A study of the book of Nehemiah 

#1 One Leader Who Cared! Nehemiah 1:1-11

“The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.”

George Bernard Shaw put those words into the mouth of the Rev. Anthony Anderson in the second act of his play The Devil’s Disciple. The statement certainly summarizes what Jesus taught in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37); and it rebukes all those who fold their arms complacently, smile benignly, and say somewhat sarcastically, “Ask me if I care!”

Nehemiah was the kind of person who cared. He cared about the traditions of the past and the needs of the present. He cared about the hopes for the future. He cared about his heritage, his ancestral city, and the glory of his God.

God’s work has never been easy, and in these last days it is getting more and more difficult to serve. The enemy is hurling his ammunition at us as never before and is setting his subtle traps where we least expect them.

But the same great God who enabled Nehemiah to finish building the walls of Jerusalem will enable us to finish our course with joy and accomplish the work He has called us to do. There is no reason to quit or even to despair!

In my estimation, when it comes to leadership, Nehemiah stands with Old Testament heroes like Moses, Joshua, and David. It has done my heart good to study this book afresh and learn from Nehemiah the secrets of resolute leadership and successful service. I trust that reading these chapters will increase your own determination to serve God faithfully and finish your ministry with joy.

We're beginning a series of messages studying through the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament. It is a wonderful source for instruction about the nature of leadership and the qualities that make a good leader.

The world in which today's young men and women take their turn at the helm will be different from the world we live in now. Some eras require strong, even authoritarian leadership, a firm and powerful voice. Other eras require leaders whose strengths are more in community-building, communication, and articulating a common vision.

We don't know what the world will be like ten or fifteen years from now, what skill set will be required, what issues leaders will face. What we do know, though, is that at the core, effective leadership has qualities that don't change from one time to another: wisdom, honesty, character, courage, and most important of all, godliness: a humble heart before God that will receive truth and direction and insight from him and dispense them to others.

Moses was the right man to lead the exodus and command a nation in the wilderness. Joshua was the right man to lead the conquest of the promised land. David was the right man to establish a monarchy. And in his time and place, Nehemiah was the right man to build a wall around a broken city.

Some background to the book of Nehemiah will be helpful. The period after the Babylonian exile, when the Jews were allowed to finally return to Jerusalem and try to build up again what had been lost, was very much like our own time. The exiles who returned were living in an era after the golden age of Israel. Similarly, the Christian faith and public acceptance of the values of the Bible used to inform our country much more than they do today. The phrase "post-Christian" is used by many to describe our time.

Second, we note that Nehemiah's book is written mostly in the first person. Most of the history books of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, were written by later observers after the events they record. Nehemiah speaks often of his thoughts and especially his prayers, giving us insights we wouldn't have from a later historian.

Third, the book records many prayers and occasions for prayer, and it has much to teach on this vital subject.

Let's read the opening three verses of this book as an introduction to the whole:

(Nehemiah 1:1-3)  "The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, {2} Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. {3} They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.""

He cared enough to ask (Neh. 1:1-3)

There are two pictures I want to draw for us from these three verses. One is of Nehemiah himself, and we'll come back to that in a bit. The picture I'd like to speak of first grows out of Hanani's words (verse 3): They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.""

Living in a city with no walls

Hanani is a close relative (perhaps the full brother) of Nehemiah. When he comes to Susa, Nehemiah asks him about the condition of the people who have returned to Judah from exile, and he receives a grave report: "They are in great trouble and disgrace, the wall is down, and the gates have been burned."

Let's step back and do an eagle's-eye view of Israel's history to put this in context. God called Abram from Ur of the Chaldees to follow him. The story of the redemption of the world began with this man. One man led to one family, which led finally to a small tribe. The Israelites were eventually enslaved in Egypt. They grew to be a large people over four hundred years and were birthed out of Egypt as the nation of Israel through the exodus led by Moses.

Eventually they were allowed to enter the land God had promised them, Canaan. Hundreds of years passed during which the nation experienced struggles, faithlessness, and wrestling with God. The high point of Israel's history came when David, a godly king, was called to sit on the throne. For forty years David expanded the nation in both breadth of influence and knowledge of God.

Israel reached that high point only to degrade from there. David's son was a lesser man. His grandson was a terrible man. And eventually the nation disintegrated and most of it was enslaved, the ten northern tribes within a few hundred years. Two tribes of the twelve held on until 586 B.C., when finally they were overrun by the Babylonians, and all of the Jews were captured by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army. Jerusalem was destroyed, the walls knocked down, and the temple burned. The people were deported, enslaved once again. Their history had come full circle. They had rebelled against God and refused to be what he called them to be, the light to the nations, representing God in the world, telling the entire world of his love and faithfulness. That rebellion is why they were finally taken back into captivity.

Prophets predicted that this captivity would not destroy the nation; it would end and the people would be allowed to go back home. And in three stages, over about a hundred years, they were allowed to migrate back to Jerusalem and the environs around it, only to discover the city was still forlorn and desolate. Living there was dangerous and difficult and sorrowful. They managed to rebuild the temple--a small one--with difficulty. They were continually under threat of dissolving among the peoples around them.

Finally Nehemiah tells his story in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes. By now Persia had replaced Babylon as the region's great power, and the Persians ruled with a very different means of control. The commitment of the Persians was to resettle captured people in their native lands. While the Babylonians had ruled with an iron hand and a hobnailed boot, destroying every suggestion of independence, the Persians were more enlightened. Conquered peoples could act with a degree of autonomy as long as they supported the state and paid their taxes. And as long as their religion would support the reign of the emperor, they were free to worship as they chose.

Nehemiah was a layman, cupbearer to the great “Artaxerxes Longimanus,” who ruled Persia from 464 to 423 b.c. He is identified as the son of Hachaliah to distinguish him from other Jews of the same name (Neh. 3:16; Ezra 2:2). Nehemiah means “The Lord has comforted.”

A cupbearer was much more than our modern “butler” (see Gen. 40). It was a position of great responsibility and privilege. At each meal, he tested the king’s wine to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. A man who stood that close to the king in public had to be handsome, cultured, knowledgeable in court procedures, and able to converse with the king and advise him if asked (see 41:1-13). Because he had access to the king, the cupbearer was a man of great influence, which he could use for good or for evil.

