Rebuilding Your Broken World

Beginning on July 20, I will begin to introduce our congregation to a Biblical character who may not be as familiar to you as others. Yet he played a very significant role in one of the lesser known periods of Biblical history.

The character is Nehemiah. The period of history is that of the exile. This was the time when the nation of Israel, the nation of God’s people, had been taken captive. After Solomon’s reign as king of Israel, the nation was divided and began to decline as the kings of both kingdoms led the people away from God. We probably avoid this period of Israel’s history for two reasons:

· First, we do not have as much biblical information about this period. We only get some brief glimpses into this time through the prophets who wrote during the exile and through the three history books from the period: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

· Second, the nation and the people of Israel are broken during this period. The messages of the prophets during the exile are filled with messages and images of judgment. We would rather read of the great exploits of those who trusted God, not depressing stories of people God is punishing.

So Nehemiah came onto the scene about 140 years after the southern kingdom of Judah had been taken captive by Babylon. In the intervening years, the Persians had defeated Babylon and were now the world’s leading power. Israel was a broken nation. Its capital, Jerusalem, was broken. The temple had been destroyed and efforts to rebuild it had gone nowhere. Nehemiah discovered that there was no security in the city for the few Israelites who lived there. The lives of the Israelites were broken. They must have asked, how can we ever rebuild this? How can God rebuild our nation, our city, our people?

Have you ever felt that way about your life? Have you ever felt like your life, your family, everything and everyone you care about is broken? Have you ever wondered how you, how God can rebuild your broken world?

If you haven’t asked those questions, you should because we are all broken, everyone of us. Some may be broken into more pieces than others — and perhaps you do not seek to have your life rebuilt because you see others who are more broken than you — but sin has its grip on all of us. We all have broken pieces, and none of us can be used by God the way he wants to use us until we let him fix us.

Nehemiah had probably never been to Jerusalem, the city of his people, but when he discovered how broken it was, he determined to go there and fix it. His story is one of seeking the Lord’s guidance and then going about the business of repairing a broken city. While he faced hardship, difficulty, and opposition along the way, he helped to repair a broken city and a broken people.

Our brokenness is different than what Nehemiah set out to repair. We do not have walls and buildings and physical infrastructure that needs repair. We have hearts that need repair and some of us have our whole world that needs repair. Yet we can learn from Nehemiah how to repair our brokenness. Read the book of Nehemiah. Take a look at this life. Let his story help you rebuild your brokenness.