“And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?” Nehemiah 2:3
Nehemiah was sad about the condition of Jeruslaem, the temple of God and the place of his heritage. He pleaded with God to have mercy and restore it. The King noticed his sadness and through that God used the king to restore the wall of Jerusalem. It was also (some say) from the going out of this command that time would be marked until the coming of Messiah.
The lesson for us here is this, are you sorrowful at the condition of God’s temple (the church)? Do you criticize but now weep for it? Do you pray for God to restore His church and to build it up? Do you pray for Jerusalem? David said, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” Psalm 137:5 and we are told to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.” Psalm 122:6.
Do you weep when your family strays from the Lord and do you seek to restore them? Do you pray for them? I come from a Godly heritage and some of those who raised me no longer walk in the path they led me in. You could say as Nehemiah that the “place of my father’s sepulchres lie in waste.” We must as Nehemiah be broken for the things of God and not simply go on as if all is ok. We must seek God to restore those things and plead for the right even when all hope is gone and the wrong prevails.
The Gospel Beacon 