That Nehemiah, a Jew, held such an important position in the palace speaks well of his character and ability (Dan. 1:1-4). For nearly a century, the Jewish remnant had been back in their own land, and Nehemiah could have joined them; but he chose to remain in the palace. It turned out that God had a work for him to do there that he could not have accomplished elsewhere. God put Nehemiah in Susa just as He had put Esther there a generation before, and just as He had put Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon. When God wants to accomplish a work, He always prepares His workers and puts them in the right places at the right time.

The Hebrew month of Chislev runs from mid-November to mid-December on our calendar; and the twentieth year of Artaxerxes was the year 444 b.c. Shushan (or Susa) was the capital city of the Persian Empire and the site of the king’s winter palace. No doubt it was just another routine day when Nehemiah met his brother Hanani (see Neh. 7:2), who had just returned from a visit to Jerusalem, but it turned out to be a turning point in Nehemiah’s life.

Like large doors, great life-changing events can swing on very small hinges. It was just another day when Moses went out to care for his sheep, but on that day he heard the Lord’s call and became a prophet (Ex. 3). It was an ordinary day when David was called home from shepherding his flock; but on that day, he was anointed king (1 Sam. 16). It was an ordinary day when Peter, Andrew, James, and John were mending their nets after a night of failure; but that was the day Jesus called them to become fishers of men (Luke 5:1-11). You never know what God has in store, even in a commonplace conversation with a friend or relative; so keep your heart open to God’s providential leading. I attended a birthday party one evening when I was nineteen years old, and a statement made to me there by a friend helped direct my life into the plans God had for me; and I will be forever grateful.

Why would Nehemiah inquire about a struggling remnant of people who lived hundreds of miles away? After all, he was the king’s cupbearer and he was successfully secure in his own life. Certainly it wasn’t his fault that his ancestors had sinned against the Lord and brought judgment to the city of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah. A century and a half before, the Prophet Jeremiah had given this word from the Lord: “For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?” (Jer. 15:5, nkjv) Nehemiah was the man God had chosen to do those very things!

Some people prefer not to know what’s going on, because information might bring obligation. “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” says the old adage; but is it true? In a letter to a Mrs. Foote, Mark Twain wrote, “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.” But what we don’t know could hurt us a great deal! There are people in the cemetery who chose not to know the truth. The slogan for the 1987 AIDS publicity campaign was “Don’t die of ignorance”; and that slogan can be applied to many areas of life besides health.

Nehemiah asked about Jerusalem and the Jews living there because he had a caring heart. When we truly care about people, we want the facts, no matter how painful they may be. “Practical politics consists in ignoring facts,” American historian Henry Adams said; but Aldous Huxley said, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” Closing our eyes and ears to the truth could be the first step toward tragedy for ourselves as well as for others.

What did Nehemiah learn about Jerusalem and the Jews? Three words summarize the bad news: remnant, ruin, and reproach. Instead of a land inhabited by a great nation, only a remnant of people lived there; and they were in great affliction and struggling to survive. Instead of a magnificent city, Jerusalem was in shambles; and where there had once been great glory, there was now nothing but great reproach.

Of course, Nehemiah had known all his life that the city of his fathers was in ruins, because the Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem’s walls, gates, and temple in 586 b.c. (2 Kings 25:1-21). Fifty years later, a group of 50,000 Jews had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the city. Since the Gentiles had hindered their work, however, the temple was not completed for twenty years (Ezra 1–6), and the gates and walls never were repaired. Perhaps Nehemiah had hoped that the work on the walls had begun again and that the city was now restored. Without walls and gates, the city was open to ridicule and attack. See Psalms 48, 79, 84, and 87 to see how much loyal Jews loved their city.

Are we like Nehemiah, anxious to know the truth even about the worst situations? Is our interest born of concern or idle curiosity? When we read missionary prayer letters, the news in religious periodicals, or even our church’s ministry reports, do we want the facts, and do the facts burden us? Are we the kind of people who care enough to ask?

Now let's look again at the word of Hanani: "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."

A city with no wall around it is vulnerable and disgraced. By analogy, we might say that a vulnerable heart is one in which invasion and seduction can happen at any time. Whether it's a physical city that is in danger or a faith that lacks conviction, in which everything is true and nothing is true, the dangers are similar.

We live in a world that is very much without boundaries, one in which the difference between truth and lies, holy and profane, substance and image, deep and shallow, lasting and momentary, divine and human, is regularly muddied. We ought to acknowledge and defend what we stand for. If we can't tell the difference anymore between righteousness and unrighteousness, between godliness and rebellion, then we live in a place without walls. Part of the sorrow and anxiety of the Jews who were living in Jerusalem was that they had lost their identity as God's beloved ones. They didn't know who they were or what they stood for anymore, and their broken walls were very much like their spiritually undefended hearts.

The other thing I would say by way of analogy is that while it's hard to live under the iron rule of an enemy, it's also hard to live in a multicultural, highly tolerant set of circumstances in which you can have your private religion as long as you never rock the boat. So the rule of Persia was a welcome replacement for the rule of Babylon, but it carried with it its own difficulties.

Living in two worlds

Now let's look at the other picture we can draw from these verses. Who is Nehemiah? What does he tell us of himself? He is the son of Hacaliah, a man unknown to us anywhere else in Scripture. He is the kinsman of Hanani. In saying that, he declares that he is a member of the Jewish race, an exile himself. The other thing he tells us in these verses is that he's now living in the citadel of Susa, the fortress of the Persian emperor.

Finally, in the last sentence of chapter 1, which we're going to get to in the next message, is almost a throw-away line: "I was cupbearer to the king." As it turns out, over the course of exile he had become educated, grown in stature, and moved up through the ranks. He was a man who tasted the king's wine before the king drank it to make sure it wasn't poisoned. He therefore had intimate access to the royal person. He almost certainly had political standing, a portfolio, a position of state of some kind; the cupbearer typically did. He was a man high in the ranks of influence in government, and he presumably had the wealth and stature that went with the title.

Note the humble way Nehemiah introduces himself. He tells us of his unknown father. He tells us of his commitment to the exiled people. He tells us where he lives. He even recalls his prayer. It's a wonderful prayer, which we're going to look at in the next message. He says all that before he gets around to telling us that he's cupbearer to the king.

How do you introduce yourself? What things about you are the most important to tell someone first? Do people know about your prayer life before they get your business card? Do they know of your passion for the things of God? Do you regard these as more important than where you work and for whom you work and what status in society you occupy?

