Nehemiah 1:5-6 “And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: [6] Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants…”
Prayer, it has been said, may not always change our circumstances, but it will always change us; and that change will always be for the better. When we come before the Lord confessing our sins to Him and yielding our hearts to His will, He will begin to work in and through us to accomplish His designs for our lives.
What a privilege it is then, for the Believer to be able to communicate with his God through the medium of prayer. Andrew Murray once said, “Prayer is not monologue but dialogue; God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part.”[1]
The prayer of Nehemiah which he prayed on the day he received the news about the condition of Jerusalem and its inhabitants is one of the most heartfelt and sincere prayers recorded in the Word of God.
Nehemiah’s prayer to God was no flowery essay of devotion, though it does contain eloquence. His prayer was not a rehearsed exercise in rhetoric, though it is moving and filled with pathos. His request to the LORD was not a recitation of religious jargon produced in a mechanical and thoughtless manner, though it does teach the essentials of what every prayer should involve.
The prayer of Nehemiah was instead, the sincere and humble plea of a man who was truly broken-hearted for his people and wholly dependent upon his God.
E.M. Bounds wrote that “men of God are always men of prayer.”[2] This was certainly true of Nehemiah.
With this in mind, we will consider several aspects of Nehemiah’s prayer in this chapter.
Nehemiah’s Prayer Involved Humility
The word “beseech” which Nehemiah used in verse 4 means to humbly “entreat,” to “beg,” or to “implore.” Nehemiah did not tell God what to do in his prayer, but rather he came before the Lord in a humble fashion revealing his complete reliance upon his God.
Nehemiah’s humility in prayer is further seen in verse 11, “O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day...”
Notice that he once again “beseeches” the Lord and also the repetition of the phrases “thy servant” and “servants.” Nehemiah’s prayer involved humility.
Pride is often one of the biggest hindrances to answered prayer in our lives. Perhaps that is why the Lord used Solomon to instruct his people in II Chronicles 7:14 to “humble themselves” when they came before Him to pray for healing and restoration as a nation.
Nehemiah certainly had this model prayer in mind when He approached the Lord that day in humility, for in his prayer for his people, he once again asked that God would both “forgive their sin” and “heal their land” (II Chronicles 7:14). Nehemiah recognized that even more important than the walls of Jerusalem being rebuilt, the hearts of God’s people needed to first be revived.
Nehemiah’s Prayer Involved Confession
When Nehemiah prayed, he was honest with the Lord. He did not attempt to sugar-coat things or shift the blame to others for the situation that he and his fellow Jews found themselves in. He took responsibility individually for his own actions and confessed his sins to the Lord. He also prayed for his nation as a whole by confessing the sins of his people to the Lord.
Nehemiah 1:6-7 “Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned. [7] We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.”
Confession is simply telling God what He already knows to be true about us, and it is necessary for our benefit and not His. The act of confession does not inform God, but it does help to reform us. That is why the Believer is told in I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
When Nehemiah confessed both his personal sins and the national sins of his people to the Lord, he was taking one of the first steps toward the spiritual restoration of his people; for the Lord cannot hear and answer the prayers of His people when they are harboring unconfessed sin in their hearts.
Many centuries earlier the Lord had used King David to teach this truth to the people of God in the 66th Psalm with these words, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me…” (Psalm 66:18).
Nehemiah’s Prayer Involved Praise
Dr. Jeff Fugate (the pastor of the Clays Mill Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky) has often said in his preaching that “praise activates God in the life of the believer,” and the truth of this principle can be seen all throughout the Scriptures.
For example, when Paul and Silas were unjustly imprisoned at Philippi for preaching the gospel, they did not spend the night complaining about their circumstances. Instead, they began to “sing” God’s praises at midnight; and we are told that soon the Lord joined in their song, and the prison doors were thrown open wide.
When Nehemiah approached God in prayer, his heart was filled with sorrow. He was burdened for his people. However, Nehemiah knew that God alone could deliver them from the trials they were in. So, Nehemiah chose to praise God for His might and power and because of the fact that He was able to deliver them!
In verse 5 Nehemiah addressed the Lord as the “God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments.” In verse 10 he gave witness to the fact that God had “redeemed” His people “by [His] great power, and by [His] strong hand…”
What was Nehemiah doing? He was praising God for Who He is and for all that He had done for His people in the past. He was bragging on His Lord and reminding Him of all the mighty things He had done on behalf of Israel.
Beginning in Genesis with Abraham, God made an everlasting covenant with His people, Israel, which He repeated to them often in the Old Testament; and God has never broken even one of His promises to His people. Nehemiah reminded God of that in verse 5, and no doubt the truth of this eternal covenant gave Nehemiah comfort and boldness to pray to the Lord as he did.
