Day 342: Nehemiah 1-3 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hey Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny
2. 0:02Orango. Welcome to the Bible department
3. 0:04podcast powered by Arma. We are walking
4. 0:08through the entire Bible in a year. You
5. 0:10can go to the description or the bible
6. 0:13department.com to download a reading
7. 0:15plan and join the journey.
8. 0:24Hey family, welcome to day 342. We are
9. 0:27in a brand NEW BOOK OF THE BIBLE. We are
10. 0:28in Nehemiah. Now, let me kind of add a
11. 0:32little caveat to being in a brand new
12. 0:34book of the Bible. This was not
13. 0:36originally a separate book than Ezra.
14. 0:39And so, really, we are in Ezra part two,
15. 0:42aka Nehemiah. But we get to celebrate
16. 0:45that it's another book of the Bible,
17. 0:47another milestone as we inch closer and
18. 0:50closer and closer towards the end of the
19. 0:53year. Guys, I can see the light at the
20. 0:55end of the tunnel. Today's day 3:42.
21. 0:58We're about to be at day 365 soon and
22. 1:00I'm super super super excited, super
23. 1:02proud of you. Today we got Nehemiah
24. 1:04chapters one, two, and three. We are
25. 1:07going to be in the book of Nehemiah aka
26. 1:09Ezra part two for 4 days. And we are
27. 1:13going to now see the third wave of
28. 1:16exiles uh return to Jerusalem under the
29. 1:21leadership of my man Nehemiah. All
30. 1:24right. So, if you haven't done the
31. 1:27reading, how about you stop this video,
32. 1:29pause the audio, go get the reading
33. 1:31done, and when you got the reading done,
34. 1:33come on back. Nehemiah is a fast-paced,
35. 1:36action-packed book. So, the reading
36. 1:39honestly should not be difficult. And
37. 1:42let's go ahead and put some things in
38. 1:45context. All right. Uh, we're going to
39. 1:47dive into the first part of the episode,
40. 1:48which like we do every day, I'm going to
41. 1:51give you context clues that will
42. 1:53hopefully make the reading make way more
43. 1:55sense. And then we'll dive into our
44. 1:56nerdy nuggets. I'll try to give you as
45. 1:57many nerdy nuggets as possible for
46. 2:00today. And then I've got a double-header
47. 2:03timeless truth for you. So, first thing
48. 2:05I want to do with our context today is
49. 2:07just to go over the timeline. Okay? We
50. 2:10have looked at a lot of things,
51. 2:12especially in the last couple of books
52. 2:14of the Bible. I kind of want to just
53. 2:16give everyone a timeline. Now, I know
54. 2:19dates may throw you off guard. For some
55. 2:21people, dates are insanely orienting.
56. 2:25For other people, dates can be
57. 2:27disorienting. So, sorry if dates are
58. 2:30disorienting. They orient me big time.
59. 2:33At least they help me understand what
60. 2:35came first, what came second, what came
61. 2:36third, what came before or after another
62. 2:39thing. Okay. So, we're going to start
63. 2:41this timeline with the return uh that
64. 2:45Zerobible leads. Okay. This whole chain
65. 2:48of events is kicked off in 538.
66. 2:52Okay. 538 BC. 538 537 BC is the first
67. 2:58wave of return from exile led by
68. 3:01Zerubbable. Okay. Zerubbable whose name
69. 3:04means planted in Babylon. Zerubbab
70. 3:07planted. Babel, Babel, Babylon. Okay.
71. 3:10Planted in Babylon. Two years later in
72. 3:13536, we're going to get the foundation
73. 3:15stone is laid for the second temple. So
74. 3:19Jesus lived in second temple Judaism.
75. 3:22Okay, it's that's called the second
76. 3:24temple period. So uh Zerubbabable's
77. 3:26temple is the second temple. Solomon's
78. 3:28temple is the first. Okay, the
79. 3:30foundation stone is laid for the second
80. 3:32temple, but local opposition stops the
81. 3:35work. That's 536 BC. The work is stopped
82. 3:38for 16 years. That gets us to 520 BC.
