AUTHOR: Nehemiah
GENRE: Religious Text
SUMMARY: After 70 years in exile, the Jews had returned home and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. They were able to worship God in their own land, but the city still lay in ruins. The once-great capital of the promised land was a depressing rubble heap exposed to her enemies. When Nehemiah hears this, he sets out to restore the city walls.
The book of Nehemiah is his story in his own words. It is about reestablishing God’s people both physically and spiritually.
In the first part of the book, Nehemiah restores Jerusalem in a physical sense. When Nehemiah hears that “the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire,” he gets permission from Persian King Artaxerxes to rebuild the city. The governors of surrounding territories viciously oppose Nehemiah’s efforts, but the wall is finished in just 52 days. Nehemiah also restores economic justice in the land, admonishing the wealthy for taking advantage of their less fortunate brothers.
In the second section, Nehemiah and Ezra bring spiritual revival to Jerusalem. Ezra reads the law of Moses aloud to the people, and the nation rededicates to obeying God. Later on, Nehemiah works diligently to point people back to the law of Moses.
Nehemiah’s story is peppered with personal commentary—sometimes it reads like a historical account, and sometimes it reads like Nehemiah’s journal. We know when he is afraid. We know when he is angry. We even see him break his own narrative with prayers to God. This book gives us a look into the mind of an Old Testament man of God, giving us examples of how to lead, pray, and deal with discouragement.