Perhaps that is especially required when I tell you that the Lord has led me back at this time to the book of Nehemiah.
At the moment, there is no particular part of the book that I am going to underline. It is the message that this whole book has for us, as I believe, a message very much needed and very suited to the time in which we live.
Those of you who are familiar with the book and with the details related to it will be patient if I say a little now at the outset as to the setting of this book, for the sake of refreshing our minds and helping those who may not be so familiar with it.
You may or may not know that, although there are many books bound together in the Old Testament following this book, this is the last recorded piece of history in the life of Israel. That does not mean that it is the last part of Israel’s life, but, as a matter of Jewish history, this is the last record.
There were prophecies after this, to which we may refer as we go on. But again, this book, Nehemiah, stands as the final piece of historical record.
In the Hebrew Bible, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are one book. Later, they were divided into what the Hebrews called the two books of Ezra; and then, very much later, after some centuries, they were divided as we have them now under the two names, Ezra and Nehemiah.
This book has its setting, as all may know, in that return from captivity of a remnant of Israel, in fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah. After seventy years, a remnant would return. This book has to do with that return remnant.
Under the inspired and inspiring ministries of Zerubbabel and Haggai, whose prophecies you must read, of course, in connection with this book, the temple was rebuilt. A beginning was made.
Then there was a period of some twenty-one years of arrest, delay, and suspension, and then a resumption of the work. Then another period of delay and arrest—sixty years—bringing us to the time of the reformation under Ezra.
Then, again, another interval of thirteen years, bringing us to the time of Nehemiah and Ezra in cooperation for the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. This book particularly has to do with the rebuilding of the wall, but it was both Nehemiah and Ezra who cooperated even in this final aspect of recovery.
That was not the end of the periods of arrest. There were somewhere about twelve years of which we have no recorded details, and then the final reforms of Nehemiah recorded at the end of this book, after the wall was completed, the settling in the cities of the land, and other things.
That is briefly, very briefly and very imperfectly, the setting of the book. If I say no more, there is enough in that to let us see that the book has a message—something that bears upon the subsequent Christian centuries, and even upon the one in which we are now living. I think that will become more apparent as we proceed.
This book does not end in any sense, but it ends with nothing brought to perfection and completion. It is very much like the book of Acts. Just when you are wanting to know the next thing—how it worked out—it finishes, leaves you there for a long time.
That, I think, also is significant. The book of Acts was not completed; the story was not finished, because it has taken two thousand years to add to it and bring it nearer to completion.
And this book was not completed because nothing in the old dispensation could be complete until Christ came, Who is the completion of everything.
You have to remember that it was between fifty and a hundred years after Nehemiah’s work and ministry that the prophet Malachi prophesied. In that period, things, as you know from his prophecies, had very seriously deteriorated.
That last book of the Old Testament—the prophecies of Malachi—is a very painful, pathetic, and tragic book, showing again how prone God’s people are to lose, to deteriorate, to depart from that which the Lord has so wonderfully sought to recover and establish.
This book of Nehemiah has three broad sections.
If we could recognize the spiritual significance of those three things, we suddenly realize that we are not living back in the Old Testament when we read this book. We are not reading past history. We are right in the present, in the immediate activity of God: the rebuilding of that which is symbolized by the wall, the re-establishment of the authority of the Word of God in the life of His people, and the matter of His purpose in representation in local companies.
There is a lot here that is very enlightening and instructive in those matters, as they are so up to date. But let us again make a survey. I say that the book has three main sections, but then again there are five other things to be noted about this book as it embraces the history of God’s people.
Firstly, there is a people called out of the nations to be a people for His name. One has only to use that phrase and we are in the New Testament immediately, and recognize the purpose of God in this dispensation: to take out from the nations a people for His name. This book embraces the history of such a people.
Secondly, it embraces the history of their powerful influence among the nations—the great spiritual influence that this people had among the nations when they were in right relationship with God.
There is no mistaking that. When we go back to the beginning in the book of Joshua and see how, as constituted God’s people in the land, immediately all the nations round about began to take account of them, they realized that they were people to be reckoned with and people of whom they had great fear. They had something to reckon with.
And so it was, from time to time, when their relationship with God was right. They were a people who could not be ignored among the nations. That is something to take note of, because the loss of that influence is something that has to be looked at for the discovery of its cause or causes.
I am tempted to enlarge upon each of these, but I think that will come. You will agree with me if I say that it is not so now in the case of the Lord’s people in this world. They are not something of which the world is afraid. They are not something that is being taken account of as representing a menace to the kingdom of Satan.
