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.