83. 3:43520 BC, we get the ministry of Haggi and
84. 3:45Zechariah who encourages who encourage
85. 3:49Zerubbabable and the people to resume
86. 3:52the temple work. Okay. 5:16, four years
87. 3:55later, the second temple is finished in
88. 3:58516 BC. Then from 479
89. 4:03to pretty much 478, the events of the
90. 4:06book of Esther take place. And then
91. 4:09right after that, you're going to get
92. 4:11Ezra is going to come up on the scene.
93. 4:13Uh in 458, 457 give or take. We're going
94. 4:18to get the second return of ex exiled uh
95. 4:22Israelites that are going to come back
96. 4:24from Persia back to Jerusalem led by
97. 4:28none other than my man Ezra. All right.
98. 4:32So that's a timeline. Now Nehemiah
99. 4:35chapter 1 is going to essentially orient
100. 4:38us with some dates. says this, "In the
101. 4:41month of Kislev, in the 20th year, while
102. 4:45I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani or
103. 4:50Hannani, one of my brothers came from
104. 4:52Judah with some other men and I
105. 4:55questioned them about the Jewish remnant
106. 4:57that has survived the exile and also
107. 5:00about Jerusalem." Okay, so let's go back
108. 5:03to that context. In the month of Kislev,
109. 5:06in the 20th year while I was in the
110. 5:10citadel of Susa. Okay. 20th year of
111. 5:12what? I love that because the Bible is
112. 5:15not going to tell us outright the 20
113. 5:1720th year of I don't know the 20th year
114. 5:20of Artha Franklin's life. I don't know
115. 5:22the 20th year of NASA being established.
116. 5:25Like the 20th year of what? Well, it's
117. 5:28the 20th year of the reign of Arduk
118. 5:30Xerxes I. The same king who aided Ezra
119. 5:34in his return. In Ezra, we looked at the
120. 5:37reigns of the Persian kings in Artic
121. 5:39Xerxes the first reigned from 464 to 423
122. 5:44BC, which puts the events of Nehemiah
123. 5:48beginning in 444 BC. So Ezra had been
124. 5:52back in Jerusalem for about 12 years
125. 5:54when Nehemiah's story begins. 538 537
126. 6:00first wave of returnees. Okay. Come back
127. 6:02with Zerubbable. 536 the foundation
128. 6:05stone is laid for the second temple but
129. 6:07local opposition stops the work. The
130. 6:09work stop stops for 16 years. In 520 the
131. 6:14ministry of Haggi and Zechariah
132. 6:16kickstart the building the building
133. 6:18project to resume. They got four years
134. 6:21from 520 to 516 until the second temple
135. 6:24is finished. And then 479 to 478,
136. 6:30we've got the events of Esther that are
137. 6:32going to take place. And then we get a
138. 6:35second wave of return of returnees from
139. 6:37exile led by Ezra in 458 457.
140. 6:43And now in 444
141. 6:46BC, we've got Nehemiah leading the third
142. 6:50wave of returnees back to Jerusalem. All
143. 6:53right, talk about a robust timeline. All
144. 6:55right, you should you should feel very
145. 6:58oriented, okay? Especially if you wrote
146. 7:01those dates down while I was talking,
147. 7:03you've honestly got a massive map uh or
148. 7:06a road map uh of just a timeline. Now,
149. 7:10heads up, okay? The Jewish people are
150. 7:13going to experience 400 years of
151. 7:15silence, which means if we're in 444 BC,
152. 7:19we're 444 years before Christ. And prior
153. 7:24before the birth of Christ, we're going
154. 7:26to get 400 years of silence, which means
155. 7:28we're like 40 years away from the end of
156. 7:32the Old Testament. Like, we're You
157. 7:34should hear 444 BC and think to
158. 7:36yourself, we're coming down to the wire.