The spiritual influence of the people of God in the world and in the nations is not now something that is a tremendous challenge, something no one can ignore, as it was from time to time with Israel and as it was in the beginning of the Christian era.
It was like that. What a spiritual influence! What a telling force! What an upset to the world! Indeed, it was true: people that turned the world upside down.
This book embraces the history of that tremendous spiritual influence which they had once had, which they had lost, and which they were now seeking to recover.
Thirdly, it shows the loss of that influence and impact because of the lost spirituality of the people. Their pure, spiritual life and nature had given place, as we shall see as we go on, to other things—the spirit of the world.
Then, in the fourth place, the book embraces that long period of captivity, of impotence and of discipline—deep, acute discipline—all with a view to recovering what was lost.
Finally, for the moment, there is the return of a remnant—disciplined, chastened, and embodying that which God ever intended to be the testimony of His people in this world.
Those are the five things making up the history covered by this book. Having said that about the book, still take a wider view. And here, dear friends, you will be patient. This is what has come to me with tremendous force, and I feel that if it should register itself upon you, it would have a very great effect.
This book, which goes under the name Nehemiah, is in itself a microcosm of the conflict of all the ages. You think about that.
When we reach the end of this book, which, as we have said, is the last fragment of historical record in the Old Testament, we are in the presence of an achievement intended by God Himself.
Something has been done which God intended to be done, and therefore something to which God Himself committed Himself in sovereign purpose and sovereign power. That is the heart of the message of this book.
Let us repeat that. With the conclusion of this book, we find ourselves standing right in the presence of a tremendous achievement. Something has been done, the doing of which demanded the absolute sovereignty of God in purpose and in power.
So that this achievement represents something to which God committed Himself because He willed it, because He determined to have it.
That is a comprehensive statement as to the whole conflict of the ages. And, at last—long last it may be—at last, in the final end of all ends, we shall stand in something like that.
We shall stand in an achievement which God intended from eternity, to which He committed Himself, and which will be the monument to His sovereign purpose and His sovereign power.
The reason for this being a microcosm of the conflict of the ages—a representation of the vast, larger conflict that has gone through all time—is that here we have such a wonderful, clear-cut movement from God’s side.
On His own part, by His own initiative, in His own sovereignty, He commits Himself to it. Who can read this book without seeing that, whatever occupies the forefront of the stage, God is behind it? God is in this.
The reason why, in what is after all only a historic incident, a small item of divine history and representation, this sovereign activity of God—this committal of God to this thing—is here on record, is not because there is something in the thing itself, not because this began and ended with this remnant.
It is because this movement and this remnant embodied or contained the principles and attributes of that much larger, that much greater, that eternal purpose of God.
You see, the Bible is like that, dear friends. Again and again, you see God interested in something or someone, and acting sovereignly in relation to that thing or person, committing Himself and letting it be known that He is bound up with that or with them.
Is it because God is so interested in the incident of history, in persons, or things, or places on this earth? No, it is not that at all. If you look deeper, you will see that those persons, those things, or those places are the embodiment of spiritual and eternal principles.
They are not just things in themselves, beginning and ending with themselves. There is something there which represents what is of God, which is eternal in His methods, in His laws, in His principles.
So this book, Nehemiah, being a book which shows so clearly, and has all the evidences of, God being involved—God committing Himself and God acting in sovereignty—shows us something wonderful.
May I say, as a parenthesis, that the very movement of the infinite sovereignty of God’s wisdom and power is not always in some demonstration, rending the heavens, just ruling and overruling and making things happen and work together. It all looks very simple, nevertheless.
They would never have been thought of but for God. It could never have been: the forces against it are far too great for the achievement, but for God. The prime actor is God. He is behind it all.
Well, not because this is something in itself, but because this very thing embodies principles dear to God’s heart, which are infinitely greater than the thing or the person. And those are the things which recur again and again in the movement of God through the ages.
He acts sovereignly. He chooses. He commits Himself. He works—not because of the people of the moment, or even the methods, but because there is something very, very dear to His heart here in spiritual principles and eternal realities.
I trust that you are able to interpret from what I am saying very much larger things.
Let us see what constitutes that achievement. It will not be difficult for us to make the transition from one realm of things to another.
You have these two realms, these two categories, these two orders. On the one side, you have the temporal; over against that, you have the spiritual. On the one side, you have the earthly; over against that, you have the heavenly. On the one side, you have the historical; over against that, you have the eternal.
On the one side, you have something that is quite local; on the other side, over against that, you have that which is universal. Again, on the one side, you have a limited representation; on the other side, you have the divine fullness of the reality.
If you look at the things which constitute this achievement recorded in this book, it will not be difficult for you to make that transition from the temporal, historical, local, and limited to the spiritual, heavenly, eternal, universal, and real.
