Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 48. Remember Me with Favor, my God (keep my focus from fraying)

(click here to listen now)

Hello human.

Promise me this. That you will read Nehemiah’s story at some point soon after listening to this episode. I cannot do justice to this man’s relationship with his God, on my own. It needs you.

Nehemiah is a Jew who is a high official at the Persian court, who leads the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile and the dedication of the city and its people to God’s laws (Torah).

Relationship:  People, God

Here is a brief chapter run-down within the framework of his relationship with the people, and his relationship with God.

In chapter one Nehemiah learns that the people who have returned to Jerusalem are now in a bad situation, that the wall has fallen down and that they do not have what they need to live adequately. They are living in disgrace.

What does Nehemiah do? For days (thought to be four months) he mourns, fasts, and prays a prayer that recognizes he is God’s servant and that he knows that God’s chosen people have not followed the law and that he brings this to God to ask for his help and starts by asking God what should be done next in Chapter 1:

⁵ Then I said:

“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Nehemiah asks God for favor in the presence of the earthly King he served. Nehemiah was a cup bearer to the King.

In Chapter 2 Nehemiah goes to the king and the king immediately recognizes that he has a sadness of heart.

Chapter 2:2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”

Nehemiah tells him that the home of his ancestors is in ruin. The king asked him what he would need. Nehemiah knew what to ask for, that he needed approvals from the governors, he needed assistance in getting there and materials to rebuild the wall. So, the king granted all those things and also gave him army officers and a cavalry to travel with him.  When he got to Jerusalem, he took three days to inspect it. He went all over by himself, and finally, he said: “Here’s what’s going on:  we need to rebuild the wall, and everybody got behind it. But this was also the first time that he was ridiculed.

In chapter 3 he talks about the work in detail:  what they did to replace the wall, the order that they went, what they replaced, who replaced it, who did the work, all the skilled laborers and getting to the finished product. In chapter 4, verse six Nehemiah tells us, 6 So we rebuilt the wall until all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.

And it is In chapter four Nehemiah and his people were ridiculed again, and the attacks began:

• First, verbal attacks, on the abilities of the builders, that they wouldn’t finish (what God started);
• Second, physically through military force.

But Nehemiah addressed the threat with what I call strategic courage:  he put guards at certain stations and then he activated everybody, that no one would be without their sword, and that half of the people would work, and half would protect until they could complete the wall.

He rallied his people: Chapter 4: 14… Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families …

In chapter 5, in the middle of the onslaught of the enemy, he righted “an inside wrong.” He deleted the interest that the Jewish nobles and officials were charging their own people, gave them back their land and reinstated them with the things they needed to have a better quality of life.

Then He denied the things that they would traditionally give him as governor of Judah, for 12 years.  

He took nothing.

He shared everything that they brought and prepared for him as part of being the governor with others. This chapter ends with him asking God to have favor on him for taking care of his people. It wasn’t him taking it from the people, it was him asking God, the source, to show favor.

He was claiming the sovereignty of God, that God ruled his life, and it was through him that he received favor, not from the people.

This brings us to the middle of the story from our last BUOY episode. They continue to intimidate Nehemiah, asking him to meet four times. He sent back the same messages and asked for God’s strength to withstand the diversion.

Nehemiah’s Definition of Accountability

In Chapter 7 Nehemiah gathered his registry of families. The level of detail is amazing.  But the important point is how it happened.

In verse 5 Nehemiah says: “So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials, and the common people for registration by families.”

In other words, verse 66:

⁶⁶ The whole company numbered 42,360, ⁶⁷ besides their 7,337 male and female slaves; and they also had 245 male and female singers. ⁶⁸ There were 736 horses, 245 mules,^[a] 69 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.

Ours is a God of detail. Working through Nehemiah.

In chapter 8 in the seventh month, Ezra read from the book of the law of God for seven days (festival) and on the eighth day they had an assembly (called the “festival”) so the first seven days they took on the joy of the Lord for him providing sustenance to them and for them becoming refreshed in the law. On the eighth day they had assembly.

In Chapter 9, on the 24^th day, the Israelites confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors followed by a beautiful prayer. To do this the Israelites separated themselves from the foreigners and gathered at the steps to repent. Nehemiah lists every name of the men that were gathered there, and they went through their whole history of the fall, the exile, coming back. When they got to the end, they made a binding agreement and put their official seal on it that they were repenting of their sin.  Nehemiah named every Israelite who sealed it.

