04/14/2021 – Day 332 – Nehemiah 1 – 4// “The Wall of Jerusalem Rebuilt”
I wanted to share this introduction from Halley’s Bible Handbook. It helps us to connect this book to another book we just finished (Ezra) and another book we are about to read and will recall is the subject of a movie of a few years ago. (Esther):
“According to persistent Jewish tradition, Ezra was author of I and II Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah; the four books being originally one work (see page 213), though some think that Nehemiah himself may have written the book of Nehemiah.
Ezra was the great grandson of Hilikah the priest, who, 160 years earlier, had directed king Josiah’s reformation (Ezra 1:1, II Kings 22:8); a most worthy descendant of his famous ancestor. He went from Babylon to Jerusalem (457 B.C.); 80 years after the Jews had first returned, and 13 years before Nehemiah came.
Nehemiah went to Jerusalem (444 B.C.). Ezra had been there 13 years. But Ezra was a priest, teaching religion to the people. Nehemiah came as a civil governor, with authority from the king of Persia to rebuild the Wall, and restore Jerusalem as a fortified city. The Jews had been hom nearly 100 years, and had made little progress beyond rebuilding the Temple, a very insignificant Temple at that, because whenever they would start work on the Wall, their more powerful neighbors would either bluff them off by force, or through intrigue get orders from the Persian court for the work to stop.
Chapters 1, 2. Nehemiah’s Journey to Jerusalem.
Parts of the book are in the first person , being direct quotations from Nehemiah’s official reports.
Nehemiah was a man of Prayer, Patriotism, Action, Courage, and Perseverence. His first impulse always was to pray ( 1:4; 2:4; 4:4,9; 6:9, 14) He spent 4 months in prayer before he made his request to the king. (1:1, 2:1)
Nehemiah was a cupbearer to king Artaxerxes (1:11; 2:1), a trust and important official. Antaxerxes was King of Perisa (465 – 425 B.C.); son of Xerxes, and so, stepson of Queen Esther the Jewess. Esther became Queen of Persia about 60 years after the Jews had returned to Jerusalem. This must have given the Jews great prestige at the personage in the palace, when both Ezra and Nehemiah went to Jerusalem. Our guess is that we have Esther to thank for Artaxerxes’ kingly feeling toward the Jews, and his interest in having Jerusalem rebuilt.”
Soli Deo Gloria!