In introducing himself the way he does, Nehemiah is also identifying the great tension of his life in these opening two verses. He lives in Susa, and he's a kinsman of the exiles. How is that tension going to get resolved? He is cupbearer to the king, a man of station and influence, living in the capital, near to the king. It must have occurred to him that he could well serve God in that position. Daniel served foreign kings all his life and never returned to Jerusalem. We can imagine Nehemiah asking, "Should I be like that? Should I use the status I have to steer the emperor toward good policies?"

But the tension remains: "My brother has come and said the people are in disgrace. Their hearts are sick. The walls are broken. The gates are burned. On the front lines people are risking much to be faithful to God. They might have stayed abroad, made their living in exile, succeeded in having some kind of worldly stature, kept their religion as a kind of important compartment at home. But they didn't, and now they're under tremendous pressure."

I think most of us live in two worlds exactly as Nehemiah did. Most of us in a sense are cupbearer to the king. We have risen to some level of status in this world. It's paying off. We're making a living. We're in secure surroundings. Careers have a predictable trajectory. Yet some have been called into front-line service of God. Some experience major changes in occupation, residence, language, and culture. Some put lives and fortunes at risk to serve the Lord. How do we determine what place of discipleship God intends for us?

The text before us can help answer this question. It's significant that Nehemiah asked his brother Hanani about the remnant in Jerusalem. He could have insulated himself from the visitors if he chose to. Yet he sought them out and heard first-hand of the hardships and sorrows of his people.

This is an important starting point. It's easy to stay unaware. Do you care enough to want to find out what's happening with kids and youth, with foreign missions and care of the poor? Where is the word of God changing hearts? Where are people coming to Christ? I don't want the difficulties of discipleship to be reduced because I am too busy to be informed.

This introductory message will end without a resolution to Nehemiah's dilemma. Learning to hear God as he directs our lives is not a quick or easy process. It requires honesty about ourselves.

The musical Fiddler on the Roof [1]is a sweet story of Jews in exile. It's especially the story of a milkman named Tevye who loved God and wanted to live a life that pleased him. My favorite song in that musical is If I Were a Rich Man. In it Tevye lists all the things that would happen if he were a rich man: He'd have chickens and geese, and his wife would have a proper double chin. She'd have servants she could order around. They'd have one long staircase going up and a longer one coming down. And more. The singing grows quiet toward the end, and you hear the heart of the man. He says, "You know what I'd really do if I were a rich man? I'd have a seat by the eastern wall in the synagogue (nearest to Jerusalem), and I'd discuss the holy books seven hours every day, and that would be the sweetest thing of all."(1) He was saying, "If I were rich, if I had everything I really wanted in life, what I'd really want is to be where people care about God. That's what I'd use my riches for."

That's the tension that Nehemiah faces. I pray it's ours as well. If I could do whatever I wanted, if I could somehow figure out how to steer my way through the responsibilities and the dreams I have and get to be more where I want to be, where I'd want to be is where God is, with the people who love him the most. That would be the sweetest thing of all.

He cared enough to weep (Neh. 1:4)

This is the time of year for blockbuster adventure movies filled with dangers and rescues, heroes and villains. The book we're studying in this series, Nehemiah, is similar. It's a story of struggles between good and evil, heroic deeds, and tensions that need resolution.

We ended the last message with our hero, Nehemiah, caught in a conflict, realizing that he needed an answer from God as to how to resolve the dilemma. Information was brought to him in the Persian citadel of Susa, from Jerusalem and its environs, a thousand miles away. It concerned the exiles who had returned there over the course of three generations. Chapter 1 verse 3 describes their difficult circumstances. "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire." Nehemiah's brothers and sisters in the exile were in anguish. Their city was a place of sorrow.

The end of chapter 1 records the other horn of the dilemma. Nehemiah tells us he was cupbearer to the Persian emperor, Artaxerxes, the most powerful man in the world. Cupbearer was a very high station, an influential political position. Nehemiah had regular access to the king and would have been counted on to give advice. He surely had the status and wealth that went along with having such a position. His two identities pulled at him: brother to the exiles and cupbearer to the king.

Many of us are familiar with this tension. The world has paid off for us. We have found a place of security and status and comfort and wealth. And we know that on the front lines of the work of God people are caring for the poor and the sick, doing evangelism in areas where they are unwelcome and threatened, putting their lives on the line, risking all they are and have.

There are certainly other kinds of tensions as well. It may be that you're overcoming some pattern in your life that has ruined and hurt you, and this struggle is the pattern of stress you're called to live with. Or it may be that there is some other pressure upon you'a family crisis or medical emergency. Nehemiah's prayers and growing faith can be an encouragement in these circumstances as well. But those who have dual identities as Nehemiah did will find this chapter especially helpful.

We might note that others in the Bible faced the same problem Nehemiah did:

1.      Joseph had risen to the highest station of the land in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh, and he had to resolve the question of his identity as a Jew and his identity as an Egyptian, how he would serve God having the place and opportunity that he did.

2.      David had the same problem when he was running for his life from Saul. He lived for a time among the Philistines, and was accorded a position of respect among them.

3.      Daniel was Nebuchadnezzar's most important advisor.

4.      Esther served as queen in a Persian court. Her uncle Mordecai spoke to her at a crisis moment and said, "...Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14.) She was a Jewish believer, and she was queen in Persia. How would she resolve the dual responsibilities?

There are a couple of ways that most of us tend to react when we feel this sort of tension. Some of us, and I think this would have been Nehemiah's natural response, tend to fire off in all directions at once. If there are people suffering, somebody ought to do something about it. "I'm going to make some phone calls, issue a series of edicts, plan some strategies, and make something happen!" A lot of activity is generated, but nothing gets changed. The other natural inclination when we feel this vise of conflicting pressures is to look at how hard it will be to do anything. It's such a long way from Susa to Jerusalem. The people have been there a long time, and they've got it tough, but what can be done? There's so much inertia to overcome, so many complexities and questions that need to be answered. So we decide to start a committee to do a study and issue a report. And in the end, we conclude that probably somebody else ought to do it anyway. It's easy to be impressed with how difficult the problem is and just give up.

But Nehemiah didn't choose either of those natural options. He didn't fire off in all directions at once, and he didn't do nothing. What he did was enter into the presence of God in a profound way, and that's what we want to consider in this message.

(Nehemiah 1:4)  "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven."

What makes people laugh or weep is often an indication of character. People who laugh at others’ mistakes or misfortunes, or who weep over trivial personal disappointments, are lacking either in culture or character, and possibly both. Sometimes weeping is a sign of weakness; but with Nehemiah, it was a sign of strength, as it was with Jeremiah (Jer. 9:1), Paul (Acts 20:19), and the Lord Jesus (Luke 19:41). In fact, Nehemiah was like the Lord Jesus in that he willingly shared the burden that was crushing others. “The reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon Me” (Ps. 69:9; Rom. 15:3).

