Nehemiah Introduction

Introduction

Nehemiah is called the Book of Reconstruction: The Temple, the city, the covenant, and the people. We will divide the book into two parts:

1. The reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem. Chapters 1 thru 6.
2. The re-instructing of the people. Chapters 7 thru 13.

The book was written by a man called Nehemiah about 430 BC. Nehemiah lived in the city of Shushan (Susa) one of the capitols of the Persian Empire. It laid some 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf. It was the same city referred to in Ester 1:2 and the place of Daniels imprisonment in Dan. 8:2. Nehemiah had amassed a fortune and attained the influential position of "cupbearer" to the Persian king Artaxerxes.

Nehemiah was a spiritual leader completely dependent upon God. He was closely associated with the ministry of Ezra. Ezra was a priest but Nehemiah was a governor. The book takes us to the end of Jewish history prior to the coming of Christ, about 400 years before His birth.

The Latin Bible calls Nehemiah the Second Ezra. Of note in the book is the role that prayer played in the life of Nehemiah. (See Ch. 1:5-11, 2:1-4, 19-20, 4:1-6, 7-10, 11-14, 6:9 thru 14) Like Ezra, Nehemiah portrayed Christ in His ministry of restoration: i.e.

1. One who gave up a high position to benefit the lowly.
2. One who had a specific mission.
3. One whose life was characterized by prayerful dependence upon God.

Lets refresh our memory about what has transpired recently in the lives of the Judeans.

1. In 606 BC. the first Jews were taken into captivity in Babylon.
2. In 550 BC. Cyrus became king of Persia.
3. In 538 BC. Cyrus released the Jews to go back home.
4. In 536 BC. the work on the Temple began.
5. In 515 BC. the basic work on the Temple was completed.
6. In 464 BC. Artaxerxes became king of Persia.
7. In 444 BC. Artaxerxes decreed that Nehemiah could go home and complete the Temple and rebuild the city walls.

This date (444 BC.) marked the beginning point of Daniels prophecy of 69 weeks. In Daniel 9:25-27 he writes, "From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the "anointed one" (Messiah) ...... there will be 7 and 62 weeks." A better translation is 69 years of 7 weeks each.

69 x 7 = 483 years

483 - 444 = 39 years

39 A.D. which was the approximate date of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

So with that background, lets look at the book of Nehemiah.

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