159. 7:38Like the next thing that's going to
160. 7:40happen is the end of the Old Testament
161. 7:43is coming and then we're going to get
162. 7:46400 years of silence and then Jesus is
163. 7:48going to be born. Okay, the incarnate
164. 7:51Christ, the son of the living God. All
165. 7:53right, one final piece of context. Okay,
166. 7:56so Nehemiah is going to hear that the
167. 7:59situation in Jerusalem is not the best,
168. 8:02could be better, that there are walls
169. 8:05that are burned down, that the people
170. 8:07that the temple has been rebuilt, but
171. 8:09that their living conditions are pretty
172. 8:12bad because they're living unprotected.
173. 8:14Okay? It would be very, very, very
174. 8:16unsafe to live in an ancient city with
175. 8:19no walls. It it genuinely just means
176. 8:21anyone can attack you at any time. So
177. 8:23Nehemiah's heart is broken. Uh it says
178. 8:26this in verse 4, chapter 1:4, "When I
179. 8:29heard these things, I sat down and wept
180. 8:31for some days I mourned and fasted and
181. 8:34prayed before the God of heaven." Okay,
182. 8:37so uh Nehemiah is really moved by the
183. 8:40fact that you know his ethnic people
184. 8:45like the the Jewish people are there's a
185. 8:48remnant of people living in Jerusalem.
186. 8:49Remember, you know, there's upwards of
187. 8:51hundreds of thousands, if not a million
188. 8:53Jews living in the Persian Empire.
189. 8:56There's only 50,000 that went back to
190. 8:58Jerusalem. So, it's a remnant. And he's
191. 9:01mourning over the fact that there's a
192. 9:03remnant of people who live in Jerusalem
193. 9:05under dilapidated conditions. And he's
194. 9:08broken by it. He fast, he prays. Okay?
195. 9:12Now, he wants to go rebuild these walls.
196. 9:15And if you don't have context in the
197. 9:18book of Ezra, you may be like, why? Why?
198. 9:20Why does it take a lot of courage to go
199. 9:22ask, you know, the king if we can go
200. 9:25rebuild these walls? Well, if you
201. 9:27remember, okay, this exact same king,
202. 9:30Artic Xerxes had already said no on
203. 9:34rebuilding walls. You can rebuild the
204. 9:35temple. You can go uh Ezra a
205. 9:38Zerubbabable, you go rebuild the temple.
206. 9:41Hey Ezra, you go make sure that there's
207. 9:43uh religious reform, make sure that
208. 9:45people are obeying the Torah. But that
209. 9:47Nehemiah is going to go rebuild the
210. 9:49walls. But the king had already said
211. 9:52that rebuilding the walls is a no-go.
212. 9:55Okay? So we know from Ezra
213. 9:594 7-23 that prior to the events of
214. 10:02Nehemiah, Artic Xerxes had forbidden new
215. 10:05work on rebuilding Jerusalem. So
216. 10:07although he had aided Ezra in his
217. 10:09return, which had a primarily religious
218. 10:12focus, he wasn't necessarily as generous
219. 10:15to the Jews if they attempted to secure
220. 10:18themselves more financially or
221. 10:21militarily. Okay? Walls meant that we
222. 10:25could defend ourselves against the
223. 10:27Persians if there was some kind of
224. 10:29revolt. Okay? So that's why temple not
225. 10:32that threatening. Walls, it's a whole
226. 10:34another story. I said that uh not as
227. 10:36generous to the Jews if they attempted
228. 10:38to secure themselves more financially or
229. 10:41mil militarily. This policy of articles
230. 10:44will however change because of the faith
231. 10:48because of the integrity and because of
232. 10:50the prayer of his cup bearer Nehemiah.
233. 10:53So let's dive into Nehemiah as a person.
234. 10:57That's all of the context that I think
235. 11:00we need. Okay. Now, let's let's actually
236. 11:03focus in on who is this guy Nehemiah.
