BIBLES NET. COM
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
N E H E M I A H
CHAP. II.
How Nehemiah wrestled with God and prevailed we read in the foregoing
chapter; now here we are told how, like Jacob, he prevailed with men
also, and so found that his prayers were heard and answered.
I. He prevailed with the king to send him to Jerusalem with a
commission to build a wall about it, and grant him what was necessary
for it,
II. He prevailed against the enemies that would have obstructed him in
his journey
and laughed him out of his undertaking,
III. He prevailed upon his own people to join with him in this good
work, viewing the desolations of the walls
and then gaining them to lend every one a hand towards the rebuilding
of them,
Thus did God own him in the work to which he called him.
| Nehemiah’s Request to the King. | B. C. 445. |
|
|
|
1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year
of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took
up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been
beforetime sad in his presence.
2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance
sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but
sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
3 And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why
should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my
fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are
consumed with fire?
4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request?
So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy
servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send
me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I
may build it.
6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,)
For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So
it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let
letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they
may convey me over till I come into Judah;
8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that
he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace
which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city,
and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted
me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
When Nehemiah had prayed for the relief of his countrymen, and perhaps
in David’s words
Build thou the walls of Jerusalem), he did not sit still and
say, “Let God now do his own work, for I have no more to do,” but set
himself to forecast what he could do towards it. Our prayers must be
seconded with our serious endeavours, else we mock God. Nearly four
months passed, from Chisleu to Nisan (from November to March), before
Nehemiah made his application to the king for leave to go to Jerusalem,
either because the winter was not a proper time for such a journey, and
he would not make the motion till he could pursue it, or because it was
so long before his month of waiting came, and there was no coming into
the king’s presence uncalled,
Now that he attended the king’s table he hoped to have his ear. We are
not thus limited to certain moments in our addresses to the King of
kings, but have liberty of access to him at all times; to the throne of
grace we never come unseasonably. Now here is,
I. The occasion which he gave the king to enquire into his cares and
griefs, by appearing sad in his presence. Those that speak to such
great men must not fall abruptly upon their business, but fetch a
compass. Nehemiah would try whether he was in a good humour before he
ventured to tell him his errand, and this method he took to try him. He
took up the wine and gave it to the king when he called for it,
expecting that then he would look him in the face. He had not used to
be sad in the king’s presence, but conformed to the rules of the court
(as courtiers must do), which would admit no sorrows,
Though he was a stranger, a captive, he was easy and pleasant. Good men
should do what they can by their cheerfulness to convince the world of
the pleasantness of religious ways and to roll away the reproach cast
upon them as melancholy; but there is a time for all things,
Nehemiah now saw cause both to be sad and to appear so. The miseries of
Jerusalem gave him cause to be sad, and his showing his grief would
give occasion to the king to enquire into the cause. He did not
dissemble sadness, for he was really in grief for the afflictions of
Joseph, and was not like the hypocrites who disfigure their
faces; yet he could have concealed his grief if it had been
necessary (the heart knows its own bitterness, and in the midst of
laughter is often sad), but it would now serve his purpose to discover
his sadness. Though he had wine before him, and probably, according to
the office of the cup-bearer, did himself drink of it before he gave it
to the king, yet it would not make his heart glad, while God’s
Israel was in distress.
II. The kind notice which the king took of his sadness and the enquiry
he made into the cause of it
(v. 2):
Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? Note,
1. We ought, from a principle of Christian sympathy, to concern
ourselves in the sorrows and sadnesses of others, even of our
inferiors, and not say, What is it to us? Let not masters despise their
servants’ griefs, but desire to make them easy. The great God is not
pleased with the dejections and disquietments of his people, but would
have them both serve him with gladness and eat their bread
with joy.
2. It is not strange if those that are sick have sad countenances,
because of what is felt and what is feared; sickness will make those
grave that were most airy and gay: yet a good man, even in sickness,
may be of good cheer if he knows that his sins are forgiven.
3. Freedom from sickness is so great a mercy that while we have that
we ought not to be inordinately dejected under any outward burden; yet
sorrow for our own sins, the sins of others, and the calamities of
God’s church, may well sadden the countenance, without sickness.