Nehemiah didn't know what to do. The answer was not obvious to him. God had put him where he was. He was cupbearer to the king, not for bad reasons but for good reasons. There was no sinful process that had led to his success in the empire. His family had been taken there as exiles and slaves. They had no choice in the matter. He was raised there under circumstances that were dealt to him. And he had succeeded. The problem was, now he knew there were people to whom his heart was knit, with whom his destiny was cast, who were beaten down by the circumstances in Jerusalem. After he was made aware of their suffering, then he knew that the report had come to him for reasons that his heavenly Father had chosen as well. And he didn't know how to proceed. "For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven."

That period of "some days" is probably four months. In 1:1 he says, "In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year...." In 2:1, when he begins to take action, he refers to the month of Nisan, four months later. In a moment we're going to read a prayer that is probably a distillation of what took place in the four months he wept and mourned and fasted and prayed. He went back time and again to be with God. He didn't understand and he wanted answers. He didn't take the easy way out. As Jacob wrestled with the angel and said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me" (Genesis 32:26), Nehemiah wrestled with God and said, "I need some answers from you. The burden is heavy. The direction is not obvious." For four months he spent time with the Lord in this way. Verse 6 says he prayed "day and night."

When God puts a burden on your heart, don’t try to escape it; for if you do, you may miss the blessing He has planned for you. The Book of Nehemiah begins with “great affliction” (Neh. 1:3), but before it closes, there is great joy (8:12, 17). “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). Our tears water the “seeds of providence” that God has planted on our path; and without our tears, those seeds could never grow and produce fruit.

It was customary for the Jews to sit down when they mourned (Ezra 9:1-4; 2:13). Unconsciously, Nehemiah was imitating the grieving Jewish captives who had been exiled in Babylon years before (Ps. 137:1). Like Daniel, Nehemiah probably had a private room where he prayed to God with his face toward Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10; 1 Kings 8:28-30). Fasting was required of the Jews only once a year, on the annual Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:29); but Nehemiah spent several days fasting, weeping, and praying. He knew that somebody had to do something to rescue Jerusalem, and he was willing to go.

Four verbs are used in verse 4 that may help us see Nehemiah in God's presence. It says, first of all, "...I sat down and wept." When it matters to you that someone else's experience is difficult, when you love somebody, you make yourself vulnerable to their pain. Paul clearly describes the church that way in the New Testament: "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." (1 Corinthians 12:26.) We're part of each other too much to not feel others' pain. I much prefer to let layers of distance exist between myself and other people so that I can know of their circumstance and maybe even wish them well, but not have the hardship of whatever it is they're dealing with enter my heart. But I'm not successful at keeping the wall up, and God won't let any of us be. There are times when somebody else's misery or sorrow descends on you, and your body reacts. Tears fall, sobs break loose, your shoulders sag. That's the first thing that happened to Nehemiah. He let himself emotionally be part of what his people were going through.

The second thing we're told in verse 4 is that he mourned. Mourning is a thoughtful response to the hard circumstances. Weeping is emotional, often involuntary. But mourning is a deliberate, thoughtful entering into the problem. It includes taking off the masks, if you will. It acknowledges that there is not only pain but guilt, that things are not only hurtful but wrong. We'll see in a bit his acknowledgment in this prayer: "We did this to ourselves. The reason life is so hard is that we resisted God." There's an awful sense in which we are reaping what we sowed.

The third thing Nehemiah refers to in this process is fasting. Now, that certainly includes choices to restrict one's diet for the purpose of paying attention to God. But in the ancient world meals were not like ours. We can have a sandwich with us or quickly grab something to eat and be talking on the phone and typing while we eat it, so that the experience of eating happens almost without our knowing it. In the ancient world meals were communal events. The whole family would be together. It took a long time to prepare. It was expected that you would enter into extended conversation and be part of the social network. So fasting was a deliberate attempt not only to keep from eating but to withdraw from the whole network, to stop listening to all the voices, to not attend to all the responsibilities. Fasting was stepping away from the world and all its entanglements in order to spend time with God.

It was more than just not eating food. He was saying, "I'm stepping back. God will have space in my life; no intruders are allowed."

If that was the way it was in the ancient world, think of how much more difficult it is in the modern world to make time for God. Think of how many ways we can be contacted and demands can be made on us for response: meetings, phones, message machines, mail, e-mail, aggressive advertising and promotion.

The fourth thing mentioned in verse 4 is prayer before the God of heaven. That's a broad, inclusive term for communication with God. Knowing he had a problem, he spoke with and listened to the God of heaven, the Lord of all. His heart would not let him rest. He didn't know what to do, and so he spent these four months wrestling with God, calling on God, appealing, listening, returning, not settling for easy, obvious answers, but wanting to know what his Lord would do with his life, what his future should be.

He cared enough to pray (Neh. 1:5-10)

(Nehemiah 1:5-10)  "Then I said: "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, {6} let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. {7} We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. {8} "Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, {9} but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.' {10} "They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand."

This prayer is the first of twelve instances of prayer recorded in this book. (See 2:4; 4:4, 9; 5:19; 6:9, 14; 9:5ff; 13:14, 22, 29, 31.) The Book of Nehemiah opens and closes with prayer. It is obvious that Nehemiah was a man of faith who depended wholly on the Lord to help him accomplish the work He had called him to do. The Scottish novelist George MacDonald said, “In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably.” Nehemiah succeeded because he depended on God. Speaking about the church’s ministry today, the late Alan Redpath said, “There is too much working before men and too little waiting before God.”

Let me make some observations about this prayer. It's one of the great prayers of the Bible, and there are more to come. This is a great book to read if you want to learn to pray or to grow as a man or woman of prayer.

Verse 5 begins as the majority of the prayers recorded in the Bible do, by speaking to God of himself. It doesn't start with Nehemiah's problems, hopes and dreams, or concerns. As Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "Our Father in heaven," so Nehemiah starts out, "O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love...."

The insistence that begins this prayer is that events are going to have their outcome not based on the armies of earth, the wealth of individuals, or the great social currents that roil against one another, raising up some and putting down others. Events in history are going to have their outcome based on what God decides. "You are the God of heaven and you keep your promises."