237. 11:06First of all, he has a heart. His heart
238. 11:08breaks after the things that break God's
239. 11:10heart. He is broken not because of his
240. 11:13own situation in life, but because of
241. 11:16the lives of other people. So
242. 11:18immediately we're at compassion,
243. 11:20empathy, okay, that he has broken to his
244. 11:23core, not because of anything that
245. 11:26really affects his day-to-day life, but
246. 11:28because of people who he's never met,
247. 11:31people who he doesn't know. He He wants
248. 11:33the quality of their life to be awesome.
249. 11:36That's a great starting point when we
250. 11:38begin to cry out to God. If God were to
251. 11:40answer all your prayers, would you be
252. 11:42the only person blessed? That's a
253. 11:44challenging question, right? Like if God
254. 11:46were to answer your prayers, who would
255. 11:49actually benefit from God answering your
256. 11:51prayers? Because Nehemiah is not a
257. 11:54direct beneficiary on the prayers that
258. 11:56he's praying. But you can hear it right
259. 11:58here. You can start to see his character
260. 12:00and a little bit of the worldview that
261. 12:02both Ezra and Nehemiah share. In verse 7
262. 12:05says, "We have acted very wickedly
263. 12:07towards you. We have not obeyed the
264. 12:10commands, decrees, and laws you gave
265. 12:11your servant Moses." Is it really we or
266. 12:14is it they? Right? For a lot of us, we
267. 12:17would have been praying to God and we
268. 12:19would have said they. But Nehemiah
269. 12:22understands this is not an
270. 12:24individualistic culture that he's living
271. 12:26in. So for Nehemiah, it's if they have
272. 12:30done something, that does mean we have
273. 12:32done something to break God's heart. And
274. 12:35now my heart's broken because God's
275. 12:37people are living in a land with no
276. 12:39walls to protect them. All right? We we
277. 12:42we we we not me. I've tried to teach our
278. 12:45team that at the church. Hey. Like
279. 12:48everything is we we we we got to we got
280. 12:52to move out of an individualistic hyper
281. 12:55individualized like mindset and adopt a
282. 12:58we a group mindset. One of the big nerdy
283. 13:02nuggets that I really want to focus on,
284. 13:03probably the major nerdy nugget that I
285. 13:06want to focus on is that Nehemiah is
286. 13:08going to get depicted as a new Joshua.
287. 13:11Now, there's a lot of nerdy nuggets that
288. 13:14honestly I don't say cuz in my head I'm
289. 13:16like, "Oh, you guys are smart. You could
290. 13:18see that." I try to reserve nerdy
291. 13:20nuggets for the things that you may not
292. 13:22be able to see on your own. So, Nehemiah
293. 13:25is set up as a new Joshua, which makes
294. 13:27sense. Why? because Ezra was set up as a
295. 13:30new Moses. And uh Joshua is Moses's aid.
296. 13:34He's his younger counterpart. And
297. 13:38Nehemiah is going to be seen that same
298. 13:40way as it relates to Ezra. Okay? So if
299. 13:42Ezra is a new Moses, every Moses needs a
300. 13:45Joshua. So Nehemiah is going to come
301. 13:48alongside an older Ezra to begin to push
302. 13:52for a lot of the same things. Okay? So
303. 13:55Ezra, Nehemiah, different assignment but
304. 13:58same agenda. Okay. One is pushing for
305. 14:01religious reform, Torah like observance
306. 14:05and one is pushing for the physical
307. 14:08walls to be built back up. Different
308. 14:10assignment but the same agenda. And I
309. 14:12could get into a timeless truth right
310. 14:14there. Sometimes we assume that just
311. 14:16because someone has a different
312. 14:18assignment than us, then they're on a
313. 14:20different agenda. But that's not true at
314. 14:22all. There could be churches or
315. 14:24Christians with a different assignment.
316. 14:26And so often we're jump we're so quick
317. 14:29to jump to conclusions about whether or
318. 14:31not what that church is doing or whether
319. 14:34whether or not what that Christian is
320. 14:36doing is kingdom focused or or pushing
321. 14:39the kingdom of God forward. And
322. 14:41honestly, you may want to suspend
323. 14:43judgment because that person just may
324. 14:45not have the same assignment as you.
