“Let us start rebuilding.” (3)

[Nehemiah 2:19-20]

A complaining young man came to the king and begged him to teach him how to live a successful life.  The king poured wine into a goblet and gave it to the young man, saying: ‘Go around town with a glass of wine and I will teach you the secret of success.  However, if you spill the wine, your head will be cut off.’  The young man walked around the city sweating profusely.  Then the king asked: ‘What did you see while walking around the city?  Have you seen beggars and merchants in the streets?  Have you ever heard the singing leaking from the bar?’  The young man replied: ‘I didn’t see or hear anything because I was paying attention to my wine glass.’  Then the king said: ‘That is the secret of success.  If you set a firm goal in life and focus on your work, you will not hear the temptations and criticisms around you.’  People who don't work complain a lot.  A person who has a clear view of life and is immersed in work has no time to complain (Internet).

What is your view of life?  What is the firm goal that you have set?  Are you focusing on that goal and running without looking back to achieve that goal?  When we think of Nehemiah, he had a firm goal in life.  It was to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.  He risked his life to achieve this goal.  In other words, he had a sense of duty.  We have already meditated that this, a send of duty, is the first necessary element in rebuilding the Lord's house. Second, we have already meditated on the fact that motivation is a necessary factor in rebuilding the Lord's house.  For the third time today, I want to meditate on Nehemiah 2:19-20, under the title “Let us start rebuilding (3)”.  I hope and pray that God will give us the assurance of success while thinking about “Assurance of success,” which is an essential element in rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.

Third, we must have assurance of success.

Look at Nehemiah 2:20 – “I answered them by saying, ‘The God of heaven will give us success.  We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.’”  What does “success” mean?  It usually means everything is going well.  More specifically, it means that everything we do goes well, everything works out as we want, and we become prosperous materially (Internet).  However, "success" in the Bible means ‘the blessing of living by putting God's Word into practice and working together for good in God's will.’  When only God's good will is fulfilled through our lives of obedience to the Word, we call it prosperity or success.  Then, what was the good that Nehemiah had experienced by working together in the will of God?  It was to receive grace in front of King Artaxerxes.  Look at Nehemiah 1:11 – “’O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.’  ….”  The grace received in front of King Artaxerxes is nothing other than that God allowed King Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city, which Nehemiah wanted (2:8).  King Artaxerxes not only allowed Nehemiah to return to the city of Jerusalem and rebuild it, but also fulfilled Nehemiah's demands by giving two letters, one for safe passage to Judah (v. 7) and the other to Asaph, the king’s forest manager, to give Nehemiah timber for beams (v. 8).  This Nehemiah gave a short speech of his personal testimony before the people of Judah upon arrival in Jerusalem: “I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. …” (2:18a).  At that time, the stumbling block to success for Nehemiah and the people of Judah appeared (again).  They were the Gentiles, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, who were the leaders of the neighborhood around Jerusalem.  Look at Nehemiah 2:19 – “But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us.  ‘What is this you are doing?’ they asked.  ’Are you rebelling against the king?’”  First, they despised Nehemiah and the people of Judah.  They committed the sin of mocking Nehemiah, the servant of God, and they also committed the sin of mocking God's people.  And they laughed at what Nehemiah and the people of Judah were trying to do: “What is this you are doing?"  They ridiculed the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem.  Then they said, “Are you rebelling against the king?”  This is a question that reminds Nehemiah and the people of Judah to go back to the time of Ezra and to remind them of the incident in which King Artaxerxes prevented the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezra 4).  However, Nehemiah came with permission from King Artaxerxes.  The enemies must have known this.  Even so, what they said was intended to discourage Nehemiah and the people of Judah.

