“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble” (1 Pet 3:8, NASB).
“The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah” (Neh 1:1) are the introduction to the book of Nehemiah. It’s a rare thing to find a first-person autobiography in the Bible, but this is one. We’re informed that he was busy “in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year…in Shushan the citadel.” Thus we have three locators. There is a calendar marker: the time of the year is Chislev, the ninth month, our Nov-Dec. There is a historical marker: the twentieth year of the reign of the Persian king, Artaxerxes. And there is a geographical marker: he was working in the king’s winter palace at Susa, or Shushan, in the lower Zagros Mountains, about 155 miles (250 km) east of the Tigris River in modern-day Iran. Our story begins with a visit from his brother in the flesh, Hanani (see 7:2), and other “men from Judah” (1:2). Whatever else they discussed, eventually the subject turned to “the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.” Ah, the people of God and the place where He put His name. Do your conversations include concern for God’s people? And the place? Today the gathering center isn’t Jerusalem but the Church and its local assemblies. The news was not good. “The survivors who are left from the captivity…are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned” (v 3). What a situation! To be distressed (Heb, ra‘) by their own condition, to be disgraced (Heb, herpâ) by those around, and to be defenseless against their enemies. “So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days” (v 4). In this hard-hearted, hyper-critical world, may we always have a tender heart for Christ’s little flock.