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Context No. 1049 of 4322 · Nehemiah

Context · Reflection

Nehemiah 2:6-10: in context

6The king said to me (the queen was also sitting by him), “How long will your journey be? When will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I set a time for him. 7Moreover I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah; 8and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house that I will occupy.” The king granted my requests, because of the good hand of my God on me. 9Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. 10When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

Nehemiah, cupbearer to the Persian king, has asked permission to go rebuild Jerusalem, and the king grants it. Nehemiah presses further, asking for official letters to the governors so he can travel safely, and a letter to the keeper of the royal forest for timber to rebuild the gates and walls. The king grants all of it, and Nehemiah adds a telling line: because the good hand of my God was on me. He sets out with a military escort. But when two local officials, Sanballat and Tobiah, hear that someone has come to seek the welfare of the Israelites, they are deeply displeased.

Two things run side by side in this passage. First, Nehemiah's constant awareness of God's hand behind the practical details. He is doing very worldly things, negotiating with a king, requesting letters and lumber, arranging logistics, and yet he reads the king's favor not as good luck or his own skill but as the good hand of my God on me. He plans carefully and prays constantly, holding the two together, so that even a successful bureaucratic request is credited to God. Second, the moment a good work begins, opposition appears. Sanballat and Tobiah are grieved, the text says, exceedingly, for one specific reason, that a man had come to seek the welfare of the people of God. The good work itself is what offends them; someone seeking the good of God's people is precisely what they cannot stand. It is a pattern worth noting: the very fact that you are pursuing something good for God's people can be what draws opposition, and the same undertaking that has God's good hand on it will also have its Sanballats.

Do I read the practical breaks and favors in a good work as the good hand of my God, and am I prepared for the reality that seeking the welfare of God's people will draw its own opposition?

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