Several years ago, I found myself ministering to students in a season of deep uncertainty for our church. It was becoming increasingly difficult for me to see the Lord’s hand at work, let alone help my students to see it.
During this same time, I was knee-deep in a personal study of the book of Nehemiah. I remembered hearing a sermon once about how when faced by opposition, Nehemiah refused to stop his work. He knew God’s word to him, so instead of yielding to the fear of his enemies, he simply held a defensive weapon in one hand and a hammer in the other… and kept working. Nehemiah had somehow found the faith to press forward even in great uncertainty, and I was desperate to understand how.
The more I studied Nehemiah, I watched in amazement as God’s mighty hand faithfully and mercifully cared and provided for his people, even when their own faith failed. Yes, God used the obedience and faith of his people to advance his purposes for them. Yet God never stopped working, even in the moments of their doubt and disobedience. The story of Nehemiah gave me a framework to better see and understand how God is always at work for his good purposes and plans.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are actually one story, meant to be told together. There is a richness to sharing these stories as one as you study the post-exilic time period of Israel’s history. These books chronicle Israel’s return from Babylon to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the temple and walls of the city. Yet, more than that, these books cover the history of God’s faithfulness to fulfill his promise of redemption and his sovereignty to restore his people.
Even though we can easily overlook Nehemiah in our choice of books to study, I want to offer a three key truths from this book that are important for our students today.
Prayer and action go hand in hand.
Often, we find that our students—and we—are either prone toward prayer over action or action over prayer. We all can think of some action-oriented go-getters in our youth ministries. In school and sports, this is exactly what they need to be to succeed.
Our culture teaches students that they can control their circumstances by being in control of their actions. This is why it can be hard to have the patience required to pray. We want instant results, which means we need to take instant action.
Students who are more geared toward prayer than action are comfortable going to God in prayer and waiting to hear from him. Yet, it is hard for them to step out in faith and take action when the time comes for obedience.
Nehemiah shows our students, by example, what it looks like to put prayer and action together. Nehemiah is faithful to turn to God in prayer first (Neh. 1:4, 2:4), giving more time to prayer than to action (Neh. 1:1-2:1; 6:15). When the opportunity comes, he is faithful to follow God in obedient action (Neh. 4:6).
The Word of God convicts and comforts.
At the heart of the story of Nehemiah is a beautiful and powerful moment when God’s Word returns to God’s people. After decades of exile, the people of God return to the square in Jerusalem and receive the Law of God, his Word, and continue to listen for seven days. They are hungry for his Word and, once they encounter it, it does its work in them—the work that only God’s Word can do. God’s Word first confronts God’s people to recognize their sin. Then the Word comforts the people, reminding them God has made a way to overcome sin through his Word.
God’s Word brings Israel deep joy and equally deep conviction. God’s people are brought to a time of mourning and grief over this their sin, yet God’s Word does not leave them there. In the same way God’s Word convicts them, his Word comforts them.
In studying Nehemiah, your students will learn that while we should be grieved by our sin when we see it in light of a good God, we should also be comforted by God’s grace and mercy. Our students have a reason to rejoice because God is the one who makes a way for us to overcome our sin, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is only by his power and strength that our sin has been defeated in the sacrifice of Christ and his conquering of death through Christ’s resurrection. It is now through his grace and mercy that we can receive that comfort in the salvation offered in Christ alone.
Revival must take place in our hearts, not just our actions.
While your students may already know the story of Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall, as they take a deep dive into the book, they will quickly see that the wall is actually done by chapter 6, meaning there is more than half of the story remaining after the wall is built.
So while the wall may be the most well-known part of Nehemiah’s story, it is clearly not the only part. The heart of the story of Nehemiah is actually not the rebuilding of the wall, but the rebuilding of God’s people.
Nehemiah confronts the Israelites by calling them to renew their commitment to and worship of the Lord (Neh. 9:38). God did not merely desire to restore the physical city of Jerusalem, he desired to restore the hearts of his people. Through Nehemiah, students will learn that revival does not just take place in our actions, but in our hearts and in our worship.
We long to see revival in students’ lives, and in our communities, yet we often do not know how to make that happen. So we set up events, or we change our routines. While these actions are all good things, our students need to see that revival is not just a result of action. Revival is first needed in our own lives and worship. If we long to see revival in our schools and communities, we should first seek revival in our lives.
Unwavering Faithfulness
In a cultural moment in which our students live as disciples in a post-christian culture, Nehemiah offers reminders of God’s unwavering faithfulness and his ever-present rule. Nehemiah gives us tangible examples of obedience in both action and prayer, while reminding us of the significance of our own worship. As students study the book of Nehemiah, may they—just like the Israelites—be confronted and comforted by God’s Word anew.
Be sure to check out Rooted’s latest curriculum package: Restoration, including the books of Esther, Nehemiah, Ezra, and Zechariah.
