Do we care?

1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

2 That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

3 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

5 And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:

6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.

7 We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:

9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

10 Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.

11 O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Nehemiah 1:1-11 (KJV)

In Psalm 11:3-4, David asked an important question,

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven.”

In 445 BC, under the leadership of Nehemiah, the Jews rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem in 52 days – a wall that had been destroyed by the Babylonians 141 years earlier in 586 BC. The rebuilding of the wall was the final stage of a three-stage process that began with a remarkable event in 538 BC.

A man named Zerubbabel answered the call and led a total of 42,360 people from Babylon to Jerusalem, and the Temple was eventually completed in 516 BC. Zerubbabel was the grandson of King Jehoiachin of Judah (1 Chronicles 3:17) and thus, a descendant of David. Born in Babylon during the exile (between 587 and 539 BC), Zerubbabel traveled to Judah after King Cyrus II allowed the Judean captives to return to their homeland to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1–4; 6:3–5, 8–10). The prophet Haggai identifies Zerubbabel as the governor of Judah after the exile (Haggai 1:1; 2:2, 21). In 458 BC, Ezra returned and began strengthening the spiritual foundations of the nation. (Ezra 7:8-10)

He cared enough to check.

Self-centered, self-serving people will never invest themselves in that which advances the plans and purposes of God in the lives of others and in the world, we live in.

He cared enough to cry.

Compassion involves more than just feeling sorry for people, it is the ability to put ourselves in the place of another.

He cared enough to call.

He cared enough to confess.

Nehemiah confessed:

• his own sins,
• the sins of his family, and
• the sins of his people.

He cared enough to contend.

The word “contend” can mean to argue or state something in a strong and definite way. He was not afraid to remind God of His promises to His people. He pointed out that God had clearly stated what He would do if His people would meet His conditions. He also reminded God that he and his countrymen were in fact His servants, His people, who He had redeemed by His great power and strong arm.

He cared enough to commit.

Do we care enough to commit ourselves fully to being God’s man or woman in this evil day?

Not much is going to happen related to revival in our World until some person or group cares enough:

• to check,
• to cry,
• to care,
• to confess,
• to contend, and
• to commit.

Some only care enough to complain, but Nehemiah cared enough to do something about the situation he was faced with. Things get done by doers; people who believe God can use them to make a difference.