325. 14:47That church may have not have the same
326. 14:49assignment as your church. And um
327. 14:52churches have assignments, but we all
328. 14:54have the same agenda. And churches go
329. 14:56about fulfilling the great commission
330. 15:00differently. And that's great. That's
331. 15:03that's awesome. Every church doesn't
332. 15:05need to look the same. And sometimes
333. 15:07there can be a lot of rhetoric online
334. 15:09that's like, well, if your church isn't
335. 15:11doing this that they're not really a
336. 15:13church. They're not the church. It's
337. 15:15like, calm down, man. There are some
338. 15:17churches that are really called to to
339. 15:20pioneer in terms of missions. That
340. 15:22doesn't mean that's the assignment on
341. 15:24every church. There are some churches,
342. 15:26they have an assignment to record albums
343. 15:28and to release music that that moves the
344. 15:31body of Christ forward. That doesn't
345. 15:33mean that that's every church's
346. 15:34assignment. And the church that spends
347. 15:37money on albums isn't evil. Just because
348. 15:39they're not spending money on overseas
349. 15:41missions. the that these two
350. 15:44organizations may have a different
351. 15:46assignment from God, but the same
352. 15:48agenda. Missionaries and albums are both
353. 15:51moving the kingdom of God forward. And
354. 15:53so sometimes we can be we can have a
355. 15:55little bit of a Judas spirit. You know,
356. 15:57there's a woman pouring an alabaster jar
357. 16:00on the feet of Jesus. We be like, we
358. 16:02could have used that to feed the poor.
359. 16:03It's like, yeah, but that wasn't that
360. 16:05woman's assignment. The Holy Spirit told
361. 16:08her to pour that alabaster jar on the
362. 16:11feet of Jesus. Had the Holy Spirit told
363. 16:14that woman to go sell that jar and give
364. 16:17the proceeds to the poor, then that's
365. 16:19what she should have done. And a lot of
366. 16:22times we love to judge other people
367. 16:25based on the assignment that God gave
368. 16:26us. There are certain churches, hey, God
369. 16:30may have an assignment on that that
370. 16:32church to be politically engaged. That's
371. 16:34fantastic. Nothing wrong with that. But
372. 16:37those churches can't then judge other
373. 16:39churches who don't do that. Uh every
374. 16:42church has a different assignment, but
375. 16:43we all have the same agenda. And that
376. 16:45agenda is to move the kingdom of God
377. 16:47forward to edify and to build up God's
378. 16:50church. And so Ezra, Nehemiah, different
379. 16:54assignments, same agenda. They're
380. 16:56building up the people of God. Whether
381. 16:58that's a wall or a temple or through
382. 17:01Torah observance, they're building up
383. 17:03the people of God. They're building
384. 17:05people. They're not really just building
385. 17:07a temple or building walls. They're
386. 17:09building people. And the quicker we can
387. 17:11all see, hey, different assignments,
388. 17:14same agenda, the more we can all just
389. 17:16like work together to move the ball down
390. 17:19the field. All right. When you begin to
391. 17:22compare Nehemiah and Joshua, you begin
392. 17:25to see that there's tons and tons and
393. 17:27tons of similarities. Okay? There's
394. 17:30going to be seven opposition reports in
395. 17:32Nehemiah. I'm going to give you the
396. 17:34verses and you can look them up on your
397. 17:35own. Nehemiah 2:10, Nehemiah 2:1 19,
398. 17:39Nehemiah 4:1, Nehemiah 4 7 and 8,
399. 17:44Nehemiah
400. 17:454 15, Nehemiah 6:1, Nehemiah 6:16.
401. 17:51Nehemiah is going to get reports from
402. 17:54opposition. Okay? And they're modeled
403. 17:57after the opposition reports that the
404. 17:59Canaanite kings have against Joshua. You
405. 18:01can go read Joshua 5:1, Joshua 9:1,
406. 18:05Joshua 10:1, and Joshua 11:1.