When Nehemiah lifted his voice in prayer to the God of Israel in chapter one, he did so with an attitude of humility, confession, and praise. But there is more that we see from the prayer of this sincere servant of the Lord.
Nehemiah’s Prayer Involved Fervency
In James 4:16 we are told that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” It was Matthew Henry who once said that “our prayers must be seconded with serious endeavors, else we mock God.”[3]
When Nehemiah approached the throne of grace in prayer on that day, he did not do so casually or flippantly. Instead, he came to God with a fervency of spirit that few ever come to utilize in prayer; and, as we soon shall see, the Lord both heard and answered him.
The fervency of Nehemiah’s prayer is seen in verse 4 where we are told that he “sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.” This was no mealtime or bedtime prayer that involved only a few quick words uttered from memory. This was the prayer of a man who was pouring out his soul to the Lord in the best way he knew how.
It was similar to Hannah’s prayer in I Samuel, where she is described as being a woman of “a sorrowful spirit” who had “poured out [her] soul before the LORD” (I Samuel 1:15). Just like Hannah, who prayed to God with all of her heart for a child, Nehemiah’s prayer was one which involved fervency.
The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy teaches us that the Lord may be found by those who are fervent enough to seek Him with all of their heart. Deuteronomy 4:29 “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”
Nehemiah’s Prayer Involved Consistency
We must understand that the words of Nehemiah’s prayer, which are recorded in chapter one, were only the beginning of an intense season of prayer that he would embark upon for the next several months.
According to verse 6, Nehemiah began to pray both “day and night,” and his prayers were accompanied with seasons of “fasting” (vs 4).
In Nehemiah 1:1 we are told that Nehemiah first began to pray earnestly for his people and nation in “the month Chisleu” (mid-November to mid-December). Then, in Nehemiah 2:1 we are told that the answer to Nehemiah’s prayer came “in the month Nisan” (mid-March to mid-April).[4]
According to the Persian calendars of the day, the time that elapsed from when Nehemiah began to pray until his prayer was answered was four months. This helps us to understand that Nehemiah spent a season of earnest prayer and fasting for his nation for a period of several months before the Lord began to answer his prayers.
Nehemiah’s example in the Old Testament illustrates the teachings of Christ in the New Testament, that we are to continue in prayer when at first the answer does not come. Luke 11:9 “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Dr. John R. Rice in his classic book, Prayer, Asking and Receiving, tells us that the words “ask,” “seek,” and “knock” (which Christ uses in Luke 11:9) are translated into English from the Greek present imperative tense which indicates a continuous, ongoing process.[5]
This teaches us that in prayer, we are to “ask” and “ask” and “ask,” and “seek” and “seek” and “seek,” and “knock” and “knock” and “knock” until we receive an answer from the Lord.
Nehemiah certainly lived out this principle in his personal devotional life, for each of his recorded prayers (both in chapter one and throughout the book) involved consistency. Nehemiah knew what it meant to truly “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17).
Nehemiah’s Prayer Involved Faith
Nehemiah’s prayer was in essence a request to God for the impossible! The land of Israel had been laid waste by the enemy, the capital city of Jerusalem had been utterly destroyed, and the Jewish people were scattered abroad throughout the Persian empire. How could anyone ever dream of the regathering of these captive people together again, let alone envision the rebuilding of the once beautiful city of Jerusalem?
The answer is simple – only one who had the faith to believe that God was bigger than the problems that presented themselves. Dr. Curtis Hutson, the late editor of the Sword of the Lord magazine, said of faith-filled praying, “The possibilities of prayer exceed our ability to ask or even think.”[6]
Nehemiah was no pie-in-the-sky visionary without a grasp of reality. He fully understood the dire situation the Jews were facing and had a good idea of the mounting obstacles they would have to overcome. But he also had a profound faith in the God of his people, and Nehemiah based his faith upon the promises he found in God’s Word. This is always a sure place to find the faith we need in trying times.
In verses 8-9, he reminds the Lord of His promises as he prayed for God’s intervention and mercy on behalf of his people.
Nehemiah 1:8-9 “Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: [9] But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.”
God had promised to regather His remnant people from the farthest reaches of the earth if they would “turn” back to Him in repentance and “keep [his] commandments” in obedience once more. Nehemiah had enough faith to claim that promise and go to God in prayer for his people.
Nehemiah 1:10-11 “Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. [11] O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.”
[1] Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer
[2] E.M. Bounds, Prayer and Praying Men
[3] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible Volume III
[4] Hailey’s Bible Handbook
[5] John R. Rice, Prayer, Asking and Receiving
[6] Curtis Hutson, Punchlines
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