Israel’s history is full of hatred, unrest, and outright war. What’s happening with Israel and its neighbors today is not new. Five hundred years before Christ, Israel was a nation without a homeland. God moved the hearts of the world leaders of the day to reestablish the Jewish state. Cyrus II, founder of the Achaemenian dynasty of Persia and conqueror of Babylonia, issued an order in 538 BCE allowing exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. Nehemiah was chosen to accomplish the task. He was a man of great vision. He attempted great things for God and faced much opposition. His enemies united against him and came together to taunt Israel as they tried to carry out the vision of rebuilding Jerusalem and its walls. When his enemies saw the wall was progressing, “they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.” What did Nehemiah do? “…And we prayed to our God…”
In the 13th Chapter of the book of Nehemiah, he is said to have prayed ten times. The first action he took upon receiving every negative report, facing any opposition, or dealing with his people’s organization and leadership was always to pray. He wept, mourned, prayed, and fasted often in this book. Seeking God in prayer was Nehemiah’s primary resource in life. Nehemiah’s significant venture, a vision of the city of Jerusalem, of his people living and worshipping God in peace, frequently drove him to his knees. The magnitude of his task was beyond him, and he sensed a desperate need for God.
I don’t always sense this need, do you? This may be true because I’m not passionate enough about my mission. Maybe I think I’ve arrived, and since I’ve retired, I have nothing useful to contribute anymore. Unfortunately, I have no desire to go further. I’m satisfied with my status quo and have no more vision for the future. I spend most of my time reflecting on the past. It’s so easy to lose one’s vision in life. We don’t need God when our sights are low and we have no vision for what we might accomplish.
Sir Francis Drake was hailed as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the Earth. He left us with this prayer: “Disturb us when we are too pleased with ourselves, and our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little when we arrive safely. After all, we have sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.”