begins and ends with love
The book of Nehemiah, like the Bible as a whole, begins and ends with love. Nehemiah began by praying, ‘O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love…’ (Nehemiah 1:5).
As the book of Nehemiah draws to an end, he prays, ‘Remember me for this also, O my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love’ (13:22).
In this last chapter, we read of Nehemiah’s final reforms. They read from the ‘Book of Moses’ (v.1) how ‘Our God… turned the curse into a blessing’ (v.2). This is the pattern throughout the Bible. ‘In all things God works for the good of those who love him’ (Romans 8:28). What you are facing in your life right now may seem like a curse – a health issue, a battle in a relationship, a difficult boss, or whatever. It may seem like a curse but God can turn the curse into a blessing.
As a good leader, Nehemiah chose to delegate to people considered ‘trustworthy’ (v.13) and ‘faithful’ (AMP) – ‘those who had a reputation for honesty and hard work’ (MSG).
Sometimes God tests our faithfulness. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you are asked to do something that you don’t want to do or to submit to authority when everything in your being wants to resist it?
But these challenges are opportunities to do something, not because it’s fun or exciting, but in faithfulness, with a good attitude, and with integrity. And God rewards such faithfulness (Luke 16:12).
Nehemiah achieved so much, but he could not change the hearts of the people. They had promised wholehearted commitment to the Lord, but they were unable to deliver (compare Nehemiah 10:30 with 13:23; 10:31 with 13:16; 10:39 with 13:11). The problem of human sin remained.
Nehemiah warns them (13:15,21). He rebukes them (vv.17,25). He wants them to be pure (vv.22,30), but it is in vain. Nehemiah’s frustration points us forward to Jesus, the only one who could deal with the problem of the human heart, and deal with our sin.
Again and again, Nehemiah asks to be remembered (vv.14,22,31) with favor because he had faithfully served God. But ultimately, he trusts in God’s mercy and love: ‘Remember me for this also, O my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love’ (v.22).
Nehemiah, like all of us, needed to be the recipient of God’s mercy and love, which was displayed supremely as Jesus died in our place. As Paul wrote to the Romans, ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8)
