Nehemiah Weeps

Nehemiah was born in Babylon.  He was raised in Babylon.  He had no reason to go to Jerusalem.  When Cyrus the Great defeated the Babylonians he issued a decree that allowed the Hebrews to return to Jerusalem.  A few did so.  Most stayed in Babylon. It was their home.  How could Nehemiah return to Jerusalem when he had never lived there to begin with?  It had been about eighty years since the Babylonians first laid seige to Jerusalem. Nehemiah gets the word: Things are not going well in Jersualem.  Every plan to rebuild failed.  King Artaxerxes was listening to the wrong voices and stopped the rebuilding efforts.  All hope was lost.

Nehemiah weeps.

He is not alone.  The people of Israel wept collectively so often I gave up counting somewhere in the middle of 1 Samuel. Abraham wept. Isaace wept. Jacob wept. Joseph wept. Moses wept. Ruth, Hannah, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Solomon, Jonathan, Hezekiah, Ezra, Job, Hosea, Micah, Peter, John, Paul, and of course, Jesus -- they all wept.  There is a lot of weeping going on in the Bible.  The list of those who weep is a veritable Who's Who of Scripture. 

What does that tell you?  Weeping is good for the soul?  Yes.  But more than that -- this is where it starts for the faithful -- A heart that weeps over the things that break the heart of God.  Why does Nehemiah weep?  As far as we know, he has never been to Jerusalem.  He has friends and relatives in Jerusalem, but they are hundreds of miles away.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Right?  Wrong.  Nehemiah weeps because the good guys are losing.  He weeps because that which is right has been called wrong.  He weeps because justice has died in Jerusalem.  He weeps because he feels helpless.

The prophet Micah gives us our Syllabus for life in Micah 6:8: He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  There is it: Nehemiah weeps because he has the ethos of the prophet deep down in his soul.  DO JUSTICE. LOVE MERCY. WALK HUMBLY.   Practice those three and you too will weep.
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