Of course, it didn't look that way to Nehemiah, and it doesn't look that way to us. No measurement of current events is going to suggest to you that God is in charge. It's not apparent that the Lord is bringing glory to himself and mercy to people, or that he is working out history so that it will have the glorious ending that he has promised it will have. It doesn't often seem as if God is doing what he ought to do in our lives. It seems as if everybody else is in charge of our lives, and where is he? Ray Stedman used to quote a limerick:

Humankind had a lovely beginning, but we ruined our chances by sinning.

We know that the story will end to God's glory, but at present, the other side's winning.

That's the way the world looks: We started well, and it's supposed to come out well, but right now the bad guys are in charge. But it's not true. God keeps his promises, and that's how Nehemiah starts his prayer.

This prayer begins with ascription of praise to God (1:5). “God of heaven” is the title Cyrus used for the Lord when he announced that the Jews could return to their land (2 Chron. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-2). The heathen gods were but idols on the earth, but the God of the Jews was Lord in heaven. Ezra often used this divine title (5:11-12; 6:9; 7:12, 21, 23), and it is found four times in Nehemiah (1:4-5; 2:4, 20) and three times in Daniel (2:18-19, 44). Nehemiah began his prayer as we should begin our prayers: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name” (Matt. 6:9).

To what kind of a God do we pray when we lift our prayers to “the God of heaven”? We pray to a “great and awesome God” (Neh. 1:5, nkjv; and see 4:14, 8:6, and 9:32), who is worthy of our praise and worship. If you are experiencing great affliction (v. 3) and are about to undertake a great work (4:19; 6:3), then you need the great power (1:10), great goodness (9:25, 35), and great mercy (v. 31) of a great God. Is the God you worship big enough to handle the challenges that you face?

He is also a God who keeps His Word (1:5). The Lord had made a covenant with His people Israel, promising to bless them richly if they obeyed His Word, but warning that He would chasten them if they disobeyed (Lev. 26; Deut. 27–30). The city of Jerusalem was in ruins, and the nation was feeble because the people had sinned against the Lord. (See Ezra’s prayer of confession in Ezra 9 and the prayer of the nation in Neh. 9.)

The greater part of Nehemiah’s prayer was devoted to confession of sin (1:6-9). The God who promised blessing and chastening also promised forgiveness if His people would repent and turn back to Him (Deut. 30; 1 Kings 8:31-53). It was this promise that Nehemiah was claiming as he prayed for himself and the nation. God’s eyes are upon His people and His ears are open to their prayers (1 Kings 8:29; 2 Chron. 7:14). The word remember is a key word in this book (Neh. 1:8; 4:14; 5:19; 6:14; 13:14, 22, 29, 31).

Further, he declares that God can hear and see and remember. The prophets castigated worship of idols, saying, "They're deaf and dumb! Why would you put your trust in blocks of wood made by human hands?" But this God to whom Nehemiah prays has ears that hear and eyes that see and a heart that remembers.

We hear Nehemiah's honesty about the problem: "We are guilty as charged. We have deliberately and knowingly trampled on the word of God. We have rebelled against you, and we are getting only what we deserve. You are entirely right." He doesn't imagine extenuating circumstances or plead special cases.

"My father's house is rebellious, and so am I." He is willing to join his people in their sins. Many of us are willing to admit the minor faults that we think we have, but we don't like to think of ourselves as part of the greater human race that is capable of all the terrible things that have been done. Yet Nehemiah doesn't shy away from that. However, he doesn't dwell on recognition of sinfulness, nor does he end with it.

Note that Nehemiah used the pronoun “we” and not “they,” identifying himself with the sins of a generation he didn’t even know. It would have been easy to look back and blame his ancestors for the reproach of Jerusalem, but Nehemiah looked within and blamed himself! “We have sinned! We have dealt very corruptly!”

When one Jewish soldier, Achan, sinned at Jericho, God said that “the children of Israel committed a trespass” and that “Israel” sinned and transgressed the covenant (Josh. 7:1, 11). Since the sin of one man was the sin of the whole nation, it brought shame and defeat to the whole nation. Once that sin had been dealt with, God could again bless His people with victory.

How do we know that God forgives our sins when we repent and confess to Him? He has so promised in His Word. Nehemiah’s prayer is saturated with quotations from and allusions to the covenants of God found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. He certainly knew the Old Testament Law! In Nehemiah 1:8-9, he reminded God of His words found in Deuteronomy 28:63-67 and 30:1-10, just as we remind the Lord of His promise in 1 John 1:9. Nehemiah asked God to forgive His people, regather them to their land, and restore them to His favor and blessing.

This humble prayer closed with an expression of confidence (Neh. 1:10-11). To begin with, he had confidence in the power of God. When the Bible speaks of the eyes, ears, and hands of the Lord, it is using only human language to describe divine activity. God is spirit, and therefore does not have a body such as humans have; but He is able to see His people’s needs, hear their prayers, and work on their behalf with His mighty hand. Nehemiah knew that he was too weak to rebuild Jerusalem, but he had faith that God would work on his behalf.

He also had confidence in God’s faithfulness. “Now these are Thy servants and Thy people” (v. 10). In bringing Babylon to destroy Jerusalem and take the people captive, God chastened the Jews sorely; but He did not forsake them! They were still His people and His servants. He had redeemed them from Egypt by His great power (Ex. 14:13-31) and had also set them free from bondage in Babylon. Would He not, in His faithfulness, help them rebuild the city?

Unlike Elijah, who thought he was the only faithful Jew left (1 Kings 19:10), Nehemiah had confidence that God would raise up other people to help him in his work. He was sure that many other Jews were also praying and that they would rally to the cause once they heard that God was at work. Great leaders are not only believing people who obey the Lord and courageously move ahead, but they also challenge others to go with them. You can’t be a true leader unless you have followers, and Nehemiah was able to enlist others to help him do the work.

Finally, Nehemiah was confident that God would work in the heart of Artaxerxes and secure for the project the official support that it needed (Neh. 1:10). Nehemiah couldn’t simply quit his job and move to Jerusalem. He was an appointee of the king, and he needed the king’s permission for everything he did. Furthermore, he needed the king’s provision and protection so he could travel to Jerusalem and remain away from his post until the work was completed. Without official authority to govern, an official guard for the journey, and the right to use materials from the king’s forest, the entire project was destined to fail. Eastern monarchs were absolute despots, and it was not easy to approach them or convince them. But “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases” (Prov. 21:2, niv).