This is how Nehemiah defines accountability to his calling.

Name your condition. Your sin. Your commitment. Seal it with God’s covenant.

In Chapters 10, 11 and 12 Nehemiah lists everyone that was involved, who made commitments to taking care of their families, to how they were going to steward the House of God. Exhaustive, detailed lists.

He had led the people to put the house of God back in spiritual and physical order.

When the Spiritual Walls Collapse

In chapter 13 Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem. He hadn’t been there for a year. What does he find?  

That the spiritual walls had collapsed from within, squandering their firstfruits and bringing their lifestyle down with them:

• That they were no longer giving due portions to the Levites (which he had put in place)
• That they had desecrated the Sabbath (against their binding agreement within God’s covenant)
• That they had married foreign women (knowingly)
• That they had defiled priestly offices (out of selfish pride)

To name a few. As Nehemiah put God’s house “back together again” for a second time, he never lost his focus.

Four times in this chapter Nehemiah appealed to God.

14 Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.

22 Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.

29 Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

31 Remember me with favor, my God.

Nehemiah empowered the people to rise up spiritually. He demonstrated mastery of stewardship. But he got all of his power from God. All his humility, from God.

Nehemiah tells us about how he led the reconstruction of the wall of Jerusalem, Judah’s capital city, in the face of increasing opposition. Together, he and Ezra, who led the spiritual revival of the people, directed the political and religious restoration of the Jews in their homeland after the Babylonian captivity. As governor, Nehemiah negotiated peace from within the Jewish people, who were unhappy with Persian taxes.

He exhibited a steadfast determination to complete his goals. Accomplishing those goals resulted in a people encouraged, renewed, and excited about their future. And so powerful, he doubled down on his calling when he returned to a back-sliding bunch of Israelites.

God performed no miracles according to Nehemiah’s accounting. Yet it is filled with descriptions of what happens when God’s people pray hard, work hard, and trust Him.

I landed in Nehemiah because I asked God to show me a strong Bible example of focus. Hello Nehemiah. I wanted to start in the middle of the story.

I wanted us to be dropped into the middle of Nehemiah handling diversion.

My witness is in the middle of Nehemiah’s story. How to affirm what God has already proclaimed for me, its staying power, which is another way of saying, focus. Nehemiah’s story gives me that moment of clarity that is easy to remember and name in my own faith walk.

Strengthen My Hands, Preserve My Efforts for Your Glory

I want to live my earthly life, I want my witness to dwell in the power of chapter six, to appeal to God to strengthen me—and chapter 13, to appeal to God to preserve my efforts in His name for His glory. When I have answered to my calling and the diversions try to slow the momentum, or I find myself starting again, like Nehemiah.

The wisdom that fortifies Nehemiah’s wall is illuminated in his transparency, how he manages people and problems by turning to God for focus, favor, and mercy. He tells a true, and beautiful story.

Building that wall, rallying God’s chosen, putting them on a path back toward God, was complicated, and begged for the cohesion that only comes with courage and focus. He did not rely on anyone for his power, except God.

It is hard to do that, human. Do you think so? That it is hard to navigate all the parts of a project, a ministry, a group, a relationship, and turn toward God for every decision, for favor that fuels every next step, for divine commitment that anchors a truly soulful focus?

Nehemiah is easy to remember when you aren’t sure. That’s why I had to work through telling you, his story.

It’s in the telling that we gain clarity about our God of the here and now.

I don’t seek God’s favor enough. I don’t petition him enough, especially mentally.

I do not lean on His wisdom. Enough.

That when I am challenged by diversion, which can be anyone, anything, or any thought whittling away at my calling, I remain in the center of God’s proclamation on my life.

And when doubt or discouragement seeps into my psyche, I simply ask the question Nehemiah asks: 

Why should the work stop?

Because God does not need to change my direction through diversion. He doesn’t have to distract me, He won’t let my conviction drain out of my heart, or fray the edges of my focus.

He is the God of clarity. He is the God of steadfastness. He is our God of enduring proclamation.

He spiritually protects my conviction from the onslaught of the naysayers. The compromising tactic of the first, the original naysayer in the garden named Eden. That’s for another day.

Today is about living in the center of my conviction about what God wants me to do, what He has proclaimed, living in the powerful focus of His truth, with enough spiritual sense to echo Nehemiah’s appeal to God: 

“Now strengthen my hands.” Because I am in the middle of my story.