REBUILDING THE CHURCH'S RUINS
BY D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
Whether
it is designed as a type or not, Nehemiah’s task is ours, history for ever
repeating itself. The walls of Jerusalem
- the Holy City’s fortifications against the enemy - had crashed, exactly as the massive truths of Scripture,
the Church’s fortifications against the world and hell, have crumbled in
millions of Christian minds; and our task is Nehemiah’s - the rebuilding of
the walls. And the setting is exact. The rebuilding led to the Feast of
Tabernacles, the divine type of the gathering of the saints on high, a feast
which
Prayer
Nehemiah
embodies for ever one practical truth of critical importance, namely, that all
holy activity which is not inspired by constant prayer dwindles and peters out
at last. Prayer is more vital than we
dream. Only unfailing prayer can keep
our spiritual wealth un-destroyed. In
one of the Continental palaces the royal jewellery was not kept behind iron
bars, as in the
Worship
Nehemiah
opens his campaign with one of the fullest prayers recorded in the Bible, in
which he reveals a soul deeply disturbed for the People of God, and
passionately devoted to their redemption. Passionate prayer - “I
wept, and fasted and prayed”; worshipping prayer - “0 Lord, the great and terrible God”; adoring prayer -
“that keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love
him”; incessant prayer - “the prayer of thy
servant, which I pray before thee day and night”; confessing prayer - “I and my father’s house have sinned”; confident prayer
- “these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou
hast redeemed by thy great power”; and prayer committing all to God - “prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day.” As one writer paraphrases Nehemiah’s prayer: -
“It is a prayer addressed to Him who is mightier than
our mightiest foes, who has a perfect knowledge of them, and of our weaknesses,
whose eye is ever upon them and us; who loves us and desires our safety; who
has promised help and victory to those who call upon Him” M S. Lewis, M.M.
An Open Door
Nehemiah’s
first specific prayer is for our own first vital necessity as servants of
Christ - liberty for the work of God, an open door granted by the Government. So Nehemiah, when questioned by the Persian
Emperor, Artaxerxes, “For
what dost thou make request?,” between the
King’s question and his own answer sends a telegram to heaven:- “So I prayed unto the God of heaven; and I said unto the king,
That I may build
The World
At
once Nehemiah finds himself, as we shall, face to face with an angry world. Sanballat brought
down a horde of Samaritans and Arabians, in scorn and contempt, and with
military power to crush the workers on the walls. Nehemiah responds with an immediate cry to
Heaven: - “Hear, 0 our God, for we are despised, and
turn back their reproach upon their own head” (4:
4). Once again there is the immediate intervention of God. “When our enemies
heard that it [their plot] was known unto us, and
God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned every
one unto his work” (verse 15). Taught by the thundercloud, Nehemiah sets up a
permanent guard. “We made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them
day and night” (verse 9).* George Muller
gives a confirming testimony. Asked how
much time he spent in prayer, he replied:- “Hours every day. But
I live in the spirit of prayer. I
pray as I walk, and when I lie down, and when I rise. And the answers are always coming. Tens of thousands of times have my prayers
been answered. When once I am persuaded
a thing is right, I go on praying for it until it comes. The great point is never to give up until the
answer comes. The great fault of the
children of God is that they do not continue in prayer.”
[*
Un-pausing, un-resting toil and vigilance till the work is done. “Night and day: none
of us put off our clothes. Too much of the Church's work is committed to
the few willing labourers. All should be doing, and always doing, and doing their all” (W. S. Lewis,
M.A.). It has been said with much truth:- “The shirking of the man who
prays, and the praying of the man who shirks, is equally an abomination unto
the Lord.”]
Calumny
The
next attack is studied misrepresentation, the invented calumnies that always
accompany persecution. Sanballatt and Tobiah charge
Nehemiah with a plot to rebel against Artaxerxes, and
to establish himself as king. He retorts:- “There are no such things done as
thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own
heart”; and then he once more cries to heaven: “But
now, 0 God, strengthen my hands” (6: 8, 9). In the words of David:- “In the
day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul” (Ps. 138: 3). So Paul:- “For this
cause I bow my knees, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit
in the inner man” (Eph. 3: 16). Like Nehemiah, we shall also need strength behind
us.
Temptations
Next
we have the supernatural, sent to tempt Nehemiah. Shemiah, a false
prophet, is hired to work on Nehemiah’s fear; warning him of the peril to
his life - that even the next night he would be murdered - he suggests that
together they take refuge in the
Fornication
The
final battle of Nehemiah is precisely the battle we are to expect. After the walls had been rebuilt, and the
people of God revived and restored, the High Priest Eliashib
establishes Tobias the Ammonite - spiritually, the world, the unregenerate who
are enemies of God - inside the
Continuing
So
it is the ceaseless prayer which brings the complete victory. “Pray without
ceasing” (1 Thess. 5: 17). Nor must we allow ourselves to be discouraged
by ‘dryness’ in prayer. Hear what two
effectual prayers have to say. When Hudson Taylor was once asked if he ever
prayed without conscious joy, he replied: “Often. Sometimes I pray on
with my heart feeling like wood.” And then he added:-
“Often, too, the most wonderful answers have come when
prayer has been a real effort of faith, without any joy whatever.” Evan
Roberts says:- “Some ask
about dryness in prayer. It matters not whether it is ‘dry’ or ‘dewy.’ The ‘dry
prayer may be more effective than the 'flow.’ The thoroughness with which you ask is
the thoroughness with which God will work." Nor let us be discouraged by exhaustion. Charles
G. Finney so gave himself to prayer that sometimes he would pray all night.
In his latter days a friend said:- “Mr.
Finney, do you pray the way you used to?” He said, “I pray a great deal, but I
cannot pray the way I used to, I am not strong enough. My nerves have been shattered,
I am an old man now. I would like to
pray the way I used to but I cannot. Sometimes
I would pray in an agony all night, but I cannot do it now.” But he
said, “When people send a request for prayer I
just quietly look up to God and I say, ‘Oh God, I am not strong enough to pray
the way I used to pray. Let the Holy
Spirit be my prayer and give me the words of prayer,’ and as I just look up to
God and pray what I believe God’s Spirit gives me, my friend, I want to tell
you, God answers these prayers just as much as He did those old prayers
of agony I had in the olden time."
Completion
Thus
the whole book, completing the history of Israel, closes with a prayer- “Remember me, 0 my God, for good”; even as we too, when our task is
completed, will close with another last prayer - “Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.” Dr. Bachus, a former president of
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