Hand Me Another Brick - Part 1
This past week, I was given the opportunity to begin teaching an adult Sunday School class at Vaughn Park. The class is called Hand Me Another Brick, based on the principles taught in the book by the same name that was written by Charles Swindoll. Although the title of the class and many of my points are coming from Swindoll's book, the majority of the class is coming straight from the text of Nehemiah, an Old Testament book that many of us who have grown up in the Church have overlooked. I mean, let's be honest, do YOU remember a "flannelboard" Nehemiah in Sunday School class? Me neither.
But Nehemiah was a fascinating person. He is also one of the best examples in our Bible of what being a great, Godly leader is all about. Through this class, our goal is to learn how to be the kind of leader that God wants us to be, whether it's within our Church family, our household, on our college campus, or even just in our own lives. Over the next several weeks, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to share the high points of our class here online.
Our study began this week with a quick historical overview of what has happened to God's people up to the events recorded in Nehemiah 1. To avoid going into too much detail, let me just explain it this way: God's people had this habit of following God for a few generations, then falling away from him. Finally, after centuries of this "up and down" relationship with his people, God had had enough, and he allowed the nation of Israel to be defeated by the Babylonians. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, which was the center of culture for God's people, and carried off the people as slaves.
Now, fast-forward a couple of generations. Babylon is defeated in battle by Persia, and King Cyrus of Persia decides to allow these Israelites to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their city. Within a period of 93 years, 2 groups go back to the ruins of Jerusalem to begin rebuilding the temple. These events are covered in the book of Ezra.
This brings us to the book of Nehemiah. Here's the text:
NE 1:1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah:
In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa,
2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.
3 They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
Why are the people in Jerusalem so discouraged? By just glancing at the text, it's easy to come to the conclusion that they are troubled by the protective walls around the city lying in ruin. They don't have the security of a wall to protect their families and, more importantly, their temple. But I think the problem runs deeper than just the lack of protection. They are feeling guilt.
Notice the wording in verse 3: "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace." Have you ever done something that you were ashamed of? Sure you have. All of us have. And often those shameful acts stay with us for a long time, don't they? Even after all has been forgiven and everything has been made right, there are often still scars that remind us of what we did wrong.
When God's people looked out at where their walls used to be, they were reminded of the time that God turned his back on them because they had turned their backs on him. Nehemiah saw that something needed to be done about this, because the only way they could truly be God's people again was to rebuild the walls that represented their relationship with God. So what does Nehemiah do about it? He fasts and prays to God.
We will discuss Nehemiah's fasting and praying next week, but to wrap up this week's lesson, I want to share with you some final thoughts. Already, within just the first 4 verses of the book, we are seeing some marks of a good leader in Nehemiah:
1. A good leader concerns himself with the problem. It was easy for Nehemiah to ignore what was going on in Jerusalem. He had a great job 800 miles away, and there were plenty of people already in Jerusalem to start building the wall. Why should he even care? He cared because these were God's people in distress. He knew that something needed to be done, and he wanted to be a part of it.
2. A good leader gets personally involved in solving the problem. Immediately, Nehemiah began fasting and praying. He knew that it would be hard for him to get to Jerusalem right then, but he knew that he could take the problem to God. We'll study more about what he said to God next week.
As you can see, we had a great start to our class this past week. I ask you as you read this to continue to pray for our class and for these posts online as we continue to study God's word together.
God Bless!
--Eric G.
But Nehemiah was a fascinating person. He is also one of the best examples in our Bible of what being a great, Godly leader is all about. Through this class, our goal is to learn how to be the kind of leader that God wants us to be, whether it's within our Church family, our household, on our college campus, or even just in our own lives. Over the next several weeks, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to share the high points of our class here online.
Our study began this week with a quick historical overview of what has happened to God's people up to the events recorded in Nehemiah 1. To avoid going into too much detail, let me just explain it this way: God's people had this habit of following God for a few generations, then falling away from him. Finally, after centuries of this "up and down" relationship with his people, God had had enough, and he allowed the nation of Israel to be defeated by the Babylonians. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, which was the center of culture for God's people, and carried off the people as slaves.
Now, fast-forward a couple of generations. Babylon is defeated in battle by Persia, and King Cyrus of Persia decides to allow these Israelites to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their city. Within a period of 93 years, 2 groups go back to the ruins of Jerusalem to begin rebuilding the temple. These events are covered in the book of Ezra.
This brings us to the book of Nehemiah. Here's the text:
NE 1:1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah:
In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa,
2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.
3 They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
Why are the people in Jerusalem so discouraged? By just glancing at the text, it's easy to come to the conclusion that they are troubled by the protective walls around the city lying in ruin. They don't have the security of a wall to protect their families and, more importantly, their temple. But I think the problem runs deeper than just the lack of protection. They are feeling guilt.
Notice the wording in verse 3: "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace." Have you ever done something that you were ashamed of? Sure you have. All of us have. And often those shameful acts stay with us for a long time, don't they? Even after all has been forgiven and everything has been made right, there are often still scars that remind us of what we did wrong.
When God's people looked out at where their walls used to be, they were reminded of the time that God turned his back on them because they had turned their backs on him. Nehemiah saw that something needed to be done about this, because the only way they could truly be God's people again was to rebuild the walls that represented their relationship with God. So what does Nehemiah do about it? He fasts and prays to God.
We will discuss Nehemiah's fasting and praying next week, but to wrap up this week's lesson, I want to share with you some final thoughts. Already, within just the first 4 verses of the book, we are seeing some marks of a good leader in Nehemiah:
1. A good leader concerns himself with the problem. It was easy for Nehemiah to ignore what was going on in Jerusalem. He had a great job 800 miles away, and there were plenty of people already in Jerusalem to start building the wall. Why should he even care? He cared because these were God's people in distress. He knew that something needed to be done, and he wanted to be a part of it.
2. A good leader gets personally involved in solving the problem. Immediately, Nehemiah began fasting and praying. He knew that it would be hard for him to get to Jerusalem right then, but he knew that he could take the problem to God. We'll study more about what he said to God next week.
As you can see, we had a great start to our class this past week. I ask you as you read this to continue to pray for our class and for these posts online as we continue to study God's word together.
God Bless!
--Eric G.
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