Too often, we plan our projects and then ask God to bless them; but Nehemiah didn’t make that mistake. He sat down and wept (Neh. 1:4), knelt down and prayed, and then stood up and worked because he knew he had the blessing of the Lord on what he was doing.

This is very much a Scripture-based prayer. When Nehemiah prays, he prays with the Bible in his mind and perhaps open before him. He is praying the words of Moses. He is referring to the prayers of Daniel and probably others here. This is a prayer that is deeply informed by what God has already said about himself. So Nehemiah says, "You promised us that if we rebelled we would be punished, and we did and we are. But you also promised that if we turned back, however far we had been scattered, you would bring us home." And he refers to the people now as those whose hearts are broken, who revere the name of God. He calls on God to act as he promised he would. This is a prayer that speaks back to God his own words. Sin doesn't have the final authority. The punishment is not the end; the return of God's people is the end of the story.

The last observation I would make about this prayer is about the very simple request that comes at the end. Nehemiah has prayed about the greatness of God, the failure of the people, the promise of God to bring about their return. He has cast back to the time of Moses, saying, "God, our world is going to turn on whether you keep thousand-year-old promises. Artaxerxes and his armies and the greatness of this empire are nothing compared to the word you gave to your servant Moses, and we're claiming that now. In view of this, the personal request he makes at the end of verse 11 is actually surprisingly small: "Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man." Now, Nehemiah knows that God rules the emperor, that the response he will get from Artaxerxes is the response that God will call for. I think the success he hopes for is that he will have the courage to follow through. "Will I be able to do what it is in my heart to do? Will I have the courage to speak up?" The success may for him depend more on whether he speaks up than whether Artaxerxes gives the right answer or not.

Notice that by verse 11 the tension has been resolved. Nehemiah no longer questions how he should handle the dilemma of being brother to the exiles and cupbearer to the king. As we will see in chapter 2, he asks permission to go himself. The answer God gave him in this four months of prayer was, "Nehemiah, you go." He could have continued to pray, "Lord, bless the exiles, bring them relief, raise up leadership, provide money, change the hearts of the enemy." He could have prayed for all of that to happen while he stayed in Susa, and it might have been God's choice for him to pray and stay. But it wasn't. In this case, he knew by now that he must ask permission of the king to go himself. "Lord, send me." That was the answer that had come about after he had spent this time wrestling and fasting and mourning.

I want to urge upon us that we can know what the Lord wants from us. When things seem confusing, when pressures pull us in more than one direction regarding where we should be and who we should be and how we should use our gifts and what ministry we should have and how and when'the way to find out answers to these questions is the pattern of Nehemiah: to spend this focused, honest, lengthy, serious time with God. His choice was to say, "Lord, direct me. Make of me what you want. I'm willing to invest myself in pursuing you to find out." If you're experiencing the same longing to know what God would make of your life, are you willing to do what Nehemiah did? Are you willing to spend this kind of time with God with this level of passion, this level of love and expectancy?

He cared enough to volunteer (Neh. 1:11)

It has well been said that prayer is not getting man’s will done in heaven but getting God’s will done on earth. However, for God’s will to be done on earth, He needs people to be available for Him to use. God does “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Eph. 3:20, nkjv, italics mine). If God is going to answer prayer, He must start by working in the one doing the praying! He works in us and through us to help us see our prayers answered.

While Nehemiah was praying, his burden for Jerusalem became greater and his vision of what needed to be done became clearer. Real prayer keeps your heart and your head in balance so your burden doesn’t make you impatient to run ahead of the Lord and ruin everything. As we pray, God tells us what to do, when to do it, and how to do it; and all are important to the accomplishing of the will of God. Some Christian workers are like Lord Ronald in one of Stephen Leacock’s short stories who “flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.”

Nehemiah planned to volunteer to go to Jerusalem to supervise the rebuilding of the walls. He didn’t pray for God to send somebody else, nor did he argue that he was ill-equipped for such a difficult task. He simply said, “Here am I—send me!” He knew that he would have to approach the king and request a leave of absence. Eastern kings’ word meant life or death. What would happen to Nehemiah’s plans if he approached Artaxerxes on the wrong day, when the king was ill or displeased with something or someone in the palace? No matter how you look at it, Nehemiah was facing a test of faith; but he knew that his God was a great God and would see him through.

The king’s cupbearer would have to sacrifice the comfort and security of the palace for the rigors and dangers of life in a ruined city. Luxury would be replaced by ruins, and prestige by ridicule and slander. Instead of sharing the king’s bounties, Nehemiah would personally pay for the upkeep of scores of people who would eat at his table. He would leave behind the ease of the palace and take up the toils of encouraging a beaten people and finishing an almost impossible task.

And with the help of God, he did it! In fifty-two days, the walls were rebuilt, the gates were restored, and the people were rejoicing! And it all started with a man who cared.

Abraham cared and rescued Lot from Sodom (Gen. 18–19). Moses cared and delivered the Israelites from Egypt. David cared and brought the nation and the kingdom back to the Lord. Esther cared and risked her life to save her nation from genocide. Paul cared and took the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire. Jesus cared and died on the cross for a lost world.

God is still looking for people who care, people like Nehemiah, who cared enough to ask for the facts, weep over the needs, pray for God’s help, and then volunteer to get the job done.

“Here am I, Lord—send me!”

THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH -- COMMENTARY BY ROBERT JAMIESON
Nehemiah 1:1-3. Nehemiah, understanding by Hanani the afflicted state of Jerusalem, mourns, fasts and prays.Verse 1. Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah—This eminently pious and patriotic Jew is to be carefully distinguished from two other persons of the same name—one of whom is mentioned as helping to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 3:16), and the other is noticed in the list of those who accompanied Zerubbabel in the first detachment of returning exiles (Ezra 2:2; Nehemiah 7:7). Though little is known of his genealogy, it is highly probable that he was a descendant of the tribe of Judah and the royal family of David.
 

in the month Chisleu—answering to the close of November and the larger part of December.
 

Shushan the palace—the capital of ancient Susiana, east of the Tigris, a province of Persia. From the time of Cyrus it was the favorite winter residence of the Persian kings.
 

Verses 2, 3. Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah—Hanani is called his brother (Nehemiah 7:2). But as that term was used loosely by Jews as well as other Orientals, it is probable that no more is meant than that he was of the same family. According to Josephus, Nehemiah, while walking around the palace walls, overheard some persons conversing in the Hebrew language. Having ascertained that they had lately returned from Judea, he was informed by them, in answer to his eager inquiries, of the unfinished and desolate condition of Jerusalem, as well as the defenseless state of the returned exiles. The commissions previously given to Zerubbabel and Ezra extending only to the repair of the temple and private dwellings, the walls and gates of the city had been allowed to remain a mass of shattered ruins, as they had been laid by the Chaldean siege.
 

