It has been said that sin takes us where we do not want to go and that is a true statement. Sin is wrong because it rebels against the will of God; it is dangerous because of where it takes us.
Certainly, the Lord enabled Nehemiah and the Jews to complete the walls of Jerusalem. However, the leadership of Nehemiah was critical from the human viewpoint. The enemies of the wall threw everything imaginable at him, but he would not turn from the cause at hand. How much we should learn from Nehemiah’s example!
Though it seemed at one time that all hope was gone for the Jews, God brings deliverance in the end. But when God delivers, it is not just a partial deliverance. He gives an absolute, miraculous deliverance from Haman and from the decree to destroy the Jews. We can learn much about the mighty power and the supreme goodness of God from this lesson.
In this lesson, the providence of God is clearly seen. The king receives Esther and comes to her banquets. The king cannot sleep and this results in him be reminded of the favor done to him by Mordecai. Haman unwittingly gives the honor to Mordecai that he wanted for himself. We can see that God is in the process of giving a great victory to Mordecai and to the Jewish people.
The first return is a trip into the fog. They do not know exactly what will greet them. They do not fully know the condition of the land. The journey of hundreds of miles will take them weeks to complete. Yet they go because they have a higher purpose in mind. They go to rebuild God’s holy temple and to reestablish the true worship of God in God’s chosen city of Jerusalem. They go also to replant the land given to their father Abraham.
