BROADCASTS.com

I was the king\u2019s wine taster (Nehemiah 1:11).

The ending of Nehemiah 1 caught me off guard. I have read it before and I knew that Nehemiah was the king\u2019s wine taster. I knew that the wine taster was a very important person in the king\u2019s court, most likely responsible for some other very important files. In the Canadian context, Nehemiah would probably hold several significant cabinet posts.

While reading today, I focussed on Nehemiah\u2019s spiritual practices. Its an impressive read. After hearing about how poorly things are going for the returned exiles in Jerusalem, Nehemiah sits down and weeps. For several days, in fact, he is very sad and doesn\u2019t eat. Weeping and fasting: this is lament. When the COVID lockdown began, Pastor Anthony and I were preaching a series on lament and we began these devotions developing those themes.

I will not revisit all of that today, except to say that the spiritual journey with God rarely goes in a straight line. Times for lament come and go in the Christians life and the church\u2019s life. And sometimes various things are woven together. For example, I am deeply grateful that we will have members of the congregation in the building this coming Sunday morning. At the same time, I am lamenting that the sanctuary will be only 30% full and our worship will not include robust singing or fellowship.

But back to Nehemiah. Part of his lament is prayer. Even though he appears to be by himself, he has no problem praying on behalf of the entire nation of Israel. And his prayer is worth paying attention too: to help us in our praying. Like Jesus would later teach us, he begins with God. There are times when our prayers begin with our troubles, but on the whole, we need to learn to begin with God. Who are we praying to? Get that firmly fixed in our hearts and minds.

He confesses his own sins, his family\u2019s sins and the sins of the whole nation. In this instant, there is no specific list of sins, something we ought to do regularly. Nehemiah acknowledges the heart of the matter: God had given Israel commands through Moses, but Israel did her own thing. He even acknowledges that what Israel has done is evil.

We might be inclined to think that because Israel has confessed her sin, she can now expect God to do something for her, a sort of tit for tat spiritual arrangement. Israel does something good, so God ought to respond in kind. Isn\u2019t that how we often approach God?

But Nehemiah does something very different. He reminds God of God\u2019s own promises to Israel. If Israel returned to God, after experiencing his judgement, then God would return them to the land of promise. God doesn\u2019t need to respond to Israel because Israel has been good; no, Nehemiah expects God to respond to him, because God has said he would.

He does not bank of Israel\u2019s goodness to evoke divine deliverance. Israel\u2019s God, and our God, is a God who keeps his promises. This is what Nehemiah counts on. We can count on this too. Jesus said he would build his church, and so he will, even during COVID time. Nehemiah has decided to pay a visit to the king of Persia and this is all about asking God for success in his mission.

As I read through this prayer, I was impressed. But I was caught off guard by the ending, \u201cI was the king\u2019s wine taster.\u201d By this time, I was expecting Nehemiah to be identified as a spiritual leader among the Jewish exiles. Instead, I was reminded that he held a very important position in the Persian court.

Two things struck me. First, here is a second person that God has been preparing to help re-establish his people in the promised land. Ezra had spent much of his life studying God\u2019s law. So, he was prepared to teach Israel how to obey God.

Nehemiah is an administrator in the Persian court, whom, we will discover, has the ear of the king. He has administrative skills that will be very important in re-establishing Israelite community. But he is not a Persian. Despite his position of high standing, he has obviously remained faithful to the God of Israel.

So, here is the second thing that struck me. We often say that God can use anyone for his purposes. But I\u2019m not sure that we always believe it. As we read through this book in these devotions, we will see how God used an administrative person who had face to face contact with the king of Persia. Let that encourage us all that God can use us and let us keep our eyes open to the opportunities he gives us.