Between Chislev and Nisan Nehemiah 2:1

Nehemiah 2:1 ( ESV )

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¹In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.

     The time in between.  The moments of silence.  All of these things seem like fragmented sentences in our life.  I think that these are the things that I can’t stand the most. I want my answers to prayer to have no hesitations. I want my life to be one single flow. The real world though does not work in that way. Gaps and fragments are a normal part of life for all of us. We have trials that often do not seem to end.  If we are not careful we begin to worry about God’s control over our situations.

    

    Why in the world would I start this passage with the above paragraph?  You see while I am having my devotions in Nehemiah I came upon something I had never seen before in the passage. It deals with a gap, or a fragmented sentence that took place in Nehemiah’s life. Let me share with you what I mean.

    

    The last time that we saw our cup bearer he was praying to the God of Heaven. He was weeping and mourning for his God to hear him. He was confessing his sin as well as the sins of his people to the God of Israel. Redeem us, forgive us, and restore us by your strong hand.  Please take note of the time period in which he asked God to give success to his servant about this prayer. Go ahead; take a look at verse eleven and you will see the word, “Today.”  Nehemiah loved his people and wanted God to answer his prayer right then and there. There was nothing wrong with him asking him to do that, but sometimes God allows fragmented sentences in our life.

    Brothers and sisters there is a gap of time between chapter one verse one and chapter two verse one. When Nehemiah first prayed for his people in 1:1 it was during the month of Chislev.  In chapter two verse one though, note what month it is before Nehemiah talks to King Artaxerxes, it is the month of Nisan. A total of around four months have passed before Nehemiah is able to talk to his king.

    

    What was Nehemiah doing during these four months of time? I have a few ideas, but the passage itself does not tell us what happened. One of the things Nehemiah may have done was to continue praying. As I look at this book, prayer is one of the main things that made Nehemiah the leader that he was. Secondly, this time period may have given him time to think about what he would ask Artaxerxes if he was given an opportunity. This makes sense as we look at chapter 2:3-8.

    The most important thing about the gap of time though to me is realizing that God knows my need. He will answer my need, if he chooses to, in His time.  He knew about the needs of Israel a long time before Nehemiah had prayed about them. He knew that the walls were broken down and the gates destroyed by fire. None of these things took him by surprise. I often don’t see things the way my Lord sees them. I get frustrated with the God of Heaven about his timing.  Like the old rock group Queen, I shout out, “I want it all, I want it all, I want it all RIGHT NOW.”

   

    

    Thank God, some of our best answered prayers are between Chislev and Nisan. We learn to appreciate our Lord more when He answers in this way. His timing is truly perfect and He knows when it is best to answer. We will for sure see that in Nehemiah 2, but we also need to see this truth in our own lives.

Had and Dad.