If you are reading this, you are probably familiar with the name of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, literally “the head of the year..”
Yet, Rosh Hashanah is also called by four other names:
1. Yom HaZikaron, the Day of Remembering.
2. Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment.
3. Yom Harat Olam, The Day the World was Conceived, in God’s plan.
4. Yom Tru’ah, the Day of the Broken Sound, the name of the holiday in Leviticus 23.
Each name is ripe with meaning, and leads one into deep reflection. As we approach the High Holiday season, consider the above names, but as questions:
1. What am I remembering? What am I thinking on, dwelling on, or bringing into living? Is it reflective of the new man in Messiah, or a lingering presence of the old? Also, what or who am I forgetting, and in need of remembering?
2. Who is the judge? Do I set myself in His position, or am I allowing His grace to penetrate the hard shell that the human heart is prone to develop?
3. What has God conceived me to be in Messiah? What has He purposed for me to do while on this earth?
4. Why is my sound broken, when He has made me whole in Messiah? What are you called to by the shofar (trumpet)?
Rosh Hashanah awakens the heart to a season of new beginnings, renewal, and anticipation for the coming of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus (Rev. 7:9). The sound of the shofar causes “us to turn away from to,” as we look to see the sound.
As you prepare for this holiday season, reflect on the above questions, but also allow your mind to construct your own, specific to your situation. Look to the Word of God for answers, direction, and correction. Hear the shofar, and anticipate with joy all that the Lord has planned as He moves you through this season.
Nehemiah had a burden for Jerusalem, a city he had never seen, destroyed for sin he was not involved in; yet, he had a burden in the spirit to respond to God’s promise, and see its walls and gates rebuilt.
Having arrived in Jerusalem, under the cover of night (Neh. 2:12), he inspects the walls and gates of God’s city. Ruins.
How do you inspire a people to rebuild in the sight of such destruction? As Nehemiah records, “The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall” (Neh. 4:10).
Reality had set in. Enemies were conspiring and attacking (Neh. 4:11). The hope that inspired seemed at an end:
“You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies in waste, and it’s gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach” … “So they said, ‘Let us rise up and build’” (Neh. 2:17-18).
Nehemiah, while enemies pressed in, urged the people to stand, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses (Neh. 4:14).
Nothing had changed in their circumstance, except the presence of the enemies outside began to press in. The same wreckage that greeted them at the beginning of their toil was the same wreckage at the enemy’s arrival.
The wreckage that Nehemiah stood over initially inspired them see what could be; but with the scheme of the enemy now more real, the wreckage became evidence of what would not be.
Remember the Lord Nehemiah proclaims!
Never answer lies. Never answer ridicule. Pray and get to God’s work (Eph. 6:16):
“Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night” (Neh. 4:9).
Would the job be easy because Nehemiah was dedicated to the task? No. Enemies pressed in, discouragement set in, but he pressed on. See what is, and get going in the work of God. Tough message, but this is a lesson from the life of Nehemiah.
Criticism, discouragement, and open hostility is easy to come by in this day and age. As we continue to walk in faith before the Lord, voices will make their presence known: they are watching and waiting for weakness to be revealed. Yet, at times, we are our own source of criticism, and discouragement – don’t do that!
Still, the wreckage in our lives seems too overwhelming to clean up, and rebuild. Hear to the voice of the enemy:
“What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish – stones that are burned? (Neh. 4:2).
When the enemy calls you feeble, remember that not one feeble departed Egypt with the camp of God (Ps. 105:37). Will you offer sacrifice? Yes, a sacrifice of praise (Heb. 13:15). Will the burned stones live again? Yes, “You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house – a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Messiah Yeshua/Jesus” (I Pet. 2:5).
Glory to God!
When the discouragement, and overwhelming stress of this age begins to dislodge the peace of God set in you, remember the promise of Messiah. He would send the Holy Spirit to comfort you (Jn. 14:16).
Why is the lesson of Nehemiah so important for us today? His is a story of comfort, even in the midst of great distress. And his message is נְחֶמְיָה, “Nehemiah,” literally meaning, “Whom God comforts.”
You are His revived work, His revived wreckage, His revived stones, not your own. Rejoice.
Nehemiah, a cupbearer to king Artaxerzes in Shushan, receives a report regarding the condition of the remnant in Jerusalem. They, and the city of God, are in great distress: walls and gates torn down (Neh. 1:3).
Nehemiah begins to weep, mourn, and pray for the covenant people of God. He repents of their sins, weeping as if he was personally responsible for Jerusalem’s destruction (Neh. 1:6). He begins to carry a burden for God’s people, and a land he has never seen.
Nehemiah carried this burden for Jerusalem, God’s burden, for several months: four to be exact. In those four long months he waited, prayed, and did his duty before the opportunity to be God’s instrument was set.
Where was he when God began to use him? He was performing his duty to king Artaxerxes: serving wine.
From there, in his ordinary daily task, Nehemiah, in all outward appearances an unqualified cupbearer, would lead thousands of God’s people across thousands of rugged, dangerous miles to rebuild the Temple of God in Jerusalem.
“The king asked me, “What is your request?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, “If it seems good in your sight, send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried that I may rebuild it” (Neh. 2:4-5).
This exchange was potentially deadly for Nehemiah, as to displease the king would result in immediate death. By God’s grace, the king approved of Nehemiah’s request.
Did you catch the words of a cupbearer? “That I may rebuild it?”
He wept for, and was sent to a land, a city, and a promise he had never seen. This city, even in its distress, was more real than the glory of the kings court and Sushan itself. It is the city of God.
Nehemiah did not create the problem. He did not tear down the walls or destroy the Temple. Yet, he had a burden to rebuild Jerusalem as a testimony to the Lord’s glory.
How did he do this?
The Lord set in Nehemiah’s heart a burden, the Lord’s own burden, to restore the Jewish people to the Promised Land. What exalted place of influence did Nehemiah hold? He was a simple cupbearer at the side of a heathen king.
His influence was in the place the Lord set him, not where he would have set himself.
It can be entirely too easy to see your everyday, ordinary circumstance and believe that you are unimportant in the Lord’s plan. Faithfully be about your business, which in Him, is actually His business; carry His burden, and when the time is at hand, He will use you in a way previously unimaginable to you only moments before.
Nehemiah’s burden was to build the Temple where Yeshua/Jesus would one day set His feet, and teach the Word of God. Glory to God!
the mountain mensch 