III. The account which Nehemiah gave the king of the cause of his
sadness, which he gave with meekness and fear.
1. With fear. He owned that now (though it appears by the following
story that he was a man of courage) he was sorely afraid,
perhaps of the king’s wrath (for those eastern monarchs assumed an
absolute power of life and death,
or of misplacing a word, and losing his request by the mismanagement of
it. Though he was a wise man, he was jealous of himself, lest he should
say any thing imprudently; it becomes us to be so. A good assurance is
indeed a good accomplishment, yet a humble self-diffidence is not man’s
dispraise.
2. With meekness. Without reflection upon any man, and with all the
respect, deference, and good-will, imaginable to the king his master,
he says, “Let the king live for ever; he is wise and good, and
the fittest man in the world to rule.” He modestly asked, “Why
should not my countenance be sad as it is when (though I
myself am well and at east) the city” (the king knew what city
he meant), “the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste?”
Many are melancholy and sad but can give no reason for being so, cannot
tell why nor wherefore; such should chide themselves for, and chide
themselves out of, their unjust and unreasonable griefs and fears. But
Nehemiah could give so good a reason for his sadness as to appeal to
the king himself concerning it. Observe,
(1.) He calls Jerusalem the place of his fathers’ sepulchres,
the place where his ancestors were buried. It is good for us to think
often of our fathers’ sepulchres; we are apt to dwell in our thoughts
upon their honours and titles, their houses and estates, but let us
think also of their sepulchres, and consider that those who have gone
before us in the world have also gone before us out of the world, and
their monuments are momentos to us. There is also a great respect owing
to the memory of our fathers, which we should not be willing to see
injured. All nations, even those that have had no expectation of the
resurrection of the dead, have looked upon the sepulchres of their
ancestors as in some degree sacred and not to be violated.
(2.) He justifies himself in his grief: “I do well to be sad. Why
should I not be so?” There is a time even for pious and prosperous men
to be sad and to show their grief. The best men must not think to
antedate heaven by banishing all sorrowful thoughts; it is a vale of
tears we pass through, and we must submit to the temper of the climate.
(3.) He assigns the ruins of Jerusalem as the true cause of his grief.
Note, All the grievances of the church, but especially its desolations,
are, and ought to be, matter of grief and sadness to all good people,
to all that have a concern for God’s honour and that are living members
of Christ’s mystical body, and are of a public spirit; they favour even
Zion’s dust,
IV. The encouragement which the king gave him to tell his mind, and the
application he thereupon made in his heart to God,
v. 4.
The king had an affection for him, and was not pleased to see him
melancholy. It is also probable that he had a kindness for the Jews’
religion; he had discovered it before in the commission he gave to
Ezra, who was a churchman, and now again in the power he put Nehemiah
into, who was a statesman. Wanting therefore only to know how he might
be serviceable to Jerusalem, he asks this its anxious friend, “For
what dost thou make request? Something thou wouldst have; what is
it?” He was afraid to speak
(v. 2),
but this gave him boldness; much more may the invitation Christ has
given us to pray, and the promise that we shall speed, enable us to
come boldly to the throne of grace. Nehemiah immediately prayed to
the God of heaven that he would give him wisdom to ask properly and
incline the king’s heart to grant him his request. Those that would
find favour with kings must secure the favour of the King of kings. He
prayed to the God of heaven as infinitely above even this mighty
monarch. It was not a solemn prayer (he had not opportunity for that),
but a secret sudden ejaculation; he lifted up his heart to that God who
understands the language of his heart: Lord, give me a mouth and
wisdom; Lord, give me favour in the sight of this man. Note, It is
good to be much in pious ejaculations, especially upon particular
occasions. Wherever we are we have a way open heaven-ward. This will
not hinder any business, but further it rather; therefore let no
business hinder this, but give rise to it rather. Nehemiah had prayed
very solemnly with reference to this very occasion
(ch. i. 11),
yet, when it comes to the push, he prays again. Ejaculations and
solemn prayers must not jostle out one another, but each have its
place.
