Nehemiah Part 10: The Favor of God
In Nehemiah 2:7, we begin to see how impossible Nehemiah’s job is. This is why I do not like excuses. Reasons are OK, if they are valid, but I do not like excuses because Nehemiah was called to do something that was impossible. You have never been asked to do something that was impossible. It might have been at times hard, it might have been at times not easy, but never impossible.
God has given Nehemiah an impossible job. Nehemiah has no money, no authority, he just has a job. Nehemiah found favor; he was not a complainer, he was not a bad worker, otherwise he would not have found favor. The King would have kicked him out.
I also said to him, "If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?" And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. Nehemiah 2:7-9
We see in verse seven that he was not even allowed to pass through the lands to get to Jerusalem. If God had given you this job, what would you have said? “I can’t go there. I am not even allowed to pass through there. How am I supposed to rebuild the City when I am not even allowed to go to the City? I am not even allowed to go there. I am not allowed to pass through there. I can not do that. It is an impossible job.”
Sometimes in Christianity we come up with this, “I can’t do it. It won’t work. It’s impossible. It’s too hard. It’s not our language.” Nehemiah has no way of getting there, no timber, no one helping him. But what does he do? Does he do what we do? Make excuses? Give up? No, he says, “OK, I can’t get there so I need some help.”
Nehemiah asked for letters so he could at least get there. And you see what happened. Nehemiah found so much favor with the king that he gave him the letter. If we give you a letter that is pretty good favor because most of the time, quite honestly, you don’t deserve it. But we give you the letter anyway. Nehemiah did not get a letter from Dove World Outreach Center, from the Company. He got a letter from the King! That shows how much favor he had, how good a worker he was.
Then Nehemiah asked for more. Just passing through was not going to do it. He had to rebuild. We need more. We need a lot more of everything, and God is going to give it to us. We need a lot more of everything because of what we are doing. We need a lot more.
Not only is Nehemiah going to rebuild. He asks to use the King’s forests. That would be like saying we are not only going to rebuild, but we are going to use your money. We are not only going to buy that saw blade, but you are going to pay for it. That’s what he said. I am going to rebuild and I am going to use your forest. I want you to give it to me. That is what he said!
We have not even scratched the surface of God’s grace, of God’s favor. We have not scratched the surface because we would have said no from the beginning. From the very beginning we would have said, “That’s too much! That’s too demanding. You are asking too much. I cannot do it. I will not do it.” Those are words we should never have. We should never say: I will not do it! (As long as it is scriptural, of course, which goes without saying.)
Nehemiah said the King granted these requests to him because the “hand of my God was upon me.” If you have to be in a church, that is the kind of church to be in. It’s not easy. It is a kind of mean church, real demanding, they don’t take excuses, they don’t take no for an answer, but they are doing something. It is not an easy job; easy is for loosers. No, it is not easy.
