In this message we will consider Nehemiah’s aggressiveness and the need for the proper aggressiveness in the Lord’s recovery today.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe the return of the captives from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and repair the wall for God’s house and God’s kingdom. In order for God to have a house and a kingdom on the earth, three sections of work were needed. First, there was a need for some of the captivity to come back from Babylon to Jerusalem to lay a foundation for the formation of a nation. This required a strong government, a strong administration. Second, there was the need of teaching and education to bring the people of God into a culture that was according to God. Such a culture was not an Egyptian kind nor a Canaanite kind nor a Babylonian kind but was God’s kind, a culture that expressed God. This kind of culture required a great deal of education. Third, there was the need to constitute the nation organically. This section of the work was concerned with the constitution of God’s people.
The word constitution is ambiguous. According to the common notion, this word refers to a document which is the constitution of a country, for example, the Constitution of the United States of America. This understanding of constitution is too narrow. In our usage, the word constitution refers to something organic which has a number of elements. If the government of a country is constituted not only organizationally but also organically, that government will not be lifeless. On the contrary, such a government will be something that is living and organic.
At the expiration of the seventy years of the captivity in Babylon, the omnipotent, sovereign God moved in a hidden way to stir up King Cyrus openly to release the Israelite captives to go back to their own land to build up God’s temple (Ezra 1:1-4). Also, King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had put into the house of his gods (v. 7). These vessels were then returned to Jerusalem (v. 11). This return from captivity was under the kingly leadership of Zerubbabel, a descendant of the royal family of David (2:1-2). If we study carefully the record concerning him in the Bible, we will see that he was a strong governor and was very able in managing the people.
Later, there was a second return from captivity under the priestly leadership of Ezra, a descendant of the priestly family. Ezra was not a high-ranking official in Persia. Rather, he was a priest and a scribe who was skilled in the law of Moses (7:6). Although he did not have any rank there in Persia, he was bold, strong, and aggressive in presenting a petition to the king of Persia. The king granted all his request, doing everything Ezra had asked.
The presenting of this petition was not initiated by God—it was initiated by Ezra. As the one who took the initiative in this matter, Ezra was a man who trusted in God and who was one with God. He was skilled in the Word of God and he knew God’s heart, God’s desire, and God’s economy. Because of all this, he was a person of excellent character and reputation before the king. If Ezra had not had such a standing in the eyes of the king, the king would not have authorized him to appoint magistrates and judges (v. 25).
Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah, was not a counselor of the king nor a captain of the army. He was just a cupbearer, one who served wine to the king. But in his living and behavior he must have built up something that earned the king’s respect. Nehemiah had never been sad in the king’s presence (Neh. 2:1). One day the king said to him, “Why is your face sad, since you are not ill? This is nothing other than sadness of heart” (v. 2). Being aggressive, Nehemiah took advantage of this opportunity and said, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in waste and its gates are consumed with fire?” (v. 3). The king asked him what his request was, and Nehemiah asked the king to send him to Judah that he might rebuild the city of his fathers (v. 5). Nehemiah went on to request that letters would be given to him for the governors so that they would let him pass through. He asked also for a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the Park, so that he would give him timber (vv. 7-8). The king granted to Nehemiah all that he had requested.
We are not told that Nehemiah was stirred up by God. Rather, according to 1:1-2, he asked one of his brothers and some others who came from Judah about those who were left from the captivity and about Jerusalem. They told him that the people were in an exceedingly bad state and reproach and that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and its gates had been burned with fire (v. 3). When Nehemiah heard this report, he wept, mourned, fasted, and prayed (v. 4). He did not call a prayer meeting, and he did not ask those who gave the report to pray about the situation. He prayed by himself with a real burden.
In principle, these three sections—government, education, and constitution—have been present in the Lord’s recovery through the centuries. Some are raised up and stirred up by God, and some volunteer. Some are in a high position, and some are common people. But all must be bold and strong in character and aggressive. All who have been used by God through history have been aggressive persons. For example, both Paul and Martin Luther were very aggressive. Brother Nee also, even though he was a gentleman, was very aggressive.
Nehemiah surely was an aggressive person. He volunteered himself, in a sense, not to God but to his burden. He had a burden to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. His aggressiveness was very much used by God.
In the Lord’s recovery today there are many good saints, but we are short of aggressiveness. If just five thousand among us were aggressive, the world would be turned upside down. If there were seven hundred aggressive ones in each continent, a great deal would issue forth for the carrying out of God’s economy.
In our reading of the book of Nehemiah, we need to pay attention to Nehemiah’s aggressiveness. Although he was a common man, a servant of the king, he was aggressive to volunteer himself to God and to his burden concerning the building up of the city. He was also aggressive in making his requests known to the king. When the king asked him about his sad face, he spoke to the king in a bold, aggressive way about his burden for the city of Jerusalem. It is important that we see this in the Word.