First of all, there is a place chosen by God and appointed by Him for His dwelling.
Here, Jerusalem was the local, earthly, temporal, limited representation of that far greater divine conception: a place for God’s dwelling, a place where He chose to have His habitation.
That is a far, far greater interpretation than any earthly place. You see, that goes right back behind everything—why God created this world. His thought was to dwell amongst men, to make the earth His habitation, to fill the earth with His glory and with His character.
A place chosen and appointed by God for His dwelling: that is the first characteristic of the story and of the achievement.
But ruin entered into that far bigger history than the history of Jerusalem. Ruin came into God’s design, making it necessary for God to withdraw, unable to realize, for the time being, that eternal intention to dwell with men.
Ruin—but recovery and rebuilding.
What a significance the book has, if that is what it is about! If that is its significance and import, if that is its larger meaning than the merely local and temporal, then we understand God acting in sovereign power and wisdom and committing Himself.
You see the point? I think that is quite clear. A place for God, suitable to Himself, where He may dwell with men.
The city—what a lot there is of the Bible in that!
When God went into a pagan city to begin this movement of recovery, He found a man, appeared unto him as the God of glory, called him out of that city, and put into his heart another city.
That man, Abraham, looked for a city whose builder and architect was God. He never realized it; he died looking for it.
On through the Old Testament, it is the city, the city, always in view—the heart of everything. The most significant thing is that city, and yet, as to its earthly form, it would be so disappointing, failing God. But the vision does not fail, and it is impressive.
That is the beginning of the Bible. In the last chapters of the Bible, the city is secured:
He carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high,
and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God.
Her light was like unto a stone most precious.
You have the larger, the heavenly, the eternal, the spiritual interpretation of this book just in the word city.
This wall is the next thing: the boundary wall of the city, indicating a sphere to which God limits Himself in principle. That is, God will not commit Himself to anything and everything.
God is particular. God is particular. He will have things according to His own thought. The city is built and designed by God—something that answers to, corresponds to, a divine thought.
And the wall indicates that demarcation of what is of God, that limiting of things to a specific kind of spiritual thought. It is a boundary of God.
It is only a figure and type in Nehemiah, or in the Old Testament, but it carries that spiritual principle: here you will find that it is essentially, intrinsically, according to the mind of God—marked off by that thought.
That wall—ah yes—shattered, shattered.
It was like that to begin with in the garden: God’s presence, because everything corresponded to the mind of God, as He was able to say, “It is very good. It is very good.”
Then sin entered, broken down like the wall of Jerusalem. But God, again moving to recover His thought, to rebuild—that is what this book is about: more than a fragment of history in the Old Testament, a representation of a great spiritual conception out from the mind of God.
Thirdly, there is a people who, because of loss of divine character, were scattered and alienated.
We know from the prophets the condition of the people which led to their alienation, their being carried away into foreign countries, and their being scattered from the land: loss of spiritual character, loss of divine nature, people away from God.
And God’s essential thought of that people is represented in the remnant restored to their home in God. Dear friends, every work of the Spirit of God which recovers spiritually, which brings back to the Lord, knows quite well that they come home—all the sacred, holy meaning of that word.
A people restored to their spiritual home—but a remnant, saved, cleansed, united, and under divinely appointed headship.
Again, I say, what a lot there is in that! A people gathered out of the nations, cleansed from their own things, brought back into the place of fellowship with God, united as one people, and under a divinely appointed Headship.
Well, you can carry that further, and you know that is what the New Testament is about. It is all about that.
This book, then, embodies the eternal purpose and the eternal future. As I started by saying, it is a microcosm of this long-drawn-out battle of the ages over something holy of God.
But there is one more thing: a people whose testimony and whose position represents the absolute impotence of all their enemies.
That is no small thing. When the church reaches the end for which God is determined and to which He has committed Himself, the church will embody this testimony: all the efforts of the ages on the part of adverse powers have been proved futile. They could not defeat God.
Look at this book. You see the enemy—we shall refer to them again later—many, many kinds, all set upon the determined frustration and defeat of this object. Yet the book ends in an achievement in which no weapon that was formed against them has prospered, and every tongue that rose in judgment has been condemned.
They are the embodiment of the fact that when God determines something, His people may be assailed from every angle and along every line; in the end, they are a testimony that the enemy is impotent. He cannot accomplish his end.
How rich this book is! As I have said, it is a representation of a far wider record than the history which it records.
Behind this recovery there is a long, painful history—a long and painful history—that which made the recovery necessary.