Nehemiah 1:4-11. His prayer.Verse 4. when I heard these words, that I sat down and mourned and fasted, and prayed—The recital deeply affected the patriotic feelings of this good man, and no comfort could he find but in earnest and protracted prayer, that God would favor the purpose, which he seems to have secretly formed, of asking the royal permission to go to Jerusalem.
 

Verse 11. I was the king’s cupbearer—This officer, in the ancient Oriental courts, was always a person of rank and importance; and, from the confidential nature of his duties and his frequent access to the royal presence, he possessed great influence.
 

1:1 Nehemiah, whose name means “The Lord Comforts,” was a highly placed statesman associated with Ezra in the work of reestablishing the people of Judah in the Promised Land. The month Chislev corresponds to our November-December (Ezra 10:9). The twentieth year refers to the twentieth year of the rule of Artaxerxes I Longimanus (464–424 b.c.)—that is, 444 b.c. Artaxerxes was the same Persian king who had commissioned Ezra to return to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:1). Shushan the citadel was about 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf, in present-day Iran. The citadel, or the fortified royal palace, was built on an acropolis. The city served as a winter residence for the monarchs of Persia. Shushan is also notable in biblical history as the place where Daniel received his vision of the rams and goats (Dan. 8:2), and as the home of Mordecai and Esther (Esth. 1:2).

1:2 Nehemiah’s brother Hanani (7:2) had visited Jerusalem and returned to Shushan. This journey, which covered nearly a thousand miles one way, would probably have taken at least four months. It had taken Ezra and his caravan four months to make a similar round trip from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:9). Nehemiah was concerned about the Jewish people and Jerusalem.

1:3 Life was difficult for the people in Jerusalem. This difficulty was due in large part to the condition of Jerusalem’s wall. In the ancient Middle East, a city wall provided protection for the inhabitants. The condition of a city wall was also seen as an indication of the strength of the people’s gods. The ruined condition of the wall of Jerusalem reflected badly on God’s name.

1:4 wept … mourned: Nehemiah was deeply disturbed. Without a wall, Jerusalem was vulnerable to attack. The riches of the temple treasury (Ezra 8:15–36) would have been quite a temptation for Israel’s enemies. God of heaven: This title for God is used frequently in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

1:5 Lord: Nehemiah called on God by using His covenant name (Ex. 6:2–9). Nehemiah’s use of this title is similar to our use of the phrase “in Jesus’ name” in our prayers. God of heaven: Nehemiah acknowledged God’s government of the world, including His sovereignty over the pagan king who was over Nehemiah, the Jewish people, and the city of Jerusalem. covenant and mercy: By using these two words together, Nehemiah was holding God to His promises. The Lord had staked His character on His loyalty to His covenant with His people. According to the terms of the Mosaic covenant (Deut. 28; 29), God made His covenant blessings available to those who kept His commandments.

1:6 let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open: Nehemiah asked God to look at him and listen to him as he prayed. These words were designed to encourage the one praying, for God does not turn His ears from or close His eyes to His people (Ex. 2:23–25). the children of Israel: By using this ancient name for the Jewish people, Nehemiah indicated the continuity of the Jewish people of his day with the Israelites of the past: Nehemiah then confessed the sins of his father’s house as well as his own. His confession was national, communal, and personal. His own sin was part of the whole.

1:7 Israel had sinned against the Lord and against His commandments. By using the word we, Nehemiah included himself among the sinful people. commandments … statutes … ordinances: These words describe the totality of God’s Law (9:13, 14).

1:8 Remember: After confessing his sin and the sin of the people, Nehemiah reminded God of what He Himself had said. I will scatter you among the nations: This is an allusion to God’s covenant in Lev. 26:27–45 and Deut. 30:1–5. Nehemiah himself was born in Persia, a distant nation, because of God’s fulfillment of this promise.

1:9 The Lord had promised that if the nation of Israel would return to Him in obedience, He would regather them to their land. Nehemiah addressed the Lord as a covenant-keeping God. He confessed his and the people’s sin because the Law demanded confession (Lev. 16:21). Then he held God to His covenant to return Israel to the land. bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name: The ultimate intent of God’s covenant was not just to return the people, but to return them to the place where God had established His name. For that to be accomplished, much needed to be done. So while it was true that some people had returned to the land and that the temple had been rebuilt, the fact remained that Jerusalem’s wall was in ruins and the people were under reproach (5:9). In that sense, Jerusalem had not yet been restored.

1:10 Your servants and Your people: By using this phrasing, Nehemiah was suggesting to the Lord that the time was right, the people were right, and the task was right to restore Jerusalem. Your strong hand is one of the phrases associated with God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt (Ex. 6:1; 13:14; 15:6; Deut. 6:21).

1:11 Your servant … Your servants: Nehemiah and the godly people of Israel shared common concerns before God. let Your servant prosper: Nehemiah requested permission to return to Jerusalem, rebuild the wall, and restore the community. He enjoyed the comfort and convenience of a royal palace and a position of honor and responsibility. There were many compelling reasons for him to stay where he was, but he asked for permission to do God’s work. As the king’s cupbearer, Nehemiah held an honored position. His constant proximity to the king of Persia made him privy to the state secrets and personal affairs of the king. ^[1]

—Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, whose system of
chronology is the most generally received, 3558.

—Year before the birth of Christ, 442.

—Year before the vulgar era of Christ’s nativity, 446.

—Year of the Julian period, 4268.

—Year since the flood of Noah, according to the English Bible, 1902.

—Year of the Cali Yuga, or Indian era of the Deluge, 2656.

—Year from the vocation of Abram, 1476.

—Year from the destruction of Troy, 739.

—This we collect from three passages in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, (who
flourished in the Augustan age), which state that an interval of four
hundred and thirty-two years elapsed from the destruction of Troy to the
building of Rome.

—Year from the foundation of Solomon’s temple, 565.

—Year since the division of Solomon’s monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel
and Judah, 529.

—Year of the era of Iphitus, king of Elis, who reestablished the Olympic
games, three hundred and thirty-eight years after their institution by
Hercules, or about eight hundred and eighty-four years before the
commencement of the Christian era, 439.