V. His humble petition to the king. When he had this encouragement he
presented his petition very modestly and with submission to the king’s
wisdom
(v. 5),
but very explicitly. He asked for a commission to go as governor to
Judah, to build the wall of Jerusalem, and to stay there for a certain
time, so many months, we may suppose; and then either he had his
commission renewed or went back and was sent again, so that he presided
there twelve years at least,
He also asked for a convoy
(v. 7),
and an order upon the governors, not only to permit and suffer him to
pass through their respective provinces, but to supply him with what he
had occasion for, with another order upon the keeper of the forest of
Lebanon to give him timber for the work that he designed.
VI. The king’s great favour to him in asking him when he would
return,
v. 6.
He intimated that he was unwilling to lose him, or to be long without
him, yet to gratify him, and do a real office of kindness to his
people, he would spare him awhile, and let him have what clauses he
pleased inserted in his commission,
v. 8.
Here was an immediate answer to his prayer; for the seed of Jacob never
sought the God of Jacob in vain. In the account he gives of the success
of his petition he takes notice,
1. Of the presence of the queen; she sat by
(v. 6),
which (they say) was not usual in the Persian court,
Whether the queen was his back friend, that would have hindered him,
and he observes it to the praise of God’s powerful providence that
though she was by yet he succeeded, or whether she was his true friend,
and it is observed to the praise of God’s kind providence that she was
present to help forward his request, is not certain.
2. Of the power and grace of God. He gained his point, not according to
his merit, his interest in the king, or his good management, but
according to the good hand of his God upon him. Gracious souls
take notice of God’s hand, his good hand, in all events which turn in
favour of them. This is the Lord’s doing, and therefore doubly
acceptable.
| Nehemiah’s Journey to Jerusalem; the Malice of Sanballat, &c. | B. C. 445. |
|
|
|
9 Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them
the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army
and horsemen with me.
10 When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the
Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there
was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
11 So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
12 And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me;
neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at
Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast
that I rode upon.
13 And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even
before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the
walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof
were consumed with fire.
14 Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the
king’s pool: but there was no place for the beast that was
under me to pass.
15 Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the
wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and
so returned.
16 And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did;
neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests,
nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did
the work.
17 Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in,
how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned
with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that
we be no more a reproach.
18 Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon
me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they
said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands
for this good work.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the
Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to
scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye
do? will ye rebel against the king?
20 Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven,
he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and
build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in
Jerusalem.
We are here told,
I. Now Nehemiah was dismissed by the court he was sent from. The king
appointed captains of the army and horsemen to go with
him
(v. 9),
both for his guard and to show that he was a man whom the king did
delight to honour, that all the king’s servants might respect him
accordingly. Those whom the King of kings sends he thus protects, he
thus dignifies with a host of angels to attend them.
II. How he was received by the country he was sent to.
1. By the Jews and their friends at Jerusalem. We are told,
(1.) That while he concealed his errand they took little notice of him.
He was at Jerusalem three days
(v. 11),
and it does not appear that any of the great men of the city waited on
him to congratulate him on his arrival, but he remained unknown. The
king sent horsemen to attend him, but the Jews sent none to meet him;
he had no beast with him, but that which he himself rode on,
Wise men, and those who are worthy of double honour, yet covet not to
come with observation, to make a show, or make a noise, no, not when
they come with the greatest blessings. Those that shortly are to have
the dominion in the morning the world now knows not, but they
lie hid,
(2.) That though they took little notice of him he took great notice of
them and their state. He arose in the night, and viewed the ruins of
the walls, probably by moon-light
(v. 13),
that he might see what was to be done and in what method they must go
about it, whether the old foundation would serve, and what there was of
the old materials that would be of use. Note,
[1.] Good work is likely to be well done when it is first well
considered.
[2.] It is the wisdom of those who are engaged in public business, as
much as may be, to see with their own eyes, and not to proceed
altogether upon the reports and representations of others, and yet to
do this without noise, and if possible unobserved.
[3.] Those that would build up the church’s walls must first take notice
of the ruins of those walls. Those that would know how to amend must
enquire what is amiss, what needs reformation, and what may serve as it
is.
