STORY=POWER 3a - Nehemiah's Joy

It was Nehemiah's job to make people happy. Not only did he have to make himself presentable before he came before King Artaxerxes, he had to make his hair right, his beard right, his clothes right, his shoes right. Make sure that he looked the part of the king's right-hand man. Not only did he have to do that, because the king could just have his head if he was having a bad day. You don't look right, what's wrong with you? Be off with you. And you remember the king, Esther's husband, who could just by lowering his scepter accept you, or not lowering it, say that you were banished forever or that you were to be killed. This was his grandson, Artaxerxes, and he was much the same. So Nehemiah's job wasn't just for himself to be happy and presentable, but to make sure that other people who came before the king were happy as well. But this wasn't easy because the people who'd come for the king's counsel were not happy. They had already gone to the local council, they'd gone to the local judges, then they'd gone to the regional council, the regional judges, and nobody could help them. So now they'd come to the king for an answer and they wanted help. And so Nehemiah would meet them at the door, and as he met them, he would say, "Okay, you're here to see the king?" "Yes, I'm here to see the king. I'm very upset." Well, what are you upset about? Well, you wouldn't believe what happened. While I was away on holidays, my neighbor came over and he took a fence post out of my yard and he walked 10 big steps right out our fence posts and he took 3, 10 big steps into my yard and he put it back down. 10 yards he stole. And that's, you know, 10 yards, not that bad. But guess what? 5 miles long is our fence line. So 10 yards by 5 miles, you can do the mathematics on that and figure out he has stolen a huge chunk of my grazing land and I want it back. Nehemiah said, well, so you should get it back. It sounds like you have a perfectly good case. Well, what are you going to do about it? Well, I'm going to let you talk to the king, but I need to warn you, you need to— can you just do something for me? You need to be— the king likes smiles, so can you just do it again with a smile? Do what again with a smile? Well, tell me that whole story. But I'm not happy about it. I know, but it's just really important. The King likes us to be happy. So can you try it? Just try, put a happy face on. You'll be amazed. So, okay, I'll try this. Um, like that? Yes, that's it, very good. Okay, uh, okay, uh, you're not gonna believe what happened, okay? My next-door neighbor— I went away on vacation and my next-door neighbor came over and he took the fence post out of my yard and his yard and just took 10 huge steps into my yard and put it back in the ground. And he did that with every fence post for 5 miles. 10 yards of my yard he stole. And so you imagine all the grazing land. Isn't that hilarious that he would do that to me? And Nehemiah said, very good. I think the king will be very happy with that. You seem very happy. Okay, well, I think I can do that. And off they would go to see Nehemiah— see the king. And so Nehemiah stood and greeted people, warmed them up to meet the king. But one day when Nehemiah came into the king's palace, he didn't put on any fake presentation. He was not happy. And so he didn't do his hair. He left it just the way it was when he woke up. His beard was sideways. His clothes were tattered. He was still wearing his bunny slippers. And he just walked right into the king's the throne room and he just stood next to the king. And the king said, "Nehemiah?" "Yes?" "What are you doing?" "I'm just reporting for work." "I mean, why are you looking like that?" "Well, I just— I can't pretend anymore." "Pretend? What do you mean pretend?" "I'm not happy." "What do you mean you're not happy? How can you not be happy? You work for the greatest king in the world." "I know that, but I just can't pretend anymore. I haven't been happy for a very long time." But I didn't know about this. What's made you so unhappy? And Nehemiah started to tell him. He said, my cousin, he lives near Jerusalem, my homeland, because Nehemiah was a Jew. And he said, and when he came to visit me recently, I saw him coming and I said, tell me some words of our homeland. Tell me, how is it going? He said, oh, everything is lovely. Israel is beautiful and the people have lovely farms. So tell me of God's city of Jerusalem. And you know what he told me, King? He told me that Jerusalem, there's really no Jerusalem. There's no wall, so there's no city, so there's no temple. And I've always believed that there was this place where God was being worshiped and where my people were worshiping God the way he wanted to, and it's not there, and I just can't be happy anymore. I'm devastated. And the king was really concerned. He really liked Nehemiah, and he said, Nehemiah, what can I do to help? Do you want me to send some people to to build this, to build the city. I would love it if you would just let me go. Would you send me to build the wall around the city? You don't know how to build, Nehemiah. No, no, I can lead people. I can make people do things. I can give them the courage and the empowering to go and do it and to make something great