—This epoch is famous in chronological history, as every thing previous to it
seems involved in fabulous obscurity.

—Year since Coroebus won the prize at Olympia, a town of Elis in
Peloponnesus, (being the twenty-eighth Olympiad after their re-
establishment by Iphitus), 331.

—Third year of the eighty-third Olympiad.

—The epoch of the Olympiads commenced according to the accurate and
learned computations of some of the moderns, exactly seven hundred and
seventy-six years before the Christian era, in the year of the Julian period
3938, and twenty-three years before the building of Rome. N. B. The
Olympic games were celebrated at the time of the full moon which
immediately followed the day of the summer solstice; therefore the
Olympiads were not of equal length, because the time of the full moon
differs about eleven days every year; and for that reason the Olympiads
sometimes began the next day after the solstice, and at other times four
weeks after.

—Year of the Varronian or generally received era of the building of Rome,
308. This computation was used by the Romans in the celebration of their
secular games.

—Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares,
307. Dionysius of Halicarnassus follows this account in his Roman
Antiquities.

—Year from the building of Rome, according to Polybius the historian, (a
native of Megalopolis in Peloponnesus, and son of Lycortas), 306.

—Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, (the first
Roman who wrote a history of his own country, from the age of Romulus
to the year of Rome 536), 302.

—Year of the era of Nabonassar, a king of Babylon after the division of the
Assyrian monarchy, 302.

—Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, the king
of Assyria, 276.

—Year from the destruction of Solomon’s temple by Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, 143.

—Year since the publication of the famous edict of Cyrus, king of Persia,
empowering the Jews to rebuild their temple, 90. The commencement of
this epoch was synchronical with the termination of the seventy years
during which the Jews were under the dominion of the Babylonians.

—Year since the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome, which put an end to
the regal government of the Romans, 63. The consular government
immediately followed the expulsion of the Tarquins.

—Year before the celebrated Peloponnesian war, 16. This war began on the
seventh of May, four hundred and thirty-one years before the Christian era;
and continued twenty-seven years between the Athenians and the
inhabitants of Peloponnesus, with their allies.

—Year before the commencement of the era of the Seleucidae, 134. This era
was named after Seleucus, one of the captains of Alexander the Great,
surnamed Nicator, or The Conqueror. The year in which he conquered
Babylon (viz. 312 B.C). is called the first year of this era.

—Year before the formation of the famous Achaean league, 165.

—Year before the commencement of the first Punic war, 182. The Arundelian
marbles are said to have been composed in the first year of this war.

—Year before the fall of the Macedonian empire, 278.

—Year before the extinction of the reign of the Seleucidae in Syria, on the
conquest of that country by Pompey, 381.

—Year before the commencement of the era of the Roman emperors, 415. The
year in which the famous battle of Actium was fought is the first year of
this era.

—Year of Archidamus, king of Lacedaemon, and of the family of the Proclidae
or Eurypontidae, 24.

—Year of Plistoanax, king of Lacedaemon, and of the family of the
Eurystheuidae or Agidae, 21. This king was general of the Lacedaemonian
armies in the Peloponnesian war. N. B. The kings of the Lacedaemonians
of the families of the Proclidae and the Eurysthenidae sat on the throne
together for several hundred years; viz., from 1102 B.C. to about 200 B.C.

—Year of Perdiccas II. the eleventh king of Macedon, 9.

—Year of Artaxerxes, surnamed Macrochir (Ìáêñï÷åéñ) or Longimanus
because his arms were so long that when standing erect, his hands reached
down to his knees, 20.

—Roman Consuls, T. Quintius Capitolinus the fourth time, and Agrippa
Furius. During this consulship the Aequi and Volsci came near to the gates
of Rome, and were defeated.

Eminent men who were contemporary with Nehemiah; upon the supposition
that his birth happened about 500 B.C., and his death about 420 B.C.

—Acron, a physician of Agrigentum; flourished 459 B.C.

—Aeschylus, the tragic poet of Athens; born, 525 B.C., died 456 B.C., at the
age of 69.

—Alcidamus the philosopher; flourished 424 B.C.

—Anaxagoras, a Clazomenian philosopher; born B.C. 500, died 428 B.C., at the
age of 72.

—Aristarchus the tragic poet of Tegea in Areadia; flourished about 454 B.C.

—Aristides, the Athenian; flourished about 480 B.C.

—Aristophanes, the comic poet; said to have flourished about 434 B.C.

—L. Furius Camillus, celebrated Roman; born 445 B.C., and died 365 B.C.,
aged 80, after he had been five times dictator, once censor, three times
interrex, twice a military tribune, and obtained four triumphs.

—Charandas, who gave laws to the people of Thurium; died 446 B.C.

—Charon, a historian of Lampsacus; flourished about 479 B.C.

—L. Q. Cincinnatus, a celebrated Roman; flourished about 460 B.C.

—Cossus, a Roman who killed Volumnius, king of Veii, and obtained the
Spolia Opima, A. U. C. 317, B.C. 437.

—Cratinus, the comic writer; born 528 B.C., died 431 B.C., at the age of 97.

—Democritus, the philosopher; born 470 B.C., died 361 B.C., at the advanced
age of 109.

—Empedocles, a philosopher, poet, and historian, of Agrigentum in Sicily;
flourished about 444 B.C.

—Epicharmus, a poet and Pythagorean philosopher of Sicily, who, according
to Aristotle and Pliny, added the two letters ÷ and è to the Greek alphabet;
flourished 440 B.C., and died in the 90th year of his age.

—Euctemon, the astronomer; flourished about 431 B.C.

—Eupolis, a comic poet of Athens; flourished about 435 B.C.

—Euripides, the tragic poet, born at Salamis the day on which the army of
Xerxes was defeated by the Greeks; torn to pieces by dogs, 407 B.C., in the
73d year of his age.

—Georgias, a celebrated sophist and orator; born 508 B.C., died 400 B.C., at the
advanced age of 108.

—Hellanicus, the Greek historian; born at Mitylene, 496 B.C., died 411 B.C., in
the 85th year of his age.

—Herodicus, a physician surnamed Gymnastic; flourished 443 B.C.

—Herodotus, a celebrated historian of Halicarnassus; born 484 B.C., read his
history to the council of Athens, and received public honors, in the 39th
year of his age, 445 B.C.

—Hippocrates, a celebrated physician of Cos; born 460 B.C., died 361 B.C.,
nearly 100 years of age.

—Isoarates, the orator; born 437 B.C., died about 338 B.C., aged 99.