From the world's point of view, Nehemiah and the people of Judah did not prosper.  How can we know that?  It was because prosperity was generally when everything was going well for them, but then the enemies reappeared.  However, success from God's point of view does not say that there will be no enemies when we live by practicing God's Word.  The Bible says that success is when God's good will is fulfilled amidst the persecution of enemies.  An example is Joseph in Genesis 39:2-3: “The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.  When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did.”  The Bible refers to Joseph as ‘a prosperous (successful) man,’ and says that Potiphar also saw that God made Joseph prosper (successful) in all he did.  However, from the world's point of view, did Joseph really prosper in all things?  Did everything go well?  If Joseph is a successful person from the world's point of view, how does he go to prison with a false accusation?  How can such a person be called a prosperous or successful person?  However, the Bible says that Joseph was a prosperous (successful) man.  There is also persecution and suffering in the life of a prosperous (successful) person.  So why do we wonder about this biblical prosperity?  The reason is because we envy the prosperity of sinners.  Look at Proverbs 23:17 – “Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.”  Keep Sunday diligently, worship well, read the Bible, give tithes...  Even though we try to live a life that is in accordance with God's heart, things do not go well, the person next to us does not lead a righteous life and seems to earn money and live a good life despite bullying others.  Seeing that, I think in my heart, "Did I live the wrong way?  Shall I live like that too?"  But we should envy the prosperity of such people.  The prosperity of sinners refers to worldly prosperity.  The Bible tells us not to envy the prosperity of the wicked.  Look at Psalms 37:7 – “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”

What did Nehemiah do when obstacles to success reappeared?  Look at Nehemiah 2:20 – “I answered them by saying, ‘The God of heaven will give us success.  We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.’”  Here Nehemiah is saying two things:

• Nehemiah firmly states that he will continue to promote the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem with the conviction that “the God of heaven” will make it successful.

The basis of Nehemiah's assurance of success was the "God of heaven."  He had already experienced prosperity as the heavenly God answered his prayer when he wept bitterly and fasted and prayed before the “God of heaven” after hearing about the situation in Jerusalem (1:4-5).  D

We also learned from Nehemiah 2:4 that when King Artaxerxes asked, “What is it you want?” Nehemiah prayed silently to the God of heaven.  Nehemiah was certain that the God of heaven who made prosperity was with him, so he was certain that God would also accomplish the work of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.  With that confidence, Nehemiah told his enemies that he would rise up with the people of Judah and build the city of Jerusalem.  If the certainty of success is not God, but something else like ourselves, other people, or material or circumstances, even if we try to rise up and build, when the enemy comes, we may waver, doubt, and give up in fear.  An example of this is found in the book of Haggai.  Because of the enemy, the people of Israel built the temple in Jerusalem, but only laid the foundation.  They were afraid of the enemy's threat and gave up rebuilding the temple (Hag. 1:9).

• Nehemiah boldly tells the people of Judah that his enemies are not servants of God.

What does this mean?  We can think of it in three ways: (a) Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem mean that there is no legal division in arranging the Jewish nation.  (b) They are saying that there is no statutory right in Jerusalem. (c) They say that they have no right to celebrate Jewish religious ceremonies (Fensham).

                    There is a report that investigated the secret of success by tracking successful people among graduates of the Carnegie Institute of Technology in the United States.  Experience or skill only contributed 15 percent to success.  The remaining 85 percent had good interpersonal relationships.’  Especially, they were good at three visits for interpersonal relationships, which were ´mouth visitation´, ´hand visitation´, and ´foot visitation´.  The visit of the mouth is to soften and give courage to a person's heart by complimenting, and the visit of the hand is to write a letter and deliver the heart of true love.  Foot visitation is when someone is sick or in trouble.  The more compliments you give, the more letters you write, the more impressed you are, and the more you find someone in need, the more friendly you become. Take a good look at the successful people around you.  They will have good relationships with the people around them by not neglecting the little things that others consider insignificant and taking good care of them (Internet).  What is the secret to success taught in the Bible?  We can think of it in 3 ways:

• God's presence is the secret to success.

Look at Genesis 39:23 – “…  because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.”  The God who was with Nehemiah, the God whose good hand helped Nehemiah (Neh 2:8, 18) and moved his heart to work (2:12).  And the “God of heaven” was with Nehemiah’s success (2:8, 18). This is the secret to success.

• Keeping God's commandments is the secret to success.

Look at Joshua 1:7-8: “Be strong and very courageous.  Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.  Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be prosperous and successful.”  Nehemiah did not pursue his own will, but God's will, that is, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.

• Seeking God, that is, praying, is the secret to success.

Look at 2 Chronicles 26:5 – “He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.”  As a man of prayer, Nehemiah prayed to God.