Nehemiah 1 - Bad news, but a good response

1:1-4

We know very little about Nehemiah’s background, except that he was the son of Hakaliah and one of his brothers was called Hanani. He was with the exiles in Babylon, living in the city of Susa.Hanani had been in Judah and reported about the situation there. The report was not good. The walls of the city were broken down, and the gates had been burned down with fire. The practical situation was important as well as the spiritual circumstances, indeed the two are often linked. Nehemiah was greatly distressed . He wept and fated for several days, and prayed to the Lord.

1:5-7

His prayer starts with a declaration that God keeps his covenant of love, this was not said to remind God, but to build up his own faith. Then he confesses the sin of the nation, at the same time identifying himself with the sins, he did not consider himself innocent.

1:8,9

He then remembers the words of Moses which had foretold the consequences of disobedience and idolatry., but they also told of the promise of return if they repented. The gospel is not just about saying that God loves everyone, and definitely not that we are basically good. Rather it is honest about our sin and sinfulness, but also a call to repentance, and a promise that God welcomes back repentant sinners. If the people returned to God, then even if they had been scattered to the furthest lands, He would restore them. 

1:10,11

Nehemiah was cupbearer to the king, i.e. he tasted the king’s wine before he drank it to ensure that it was not poisoned. It was the king who had been persuaded to order that the rebuilding work be stopped.

Nehemiah - Introduction

Nehemiah - Introduction

Nehemiah and Ezra appear as one book in the Hebrew Bible, though there is evidence that originally they were separate. It is likely that Nehemiah was the author of the book that bears his name. It is one of the post-exilic books. The northern kingdom was exiled by Assyria, and the southern kingdom by Babylon. Both of these events were a result of God’s judgement upon them for their idolatry, something God had warned them about in the Law, and had sent various prophets; there was also a promise of eventual return. We sometimes have a picture in our minds that all the Israelites returned and that it happened all at once. Neither of these things is true.The return actually happened in three stages, Zerubbabel returned to rebuild the temple between 538 and 525 BC, Ezra returned to establish proper religious practice and worship between 458 and 456 BC, finally Nehemiah returned between 444 and 432 BC.  Nehemiah had an influential position, but when he heard of the state of things in Jerusalem his heart was touched and he wanted to return to Jerusalem to help change things.

When he arrived in Jerusalem he was faced with the problems. The state of the people themselves, and the opposition from outside. It is similar to the problems every church leader encounters!

Nehemiah took practical and spiritual action in order to change the situation and the book is a record of how he went about this.

Song of Songs Chapter 8 - Desire

8:1-4

The woman expresses the wish that the man was like a brother, so then she could express affection for him without incurring disapproving glances. People can disapprove of how much Jesus means to us, how much we rejoice in the gospel. We can be tempted not to take Christianity so seriously, yet we must take it seriously, for it truly is a matter of life and death, even eternal life and death. In 8:4 we get the repeated warning, “do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires”.

8:5-7

These verses emphasise the strength of love and desire, their strength is why they should be confined to marriage, for only in that relationship of complete commitment can they be properly directed.  Verses 6 and 7 stress the strength of love.

8:8,9

The “Friends” express their desire to protect their little sister. Answering the warning not to arouse love until the proper time.

8:10-14

The song ends with more expressions of love and desire.

Song of Songs Chapter 7 - delighting in each other

7:1-9

The lover continues to delight in his beloved, in every part of her body. How can the Lord delight in us? There are three key reasons. One is the cross, His blood has cleansed us completely of all defilement. Another if that we were created in His image. Sin has spoilt that image, but that spoiling is being undone. And connected to this is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, His work of sanctification. We should grab on to the cross, and delight in what the Spirit is doing in our lives.

7:10-13

The woman delights in her beloved, in all that He is.

Song of Songs Chapter 6 - I am my beloved and he is mine

6:1-13

The lover delights in his beloved. We then get the lover voicing this, and a return to the flock of goats and sheep analogy.

The beloved is unique in the eyes of the lover. Yes, there are many women, but his beloved is unique. In the same way we are all unique in the eyes of Christ. 

I have said it before, and I will say it again. We find this book very difficult to take, very difficult to associate with Christ's love for us. But it is true! We have no idea just how much God does delight in us. The blood of Christ has washed away all the sin that defiled us. He delights in every aspect of his beloved. 

The beloved belongs to her lover and he belongs to her. In the same way we belong to Christ, and He belongs to us. 

The lover wants the beloved to call on him, he wants to hear her voice. In the same way Christ wants to hear us calling on Him.

Song of Songs Chapter 5

5:1-16

Verse 1 is about the man delighting in his beloved.

The beloved also longs for her beloved, but then he is gone and she cannot find him. Indeed the watchmen of the city beat her up as she searched for him. There are times in life when Christ seems so close, then He is gone. Once we felt God so close, so aware of His love for us, then nothing! We long for a return of the closeness of the Lord, we go and seek Him out, we pray, we praise, we read the Bible, we cry out to Him, but nothing happens. Worse than that, the circumstances of life, the thoughts and emotions within us just seem to beat us up.

The friends ask what makes her lover so special. She then goes into a rhapsody of his great qualities. If God seems far off just now, consider why it matters so much to you. Why do you seek Him, why do you long for Him? Why not just get on with life like most of the world does with worrying about whether you are close to God or not? It is because he is so wonderful. We know that He is the only One who gives meaning to our lives, He is perfect in every detail, He is the One who can restore us.

Song of Songs - Chapter 4 - Altogether beautiful

4:1-7

The lover now delights in his beloved. The terms used are not ones we would use today, indeed it might be very unwise to use some of them. Nevertheless, it is worth looking at one or two of them. "Your hair is like a flock of goats". The goats of Canaan were usually dark. Now remember that the beloved was dark and the society of the time did not consider dark to be desirable. So the lover finds beauty in some aspects of the beloved that society mocks. We need to be careful not to allow society to mould how we view ourselves, for society's values are often complete nonsense and worthless. And there are things about us that other people mock, but that the Lord delights in.

"Your teeth are like sheep". Remember that dentistry wasn't then what it is now! To have good teeth would be a rare blessing.

The lover finds no flaw in her. Society urges us to spot faults in people (and in ourselves). If we are married we should delight in our wives or husbands. The Lord also delights in us. Have we got faults? Yes. Have our wives or husbands got faults? Yes. But God sees us as perfect because of Christ. 

4:8-15

The lover continues to delight in his bride. Note the use of the term "sister" in v9. To use brother or sister in the love poetry of the time was quite common and did not indicate anything of an incestuous nature.

"You are a garden locked up" (v12). There were many delights in the beloved that had not yet been opened up. We need to realise in a marriage that a mutual self-giving relationship opens up features of each other, it nurtures positive qualities and develops new gifts. People sometimes wonder if they have married the right person. The more important question is "how do we love the person we have married". It is not just about the person you marry, it is about the person that they (and you) will become within the marriage.

And the Lord sees all sorts of hidden potential within us. And we need the Lord to come into our lives to awaken all this hidden potential.

4:16

The woman invites her beloved into her life. We need to invite Christ into all aspects of our life, to realise its true beauty and potential.