Bible Commentaries
Nehemiah 2

Verse 4

Nehemiah 2:4

God gives us every day, and all day long, something to choose about, and the reason is because He wants to try us, to see whether we do right, to exercise our minds and see whether we act according to the Bible.

I. The first rule about choosing is not to choose at all if you can help it, but to let God choose for you, because nine times out of ten when boys and girls or men and women choose for themselves they choose badly.

II. If you must choose, if it is your duty to choose, always before you choose lift up a prayer to God to help you and guide you as to what you shall choose. Remember what Nehemiah did. When the king asked him what he wanted, he lifted up a prayer to God that He would not allow him to ask foolishly, but that He would enable him to make a wise choice.

III. When going to choose, always think of other people as well as of yourselves, and try to choose unselfishly.

IV. Whenever you are choosing, choose that which will give you trouble at first, or, to put it in Bible language, choose the Cross.

V. Whenever you choose, choose for your soul. Choose for eternity. Choose the Lord Jesus Christ. After alt, it is not we who choose Christ; it is Christ who chooses us. We do choose Him; but when we see all the secrets revealed in heaven, we shall see that it is as our blessed Lord saith (John 15:16 ): "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit."

J. Vaughan, Sermons to Children, 1875, p. 149.

References: Nehemiah 2:4 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1390; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 220; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 254; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. i., p. 138, and vol. ix., p. 94.Nehemiah 2:12-16 . Ibid., p. 269.

Verse 17

Nehemiah 2:17 ; Nehemiah 6:15 ; Nehemiah 12:43

I. Consider the fact of declension, decadence, degeneration, from a Divine type. Of this we have two instances: in Israel and in the Church. (1) Under the old dispensation, Israel in the Divine intention signified those in whom a great idea was realised. Proofs that this ideal unity was never lost sight of may be seen ( a ) in the life of Elijah; ( b ) in the life of St. Paul. (2) A parallel instance of declension from a Divine type we have in the Church. Decadence partial and temporary decadence, at all events seems to be a condition of the Church's existence here below. Earth is strewn with the shattered wrecks of heaven's ideals. It is well. The disappointments of history teach us to look forward and upward.

II. In the restoration wrought by Nehemiah we have (1) a type of all God's true repairers; (2) lessons for all such repairs. Notice (a) the builders worked under arms; ( b ) they worked under the harmonious co-operation of priesthood and laity, we might almost say, in modern language, of Church and State.

III. Notice, lastly, the triumph. There had been discouragement from without and within. When the Church's builders are up and doing, Sanballat will not be silent. Tobiah's bitter epigram will not be wanting. But after all discouragement, the day of triumph dawns upon these waiting hearts. The strength of the Lord had been their joy; the joy of the Lord became their strength. Is it not even so with the Church? God's people have a mind to work. The Church shall be repaired. One day God's summer light shall strike upon the topmost row. Christ, the Divine Healer, will own the work of restoration by miracles of love at the sheep-gate and the pool of Siloam. The theology of the Incarnation will prove itself by enabling men to understand what is otherwise a tangled mass of contradictions the character and life of Jesus.

Bishop Alexander, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 241.

References: Nehemiah 2:17 . S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., Appendix, No. 11:2:18. Preacher's Monthly, vol. iv., p. 173; A. Rowland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 54; A. J. Griffith, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 137. 2 Parker, Fountain, June 28th, 1877. Nehemiah 3:8 . Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 235.Nehemiah 3:12 . Homiletic Magazine, vol. xv., p. 346. Nehemiah 3:15 . M. G. Pearse, Sermons to Children, p. 24; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 790; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 103.