 is the model of covenant intercession. He addresses God as the keeper of the covenant and chesed: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed. He confesses sin: both I and my father's house have sinned. He reminds God of his own word through Moses: if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are at the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them. And then the specific request: prosper your servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, Artaxerxes, whose favorable response Nehemiah needs and cannot compel.
Four months later the king asks why Nehemiah's face is sad. Nehemiah breathes a prayer and answers: if it please the king, let me go to Jerusalem and rebuild it. The four-month gap between the prayer and the answered prayer is significant: Nehemiah did not stop praying. He prayed and waited and worked in the ordinary duties of his position until the moment opened.
Thread 1 is the God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and is keeping it still in the court of a Persian king. Thread 4 is Nehemiah's genuine weeping, genuine fasting, genuine prayer, and genuine courage in speaking to the king when the moment came.
Nehemiah hears the report of Jerusalem's broken walls and weeps and fasts and prays for days: then asks the king for permission to go and build; the sequence from prayer to action is the model of Thread 4 operating inside Thread 1's sovereignly ordered circumstances.
שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וְהַחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו (shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed le-ohavav u-le-shomerei mitsvotav): that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: shomer ha-berit ve-ha-chesed (the keeper of the covenant and chesed, the double object names God's two-sided faithfulness: the covenant as the structural commitment and the chesed as the relational warmth that flows within it; both are kept by the God Nehemiah addresses; this phrase echoes Deuteronomy 7:9's foundational character statement)
threads t1 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 7:9 · Nehemiah 2:1-8 · James 5:16