God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
September 10, 2017
Scripture: Nehemiah 2:1-8
I. Because you are responsible you should plan.
A. In Nehemiah 1 we saw that Nehemiah had received some bad news. The walls which protected Jerusalem had been broken down, and its gates were destroyed by fire. In the Old Testament book of Ezra we read that the Persian king Artaxerxes had made an order regarding the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Ezra 4:21-22: “Therefore make a decree that these men be made to cease, and that this city be not rebuilt, until a decree is made by me. And take care not to be slack in this matter. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the king?”
B. For four months (Neh. 1:6) Nehemiah had prayed night and day for Jerusalem and for God’s kingdom. He didn’t pray half-heartedly. He was urgent. Four months’ earlier, when he first started praying for Jerusalem, Nehemiah had prayed in Neh. 1:11, “give success to your servant today.” Answer my prayer today, Nehemiah prayed. And for four months God kept saying, “Not yet!” But now in Nehemiah 2 God was saying, “Today is the day I am going to answer your prayer. It’s go time.”
C. Nehemiah not only prayed for four months. Nehemiah was planning and preparing to be the answer to his own prayer. We see in vs. 5 that Nehemiah planned to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the city. Then in vs. 6 Nehemiah answered the king’s question about how long he would be away. And according to vs. 7 he also had time to plan for the need for protection from the king as he made his journey to Jerusalem. Finally, according to vs. 8, he planned for the timber needed to rebuild the city. Nehemiah was audaciously bold. He figured that as long as I am asking the king for all these things I have no right to ask for, I might as well as ask for the moon.
II. Because God is sovereign you should pray.
A. When Nehemiah finally is given the opportunity by God to be part of the answer to his own prayer, what does Nehemiah do while he is standing before the king? We find the answer at the end of verse 4: “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” He needed the sovereign king of the universe to answer his prayer because what he was asking for from the most powerful king on earth at the time was basically impossible. He was asking the king of the whole Persian empire to completely reverse his policy – to change his mind – on the rebuilding of Jerusalem. But what did God do? “And the king granted what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me” (vs. 8). What can our sovereign God do? “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:21).
B. What lessons can we learn from the fact that God answered Nehemiah’s prayer for the impossible? First, we can learn to be patient. Nehemiah had been praying with urgency for four months for God to answer His prayer. In God’s time, He did answer. Second, God is totally sovereign. There is nothing and no one that God does not have complete control of. Third, God is good. It was the good hand of God that led God to answer Nehemiah’s answered prayer.
Application:
Trust that God is sovereign, and do what He calls you to do.
Sources:
Commentaries on Nehemiah by Derek Thomas and James Hamilton Jr.