Am I all Alone?

Ever felt that you had no one in your corner? Ever felt that you were all alone? Nehemiah of all people understood what it was like to have everyone against you, but he knew something that many people did not know. Nehemiah knew that even when the world is up against you, God always now and forever has your back. My journal will go a little more in depth into these verses, to indentify the historical content, the meaning of the verses, and what I personally got from the passage.
The book of Nehemiah is said to be written by Nehemiah, though some believe that Ezra wrote it. It was written from Nehemiah’s point of view; therefore, he is the one speaking in the passage. The passage is believed to have taken place sometime around 430B.C. This passage has taken place at the city walls of Jerusalem. During this time, Cyrus was king of Persia. Nehemiah was the cupbearer for Cyrus. Nehemiah would have had to been a very happy and upbeat man because when he was done it was noticeable to the king. Cyrus listened to Nehemiah and sent him to rebuild the city walls and the temple in Jerusalem. Once in Jerusalem, which is where my passage Nehemiah 4 takes place, Nehemiah faced severe opposition from Sanballet and his “cronies.” This passage’s focus is on how to face opposition the right way.
This passage has so much meaning under the surface. There were several words that jumped off the page at me. One of these words came from verse 14 of Nehemiah 4. This word is yare which means in Hebrew to stand in awe, awesome, to fear, reverence, respect, and honor. In Deuteronomy 7 verse 21, it also tells us not to be afraid of our enemy because our God is great and awesome! Awesome has become such a slang word in our lives, but it carries such heavy meaning. When we say something is awesome we are saying that it deserves reverence or respect. Another word that just would not stay on the page was taqa in verse 18. In Hebrew this word means trumpeter, to blow, trust, and drive a weapon. In biblical times, the trumpet was used to call people to battle. The trumpeter was trusted and was in a way the one to drive the weapon. According to 1 Corinthians 14:8, if it was not for the trumpeter making a clear call then who would know and be ready for battle. When we make a joyful noise to God and figuratively blow our trumpets, we are sounding our battle cry to the world and all the evil in it. Lacham was another crazy word for me from verse 20. This word means to fight, do battle, or make war in Hebrew. In Acts 5 verse 39, we find a group of people wanting to kill the apostles, but a man stood up and spoke saying if they are from God and their mission is of God, then God will be fighting for them and there is nothing that anyone can do. When we are in God’s will we do not have to worry because God is fighting for us. This last word ties in perfectly with that. This word is parar from Nehemiah 4 verse 15. In Hebrew, this word means to be broken or frustrated. In Nehemiah 4 this word is used to describe how God frustrated the enemy’s plans to hurt the Jews and destroy the wall. I find it very interesting that the word for being broken is the same as to be frustrated. Could it be that when the things in our lives get so frustrated that God may be breaking us a little? Could He be chipping away those little things that are not of Him that are in our lives? In Ezekiel 24: 9-13, it describes when you cook something and the bottom of the pan gets covered with the burned bits and it frustrates the pan and it has to be removed. It says that this is how our impurities are and that they have to be removed to “unfrustrate” the pan. This passage was so awesome.
This passage definitely fits the word awesome. I loved how Nehemiah has a very different battle plan then most. He countered Sanballet with prayer. Most people would have made a very elaborate plan on how to take down the enemy and destroy and kill them, but Nehemiah prayed. It is crazy to think that he just prayed, he did not have to worry about the fight because there was not going to be one. God answered and frustrated the enemies plan. It is such a powerful thought that God is fighting for us. He is the greatest defender we could ever have. I love to think that God is willing to drop everything and fight for me. I love how when I am feeling frustrated that God is trying to purify me and break me. I want to learn to handle opposition and worry more like Nehemiah. I want to start handing my worries and problems off to God and let Him handle them. Nehemiah let God handle the problem and not a single life was lost, but if man had handled the issue many would have died. I want to let God break me and frustrate my earthly plans.
I got so much more from this passage than I could ever believe that I would. In Nehemiah 4 God uses Nehemiah and the building of the wall to show us how we should handle opposition. We do not need to stay up and lose sleep worrying about life’s problems because we have a great and awesome God who does not sleep at all who would love to step in and handle our problems. This journal was an in depth amazing study of Nehemiah 4, we looked at the historical content, the meaning of the verses, and how it changed me forever.