Firstly, there is the history of a people’s failure in faith and confidence in God, proved and exhibited by their turning to the devices of men.
You look into Israel’s history: again and again, when they lost faith and confidence in God, allowed that faith and confidence to wane, weaken, or depart, they turned to other devices. They went down to Egypt. They resorted to this and that from some other worldly source for their very survival.
There is a tremendous amount of history in all the Old Testament in that fact. That is why recovery became necessary: a recovery of faith and confidence in God that is altogether independent of this world and of men.
It has its glowing testimony simply because God is its only resource. And we call it, “It is God.”
Have I said that we, in our days, are living in this book spiritually? No doubt about it. We do not want to embark upon criticism, censoriousness, and that kind of thing. But to anyone who has any perception, it is clear that this is the tragedy of the church through its centuries and today.
There are alternatives to God—alternatives to God that would not be admitted, acknowledged, or put like that—but churches are looking into the world, to men, to devices, to all sorts of things for their survival, because they have lost that essential relationship with God: faith and confidence.
We look at the beginning of the New Testament. Look at that book of beginnings of this dispensation which is called Acts. Were they in any way calling upon the world, looking to the world, dependent upon the world, looking to themselves, to the devices of men, the institutions of men, the organizations of men? Were they?
That was the day of their mighty influence in the world. The glorified Christ was their one and their only recourse, at all times and in all matters. And that accounted for their power.
Loss of confidence in God is always proved by what you turn to as your second course.
Failure in faith and confidence, leaning to men, results in dislocation, disruption, division, schism of every kind.
With this process, a disrupted, disintegrated testimony is broken into a thousand fragments. No coherence, no unity, no oneness, no single testimony or impact or registration upon the surroundings. That always follows this loss of right position with God. It did with them.
The nature of their condition, when it came to be like that, was always defilement and corruption: a breaking down of the barriers between what is of God and what is of the world; the world seeping in, the world touching holy things with its defiled hand; and, sadly, the people of God reaching the other hand to the hand of the world and defiling their own hand.
Defilement, corruption, and then generally a false position—even a false life—which is always evidenced by frustration and disappointment.
What the Bible calls vanity: that is, labour, expenditure, tremendous activity—never getting there, never getting there at all. The money put into bags with holes. Is not that Haggai?
Bringing home the proof of labour and vanity. Whereas it seems to be something, it turns out to be nothing. Frustration. Vanity. Not getting through to it.
Life spent, life poured out, tremendous efforts—and then what have you got? What? What is it? Malachi and Haggai give us the answer. You look at it and say, “It is nothing. It is not commensurate with all our labour.”
So it was with Israel. That is a pathetic position: disappointment in life and life-work, and a hollowness of heart. It is not worth it.
And God is showing in this book how to reverse this. This book is a wonderful object lesson of the reverse.
Now the people have a mind to work. Now the people are giving themselves tremendously up to a purpose. I have said that you reach the end of this book and you are in the presence of an achievement—not frustration, not discipline, but a change.
An end is reached. An answer is given. It is a positive limit upon which you end, so far as this representation of things is concerned. I like the words: “So the wall was finished.” So the wall was finished.
I repeat: the book is a revelation to our hearts of how defeat, frustration, disappointment, vanity, and vexation of spirit can be turned into mighty achievement, with the joy of the Lord as your strength.
As you know, that is the great word:
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
If I understand the meaning of that, it just means that God’s satisfaction is your satisfaction. If God is satisfied, every heart in fellowship with God will be satisfied.
Well, all this demanded a new activity of God and the securing of a people in which that new activity could be shown forth, could be wrought out. That is what is here: God moving to have a people for recovery—for recovery.
Does that belong only to the book of Nehemiah? Dear friends, I do not believe so.
God will commit Himself. God will act sovereignly when He finds a people disciplined, chastened, maybe broken so far as all self-interest is concerned; people who, like the remnant, are exiled, and all that it represented, but whose hearts are back toward the place of the Lord.
When the Lord finds a people who have no other counter or dividing interest, so that He should have that which satisfies His own heart, He will commit Himself.
They will have their difficulties. There are many adversaries. There is plenty of suffering. But they will embody the principle that no enemy is sufficient and no adverse power is sufficient to defeat God, to frustrate God, to cheat God of His end.
Maybe you and I are called to be a little part of such a movement of God in our days. You are half responding to that.
Remember, as I have said, this book represents an end time and an end-time activity of God. We are in that time, even more than Nehemiah—the end of all end times. And this is what God would do at such a time.
I pray that He may open your spiritual eyes to see perhaps the setting of this time together, and again either give or restore that provision which integrates His people and makes us like these people: devoted and united for God.