Nehemiah Prays in the Palace for Ruined Jerusalemby Tabua
1:10Nehemiah 1:10
Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
These are God's servants and His people, whom He redeemed by His great power and by His strong hand, and the words are spoken in Nehemiah's prayer for Israel after he heard that Jerusalem lay in ruins. The prayer was for the returned exiles who were suffering affliction and reproach while the restoration of Jerusalem was hindered.
Nehemiah prayed in overwhelming sorrow after learning of Jerusalem's affliction and reproach, so that he could neither eat nor drink but wept and mourned for certain days, fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven. He prayed with grief while waiting for an opportunity to ask the king for help, and the verse belongs to that earnest prayer for his afflicted people. He faithfully confessed his own sins and the sins of his people, and pleaded that God would maintain the cause of Israel, restore their courage and strength, and help them build up the waste places of Judah.
The verse is a holy argument that Israel are God's own servants and people brought back by His mighty rescue, so that to leave them in weakness and oppression after they have returned to Him in penitence and faith to keep His commandments would cast dishonor upon Him. It rests on the assurance that as God was faithful to His threat to scatter them among the nations when they broke His covenant, He will be equally faithful to fulfill His promise to gather them again to the place He chose even though cast out to the uttermost parts of heaven. That promise had been given more than a thousand years before and stood unchanged through all the centuries, because God's word cannot fail.
The verse states the true condition of God's redeemed servants and people, for whom He had done so much by His great power. Their sins in turning from God separated them from Him, and He would not serve with their sins, so He permitted them to come under the control of heathen nations and to become powerless and confused and taken into captivity. He did not work through those who refused to serve Him with singleness of purpose and had corrupted their ways before Him, but He worked through Nehemiah, who was registered in heaven as a man He could use to put down false principles and restore heaven-born principles because he honored God and was true as steel to principle.
Nehemiah's petitions in that prayer were joined with earnest, practical efforts to carry out the work of rebuilding Jerusalem. Those who are God's servants and people redeemed by His great power and strong hand still need His help when enemies work zealously against them. God heard the prayer and the many prayers ascending for needed help, and answered by moving upon heathen kings to come to their help and by working through kings to carry out His purpose.
The verse shows humbling before God and giving Him the glory due His name. God's people are to humble themselves, yet never obliterate the line of demarcation between God's commandment-keeping people and those who have no respect for His law. Reading this prayer and the book of Nehemiah with humble hearts touched by the Holy Spirit modifies false ideas about religious liberty, shows correct principles, and changes the present order of things. Among advocates of religious liberty it modifies unwise and incorrect zeal and conscientiousness, so that correct principles are seen.
These are God's servants and His people, whom He redeemed by His great power and by His strong hand, and the words are spoken in Nehemiah's prayer for Israel after he heard that Jerusalem lay in ruins. The prayer was for the returned exiles who were suffering affliction and reproach while the restoration of Jerusalem was hindered.
Nehemiah prayed in overwhelming sorrow after learning of Jerusalem's affliction and reproach, so that he could neither eat nor drink but wept and mourned for certain days, fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven. He prayed with grief while waiting for an opportunity to ask the king for help, and the verse belongs to that earnest prayer for his afflicted people. He faithfully confessed his own sins and the sins of his people, and pleaded that God would maintain the cause of Israel, restore their courage and strength, and help them build up the waste places of Judah.
The verse is a holy argument that Israel are God's own servants and people brought back by His mighty rescue, so that to leave them in weakness and oppression after they have returned to Him in penitence and faith to keep His commandments would cast dishonor upon Him. It rests on the assurance that as God was faithful to His threat to scatter them among the nations when they broke His covenant, He will be equally faithful to fulfill His promise to gather them again to the place He chose even though cast out to the uttermost parts of heaven. That promise had been given more than a thousand years before and stood unchanged through all the centuries, because God's word cannot fail.
The verse states the true condition of God's redeemed servants and people, for whom He had done so much by His great power. Their sins in turning from God separated them from Him, and He would not serve with their sins, so He permitted them to come under the control of heathen nations and to become powerless and confused and taken into captivity. He did not work through those who refused to serve Him with singleness of purpose and had corrupted their ways before Him, but He worked through Nehemiah, who was registered in heaven as a man He could use to put down false principles and restore heaven-born principles because he honored God and was true as steel to principle.
Nehemiah's petitions in that prayer were joined with earnest, practical efforts to carry out the work of rebuilding Jerusalem. Those who are God's servants and people redeemed by His great power and strong hand still need His help when enemies work zealously against them. God heard the prayer and the many prayers ascending for needed help, and answered by moving upon heathen kings to come to their help and by working through kings to carry out His purpose.
The verse shows humbling before God and giving Him the glory due His name. God's people are to humble themselves, yet never obliterate the line of demarcation between God's commandment-keeping people and those who have no respect for His law. Reading this prayer and the book of Nehemiah with humble hearts touched by the Holy Spirit modifies false ideas about religious liberty, shows correct principles, and changes the present order of things. Among advocates of religious liberty it modifies unwise and incorrect zeal and conscientiousness, so that correct principles are seen.