of themselves and of this wall. I know I could do it. He said, well, so if I let you go and you do this thing, you build this wall, you'll come back and you'll be happy? I would be so happy, I would be so, so, so happy. All right, well, okay, you can go. Is there anything else I can do for you before you go? Um, yes, could you just write a little letter that just says, um, sign it at the bottom, you wrote it, and it just says, Nehemiah is building a wall around Jerusalem, please give him any wood or rocks or any resources he needs, and I will pay for it. Signed, Artaxerxes. I'm sorry, what? You said, "I will pay for it." Well, I mean, the treasury, you've seen the treasury recently, have you? There's lots of gold. Could you do that? You could pay for it and then there'd be no trouble building. So you want me to pay for it from my treasury? Yes. And that would make you happy? Yes. All right, I'll do it. And amazingly, King Artaxerxes did it. He signed the paper, he wrote the letter, and he sent it with Nehemiah. And when Nehemiah got there, good news travels fast, and the people They were there, they were ready, and they were excited to build the wall around Jerusalem. And he plotted it out, he planned it out, and by the time he said, "Go," they were ready. He did something interesting. Nehemiah said, "Before we build the wall, I want you," said to each person, "I want you to go in the city and choose where your city home is going to be. You've already got your country home where your farm is. Where's your city home going to be?" And everyone wants a home near a gate, near the wall, and so they all went and chose their homes, and pretty soon all the city homes that were facing the wall-to-be were taken. And Nehemiah said, okay, now that you've chosen your home, I'd like you to build the part of the wall in front of your house. Very smart, because guess what's gonna happen if you say, ah, wall shmall, I don't really want to build a wall, I'll just let other people build it. Well, the wall would get built all the way around, and there'd be this hole right in front of your house. When the enemy comes and decides to break into Jerusalem, where are they gonna go? Through the hole. What house are they gonna attack first? Your house. And so everyone built their house as good as they— I mean, their part of the wall as good as they could, as thick as they were supposed to, as tall as they were supposed to, mixed And matched it with the wall next to it so that it was one consistent wall. And in just 52 days, they'd circumnavigated Jerusalem and the wall was built. And the people celebrated. And Nehemiah said, don't just be happy, I want you to throw a party. 7 days, I want you to party. For this whole 7 days, I want you to just feast and have sweet drinks and delicious food. And look, if you can't start the party tonight because the journey home is going to take you until tomorrow, then I don't want you to go home because I want you to start partying tonight. So you just go to somebody else's house and they will put you up for the week and they'll feed you for the week and you can just party here in Jerusalem. And I don't know if he said this, but I get the impression that maybe Artaxerxes was paying for this party. When the party was finished, the people went back to their homes. They came into the city, built their city homes, and it was a month or two later and the people came to Ezra who was the priest in Jerusalem. And they said, in cleaning up Jerusalem, we understand that you found some scrolls. Would we be able to do worship like our ancestors did? Would we be able to have you read the scriptures to us, God's word, the law? Would you read that to us? And we'll build a big stage and you can read it to us and we'll all come and we'll listen. And Ezra said, that sounds like a fine idea. And so they built this beautiful stage, massive stage, and Ezra climbed up onto it early in the morning on this special day, and he began to read. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And he read Genesis, and he read Exodus, and he read Leviticus, and Numbers, and Deuteronomy. He read the entire Torah. And as he was reading, the people were getting excited as they heard the stories, but then they heard that there were these laws, and they realized that God wanted them to be over here where they were supposed to be, but they were way over here. And they were looking at this perfect law that God wanted, "Oh, we're so far!" And they started to tear their clothes and they started to mourn. "How are we ever going to become what God wants us to be?" And this is when Nehemiah shows up in the story. We don't know what he's been doing the rest of the day, but he walks up on the stage as everyone is weeping and mourning. And he looks out, and I imagine him having flashbacks of the king's palace, of all these people with bad stories, frustrating stories to tell. And Nehemiah says, "Call the people to the stage." And they all rush the stage. And they get up really close and Nehemiah says, "Stop crying, stop your mourning because the joy of the Lord is your strength." And Nehemiah knew this new city was only gonna draw people if they used not sadness to become a new people of God, but joy because the joy of the Lord is your strength.