407. 18:09Why do the opposition reports mirror
408. 18:11each other? Because Nehemiah is a new
409. 18:14Joshua. This is really for tomorrow, but
410. 18:16it's fine. We can get into it right now.
411. 18:18In Nehemiah 4:12-14,
412. 18:21Nehemiah ascends the city walls with
413. 18:23horns, ready to blast and announce, "Our
414. 18:26God will fight for us." Guess what?
415. 18:28Joshua is going to surround Jericho's
416. 18:31walls with priestly soldiers carrying
417. 18:33horns ready to blast in Joshua 6:5 and
418. 18:37in saying the words our God fought for
419. 18:40us. Okay. Uh you can see Joshua 10:14,
420. 18:43Joshua 10:42, Joshua 23:3, and Joshua
421. 18:4823:10. One of the things that God is
422. 18:51going to say to both Nehemiah and Joshua
423. 18:53is do not be afraid of them. Remember
424. 18:56the Lord who is great and awesome and
425. 18:57fight for your brothers, your sons, your
426. 18:59daughters, your wives, and your houses.
427. 19:01That's Nehemiah chapter 4:14, which
428. 19:04sounds a lot like Joshua 10:25. Okay?
429. 19:07So, there's a clear link between Joshua
430. 19:11and Nehemiah. Okay? So, you go ahead and
431. 19:14compare all those on your own. Now, one
432. 19:18of the things that I wanted to just uh
433. 19:20make you aware of, this is a nerdy nerdy
434. 19:23nerdy nugget. Uh couple things. Susa was
435. 19:26a winter palace. Okay. So just like
436. 19:28Esther, Nehemiah begins in the city of
437. 19:31Susa. Susa was not the capital of
438. 19:33Persia. Uh that was Percepilus. But it
439. 19:36was an important administrative center
440. 19:38with many state buildings that had been
441. 19:40built by the Persian kings. It also was
442. 19:43the location of a winter palace that was
443. 19:46often used by Persian kings, which is
444. 19:48why Xerxes was there in Esther. and
445. 19:51articles is here in the book of
446. 19:53Nehemiah. All right, last couple nerdy
447. 19:55nuggets as we wrap up for today is that
448. 19:59all of the guys who are in opposition,
449. 20:01okay, there are three Persian officials
450. 20:03who are in opposition of this wall
451. 20:05getting built, they're mentioned as key
452. 20:07leaders uh in opposition to the Jews.
453. 20:10All three of them are actually recorded
454. 20:12in Persian records. So again, like
455. 20:14Persian records are corroborating what's
456. 20:17happening here in the Bible. San Ballot
457. 20:20the Hornite was the governor of the
458. 20:22Samaritan area of the satropy beyond the
459. 20:25river. Tobaya the Ammonite was the
460. 20:28governor of the Ammon region of that
461. 20:30same satropy and Gisham uh the Arab was
462. 20:34the governor of the northern Arabia as
463. 20:38the same satropy. Okay, the Persian
464. 20:40kingdom used satropies. You can Google
465. 20:43that word if you want to. Family, the
466. 20:45wait is over. My brand new book,
467. 20:48Crushing Chaos, is out now and available
468. 20:52everywhere books [music] are sold
469. 20:54literally today. I walked into a Barnes
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471. 20:59at a physical location. So, you can grab
472. 21:02this book at a physical Barnes & Noble
473. 21:05or you can go to a Books a Million or
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476. 21:13Bible from an ancient perspective, if
477. 21:16you understand that the beauty of
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479. 21:20context, then you'll love this book. And
480. 21:23if there's any chaos in your personal
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487. 21:38should get a copy today. All right, back
488. 21:41to the episode. But, uh, that's just
489. 21:44another example of how no archaeological
490. 21:46find in history has ever disproven the
491. 21:49Bible. Uh, the Bible is trustworthy. And
492. 21:52I think that is really, really, really,