(3.) That when he disclosed his design to the rulers and people they
cheerfully concurred with him in it. He did not tell them, at first,
what he came about
(v. 16),
because he would not seem to do it for ostentation, and because, if he
found it impracticable, he might retreat the more honourably. Upright
humble men will not sound a trumpet before their alms or any other of
their good offices. But when he had viewed and considered the thing,
and probably felt the pulse of the rulers and people, he told them
what God had put into his heart
(v. 12),
even to build up the wall of Jerusalem,
v. 17.
Observe,
[1.] How fairly he proposed the undertaking to them: “You see the
distress we are in, how we lie exposed to the enemies that are
round about us, how justly they reproach us as foolish and despicable,
how easily they may make a prey of us whenever they have a mind;
come, therefore, and let us build up the wall.” He did not
undertake to do the work without them (it could not be the work of one
man), nor did he charge or command imperiously, though he had the
king’s commission; but in a friendly brotherly way he exhorted and
excited them to join with him in this work. To encourage them hereto,
he speaks of the design, First, As that which owed it origin to
the special grace of God. He takes not the praise of it to himself, as
a good thought of his own, but acknowledges that God put it into his
heart, and therefore they all ought to countenance it (whatever is
of God must be promoted), and might hope to prosper in it, for what God
puts men upon he will own them in. Secondly, As that which owed
its progress hitherto to the special providence of God. He produced the
king’s commission, told them how readily it was granted and how forward
the king was to favour his design, in which he saw the hand of his God
good upon him. It would encourage both him and them to proceed
in an undertaking which God had so remarkably smiled upon. Thus he
proposed it to them; and,
[2.] They presently came to a resolution, one and all, to concur with
him: Let us rise up and build. They are ashamed that they have
sat still so long without so much as attempting this needful work, and
now resolve to rise up out of their slothfulness, to bestir themselves,
and to stir up one another. “Let us rise up,” that is, “let us
do it with vigour, and diligence, and resolution, as those that are
determined to go through with it.” So they strengthened their
hands, their own and one another’s, for this good work.
Note, First, Many a good work would find hands enough to be laid
to it if there were but one good head to lead in it. They all saw the
desolations of Jerusalem, yet none proposed the repair of them; but,
when Nehemiah proposed it, they all consented to it. It is a pity that
a good motion should be lost purely for want of one to move it and to
break the ice in it. Secondly, By stirring up ourselves and one
another to that which is good, we strengthen ourselves and one another
for it; for the great reason why we are weak in our duty is because we
are cold to it, indifferent and unresolved. Let us now see how
Nehemiah was received,
2. By those that wished ill to the Jews. Those whom God and his Israel
blessed they cursed.
(1.) When he did but show his face it vexed them,
Sanballat and Tobiah, two of the Samaritans, but by birth the former a
Moabite, the latter an Ammonite, when they saw one come armed with a
commission from the king to do service to Israel, were exceedingly
grieved that all their little paltry arts to weaken Israel were
thus baffled and frustrated by a fair, and noble, and generous project
to strengthen them. Nothing is a greater vexation to the enemies of
good people, who have misrepresented them to princes as turbulent, and
factious, and not fit to live, than to see them stand right in the
opinion of their rulers, their innocency cleared and their reproach
rolled away, and that they are thought not only fit to live, but fit to
be trusted. When they saw a man come in that manner, who professedly
sought the welfare of the children of Israel, it vexed them to
the heart. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved.
(2.) When he began to act they set themselves to hinder him, but in
vain,
[1.] See here with what little reason the enemies attempted to
discourage him. They represented the undertaking as a silly thing:
They laughed us to scorn and despised us as foolish builders,
that could not finish what we began. They represented the undertaking
also as a wicked thing, no better than treason: Will you rebel
against the king? Because this was the old invidious charge, though
now they had a commission from the king and were taken under his
protection, yet still they must be called rebels.
[2.] See also with what good reason the Jews slighted these
discouragements. They bore up themselves with this that they were the
servants of the God of heaven, the only true and living God,
that they were acting for him in what they did, and that therefore he
would bear them out and prosper them, though the heathen raged,
They considered also that the reason why these enemies did so malign
them was because they had no right in Jerusalem, but envied them their
right in it. Thus may the impotent menaces of the church’s enemies be
easily despised by the church’s friends.
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
|
Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download |
Copyright 2008. Bibles Net. Com. All Rights Reserved.