493. 21:54really cool. I'm pretty sure I already
494. 21:56said that in Ezra 4:7-23, prior to the
495. 22:00events of Nehemiah, Artic Xerxes had
496. 22:03forbidden new work on rebuilding
497. 22:04Jerusalem. So although he had aided Ezra
498. 22:07in his return, which had a primarily
499. 22:09religious focus, he wasn't necessarily
500. 22:11as generous to the Jews if they
501. 22:12attempted to secure themselves more
502. 22:14financially or militarily. Yeah, I said
503. 22:16this. This policy of Arc Xerxes will
504. 22:19however change due to his incredible cup
505. 22:22bearer name. All right. And that's what
506. 22:25today's reading is really all about. the
507. 22:27fact that one dude named Nehemiah is
508. 22:30able to get Artic Xerxes to change his
509. 22:33mind and actually uh be a proponent of
510. 22:36the people rebuilding. One last verse
511. 22:39that we're going to use as our timeless
512. 22:41truth as we end the episode. This is uh
513. 22:44Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 4 and 5. The
514. 22:47king said to me, "What is it that you
515. 22:48want?" By the way, the king can tell
516. 22:51that Nehemiah is sad. For context, being
517. 22:53sad in the king's presence was a no. No.
518. 22:57Okay. Absolutely not. You You are not to
519. 23:01be sad in the king's presence. Now,
520. 23:02that's a whole another lesson for a
521. 23:04whole another day. But Persian kings did
522. 23:06not allow any personal emotion. You had
523. 23:10to be professional when you were in the
524. 23:12king's presence. And so, Nehemiah is
525. 23:14risking his own safety and welfare just
526. 23:18by being sad. And he can't help it. He's
527. 23:20literally heartbroken over something
528. 23:22that does not really directly involve
529. 23:25him, but he makes it his business. Uh,
530. 23:28which is what great leaders do. Uh, the
531. 23:30king then said, "What is it you want?"
532. 23:33Then I prayed to God of heaven and I
533. 23:36answered the king. I prayed to God of
534. 23:38heaven and I answered the king. One of
535. 23:40my big prayers for my son is always that
536. 23:43he would grow in wisdom and stature and
537. 23:45find favor with God and with man. grow
538. 23:47in wisdom, grow in stature, find favor
539. 23:50with God and with man. I love we can see
540. 23:52that exact template or that that pattern
541. 23:55right here. He prayed to God of heaven
542. 23:57and answered the king. He had favor with
543. 24:00God, but also favor with man. And I
544. 24:02think there's a lot of people who have
545. 24:04favor with men, but maybe not favor with
546. 24:06God. Or favor with God, but not favor
547. 24:07with men. But really, growing in wisdom
548. 24:10and stature means that you have favor
549. 24:12with God and favor with man. And that's
550. 24:14not just true for Nehemiah. That's not
551. 24:16just true in 444 BC. That's true for
552. 24:19you. That's true for me. That's
553. 24:21timelessly true. That that combo will
554. 24:24always work. That we pray to the God of
555. 24:26heaven and then we have an answer for
556. 24:27humans that are in front of us. All
557. 24:29right. I hope that that's helpful. I'll
558. 24:31see you tomorrow right here, same time,
559. 24:33same place for day 3:43 as we continue
560. 24:36our trek through Nehemiah chapters 4, 5,
561. 24:396, and 7. Super, super excited. We got
562. 24:42four chapters of the Bible tomorrow.
563. 24:44four, five, six, and seven. I'll see you
564. 24:46right here. Love you. Proud of you.
565. 24:48Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on
566. 24:50the Bible Department podcast. If this
567. 24:53episode was helpful, how about you leave
568. 24:55a comment, share with a friend, and
569. 24:57subscribe so that you never miss an
570. 24:59episode. To learn more about the show,
571. 25:01head to the bible department.com. We'll
572. 25:03see you right back here tomorrow.